breastfeeding and bottle at the same time

[babyhopes22]

i was wondering if anyone actually has done this and it not cause any problems, and also if its ok.

Iv been told that its ok to breastfeed and formula feed a baby. is this right as it would be fantastic if i could do that lol mainly for the fathers bonding but also i know shes getting the best bits from me.

what do we reckon, yay or nay lol

 

[Luluchaos]

I think my mum did this with me because she had to go back to work when I was 5 days old so I was fed by her whenever possible and from the bottle by my childminder during the day... And I'm fine suggests it's probably fine haha

 

[babyhopes22]

thats great!!! i never knew this was possible i always thought it was one or the other but i suppose if you think about it then why the hell not, they get their immunity and goodness from you and other bits from the formula. plus now i know that wen im far too tired then the father can feed her with no worries lol

 

[Babybear85]

hi babyhopes congrats again. The only issue i would imagine would be the latching on or baby getting confused and not sucking the bottle correctly. Best to ask the health visitor. I will stalk this because id be interested for myself

 

[Babybear85]

babyhopes sorry i think there is another babyhopes on here who just had her baby thats why i was congratsing you lol

 

[discoclare]

OK, there a lot of issues to consider. This is called combi feeding. The first issue is deciding when to introduce a bottle. most BFing cousellors will recommend waiting until 6 weeks to introduce a bottle to prevent nipple confusion and wait until your supply is stabilised. I introduced a bottle at 3 or 4 weeks with my DD (but expressed milk, not formula) without too many issues as I didn't want to wait in case she rejected bottles altogether (as this has happened to quite a few of my friends who waited until 6 weeks).

I think the main problem with combi feeding is that it will reduce your supply of breastmilk. Usually when people start combi feeding it is a slippery slope towards their milk drying up because BFing is supply and demand, so if you do it less you will end up with less. If you make the decision to combi feed it would be difficult to go back to exclusively BFing, so you need to be sure that this is what you want to do.

You could ask for advice in the BFing section on here.

 

[happythought]

I dont see why not. My parents did with us. You can also pump your milk and that way her father can bottle feed the baby and you are still giving her breast milk. Congrats on your new addition!

 

[Luluchaos]

From what I understand they advise against it because it can interfere with your milk production and obviously, if you can express milk and things its probably better... But my mum struggled to express but never had any problem what so ever producing milk because she only really went 8 hours a day and then she was back with me so I think if it's mostly breast you won't have any problems... I think it's just whatever's right for you really... I think there's a lot of pressure put on women and what they feed their babies but I think they're much hardier little creatures than we give them credit for...
They've been surviving for a lot longer than modern medicine and formula have been around I think they'd be lucky to get the best of both

 

[rani007]

I did it with my son and gave him severe colic and he suffered with bad stomach pains his stomach couldn't handle the 2 different types so I exclusively breastfeed him which helped him alot and eased the pains n colic x

 

[jimjam112]

I've been thinkin about so on interested to see Wat people have to say hope it works out for u watever u choose!

 

[AmyR]

Its best for the baby to exclusively breastfeed...why dont you pump and store milk that way you have the option of bottle feeding with breastmilk!

 

[Cee108]

I'm interested in this as well as we travel a lot and its not always convenient to breastfeed a baby, specially when there are no facilities available so I wanted to use bottles with breastmilk. Will be reading this with interest to learn more from everyone's experiences with bottles and the types of nipples that their LO's adapted to and what stage bottles were introduced at.

 

[Thumbelina 3]

when is it best to start expressing breast milk?is before 6 weeks better?just my hubby would like to feed our new baby abit too and i have lots of horses that need seeing to so would be so helpful if i could express as our little one feeds so often xx

 

[Statik]

I never had to deal with nipple confusion so I really cannot comment on that. My babies didn't like formula and I really couldn't blame them after tasting the stuff for myself. Breast milk is sweet and tastes good. I had the worst time trying to get them to take a bottle and they would squish up their little faces like I was trying to poison them. So, doing both didn't work out so great for me and they stayed on the boob until I weened them.

 

[Vesta]

The baby has to put more effort in to breastfeed, then it requires from the baby to drink from the bottle. Some babies get lazy and refuse to go back to the breast once they've tried a bottle. It will also effect your milk supply, especially if you start mixed feeding early.

 

[catcatcat]

I did it very sucessfully. First night home olivia was starving and colustrum wasnt cutting it. So i gave her 2oz of formula. Then continued bf and milk came in as expected then at 8pm every night i gave her a bottle and breastfed her every other feed. My body produced milk when it was needed and the 8pm feed was always bottle.
Meant i could have my usual glass of red wine safe in knowledge i wudnt bf for another 4 hrs.
As time went on she would have the odd bottle at other times too until i eventually weaned her off bfs when she was 9mths. She continued having bottles til she was 3. (dont say anything lol). I continued producing the odd bit of milk if u squeezed them for a yr afterwards. It worked really well for me. And this time ive got the steriliser and bottles at ready and will be bfing too. X

 

[DebzD]

I started combi feeding at 3 weeks because 3 weeks of a starving baby and having to stay in each and every day waiting for the MWs to come and weigh DD coz they were worried about her weight gain was more than enough for my sanity (or decreasing amount of!). I had some stuff go on when I was having her that may or may not have effected my supply, but despite what everyone tells you, it's not always supply and demand with breastmilk. That's what the MWs kept telling me and that my supply would establish itself 'soon' etc, they were shocked when I saw how often she was being fed though and it was only when I saw the 4th different one that she agreed that I should try combifeeding. In my situation, it was the best thing I could possibly have done. DD sleep improved, my nipples had chance to recover coz they weren't in constant use and all round happier for everyone. I didn't have any problems at all with DD knowing she needed to do different things when BFing vs FFing, but I have friends whose LO wouldn't take a bottle and other friends where after taking a bottle wouldn't go back to the boob, so I think a lot of that is down to the individual LO. If I have a supply issue this timme round, I won't hesitate to combifeed again since it made such a huge difference for us last time. Oh, and DD was still having a limited amount of breastmilk up until she was 11 months old, so it didn't have a negative effect on my production either.
If you can, I would say to express and bottle feed breastmilk if you want FOB to be included in mealtimes rather than going straight to formula as then LO won't have to get used to 2 different types of milk and still gets all the breastmilk goodness - I know this isn't for everyone, but personally I think it would be the better way of doing it since you are planning to BF. Plus, formula gets really expensive and the hassle of having to make it!
Good luck with however you decide to do it

 

[DebzD]

^^^ ooops, essay!! Sorry! lol.

 

[chobette]

I plan on breast feeding and bottle feeding, but I plan on expressing for the bottles and not using formula unless absolutely necessary. Things to consider if you are formula supplementing while BF'ing, decrease in milk supply and could potentially dry up, so you would end up supplementing more in the end, which in turn would end your milk supply. Also nipple confusion, they say wait 6 weeks before introducing a bottle, but I plan on waiting only 2 or 3 weeks.

 

[HollieQ]

I hope to breastfeed only for the first 6 weeks, then express some and introduce bottles at 6 weeks (closer to nature breast-like (supposedly) bottles). Then introduce formula a few weeks later for night feeds only as it fills them up more to sleep through the night, i want a good routine early. Still going to breastfeed when at home all day, and express the othertimes for when we're out, as i don't want my milk to decrease.