Breastfeed and Bottlefeed?

[hellojello25]

For my own reasons, I want to breastfeed and pump to bottlefeed basically from when the little guy is born. I have heard many conflicting things from "Oh you'll never be able to breastfeed and bottlefeed at the same time" to "Oh yeah, I did that and so did my sister and my mom." So basically, I'm just going to do it. Like I said, I want to do this pretty much from when he's born, so I'm not going to be waiting weeks or anything.

My question is: have any of you done this and when did you start pumping? Did you start at the hospital? Or when you got home? How often did you pump? Did the baby have any problems switching between the two nipples?

 

[jessmke]

I didn't do this right from birth, but I started pumping at about 4 weeks. Your milk won't come in until day 3 or 4 postpartum so that's about as early as you could really pump. I suppose you could pump in the hospital but all you will get is a few drops of colostrum, and since you are planning on breastfeeding there's really no point in pumping colostrum. I know a lot of babies who go between bottle and breast no problem. I think the bigger issue you might face is that if you start pumping as soon as your milk comes in you will very, very likely end up with oversupply, which can lead to overactive letdown, which can cause feeding difficulties for your babe. I have overactive letdown and she is just now at 11 weeks learning to cope with it, earlier it would cause her to choke quite badly if I didn't express off the first bit of milk before feeding her. You can try to avoid developing oversupply by pumping immediately after breastfeeding your LO, and only pump off what is left in the breast, ie don't pump until you get another letdown. That way you can sort of trick your body into thinking that your LO is still feeding and you are less likely to develop oversupply this way. Normally it is recommended that you wait until your body establishes your milk supply (about 4-6 weeks) before you start pumping to avoid developing oversupply, but you need to do whatever works for you!

Also I guess I should add that when you give a bottle, you then need to pump. If you just skip a breastfeed and give a bottle, your milk supply will diminish. Whenever you give a bottle instead of breastfeeding you need to pump to keep up your supply.

 

[staralfur]

I started pumping right after my milk came in because I wanted my DH to be able to feed her so I could sleep. It was a nice idea in theory, but I battled blocked ducts and mastitis because I was missing feeds and ended up in worse shape than I would've been had I just woken up to feed. In order to avoid messing with your supply/risking blocked ducts and infection, you'd have to pump during your LO's regular feeds anyway. I personally wouldn't even bother if I could go back and do it again.

If it's something you want to do very occasionally then I don't think it will be a huge problem but if it's something you're planning to do every day or quite frequently then I think it's going to be a lot harder than you might expect it to be - at the very least you'll probably have to battle some supply issues if you're not prepared to pump whenever your LO is taking a bottle. I dropped pumping altogether until I had to go back to school and work and it was much, much easier to just feed directly.

Not to be a huge downer but I just really did not understand how the supply and demand worked and the consequences of skipping feeds and I wish I had understood it before I learned it the hard way.

 

[noon_child]

In the hospital you may try hand expressing and syringe feeding colostrum (many people do this at first just while LO learns to latch effectively) but there isn't really any point pumping as colostrum is so sticky, and produced in such small amounts, that whatever you got would stick to the flanges and tubes of the pump and likely never even make it to the bottle. Newborn tummies are so small (5ml at day 1) that the amount that would fill it to the brim would likely not even fill the teat of a bottle even if you could get it in to one.

 

[cookette]

I waited to until a bottle until 4 weeks. Big mistake. She never did take to it and when she went to daycare shed take very little and Id be up all night nursing. I was told I should have introduced a bottle in the first two weeks. Learn from my mistake!

 

[hellojello25]

Thanks ladies! This is all very good advice and I really appreciate it! I think we'll probably wait a week or two to introduce the bottle and we'll definitely wait until my milk comes in. We're planning on using the slow flow nipples as well so that the little guy doesn't get too lazy.

I do plan on pumping whenever he needs a feeding though, even if its at night. I figure I can pump while BF feeds the little guy so that my supply keeps up. And I appreciate the comment about the oversupply, because I don't want that either.

 

[ivyvine]

Breastfeed and bottlefeed can be used at the same time but you have to know that your baby maybe prefer bottlefeed than breastfeed and he/she maybe doesn't want breastfeed anymore. Just thinking.

 

[AmandaBanana]

I'm doing this now and I pumped since a couple days after him being born.
I go to work for 6 hours (8-2 approx) and I pump at 12pm.
The rest of time home I breastfeed.
I'm now 3 weeks in and it's going great I think.
I may have a blocked duct problem in my left breast but it's going away.
The whole situation works for us very well.

 

[AmandaBanana]

And baby has no issues switching between bottle and breast and even likes cold milk.

 

[kdmalk]

My nipples are just a little flat, so my little guy had a huge problem going back and forth early on. The bottle was just easier for him, so he would scream at the breast. We introduced it when he was about a week old. I wish I would have waited until we had a better breastfeeding relationship just because of our latching difficulties. But Many babies have no problem - especially if your nipples aren't flat or anything. And DS has no issue now at 2 months. We start daycare in a week and a half, so I did a trial run and gave him 3 bottles in a row today. Then popped him right back on the breast for what would be a regular "after work" feeding and he latched like a champ. You just have to find the right bottle that makes the transition right for you! The Dr. Browns changed his latch every time and that's why he would struggle. My nipple is just a completely different shape than that! So we are on nuk bottles now and that is great!

So my suggestion would be to put off the introduction of bottles for a few weeks if you have latching issues to begin with, because it will just draw out the time it takes for baby to perfect his/her latch. If you have no issues, then go for it! Once you do introduce a bottle, play around with different ones to see which nipple makes the transition easiest for your baby! Our 4th bottle was the right one for us! Hope that helps!