Please help me combi-feed!?!?! Advice please!!

[Rickles]

Hi ladies

**I've posted this in the BF section and got one response - so hoping some STMs here can offer some advice**

OH and I have agreed we will combi-feed this baby from the get go.

Bit of background in case anyone wants to lecture - I EBF DD for 14 months and truth be told it nearly killed me and my marriage. (I was dangerously underweight due to her multiple allergies meaning I had to give up dairy, wheat, apples, pears, tomatoes, soy...).

OH couldn't help and it put our marriage under enormous strain as I was so exhausted and desperate. DD refused to take a bottle despite us trying EVERYTHING (we spent over a hundred quid on bottles / teats / gizmos). She was days away from NG tube when I just broke and said I'd carry on BFIng until we could switch her to sippy cups.

So - Yes I do want this baby to have some of my immunity but I also need to know / some experienced mummies to tell me which are the best feeds for Daddy to give so that we balance engorgement / feeding etc. Ideally I'd like it to be 50/50 by about 8 weeks. But happy for it to be just one or two feeds for the first 4 weeks.

I won't be expressing but using formula - this is deliberate so we can establish if this baby has allergies to milk too (and get the right milk protein free formula immediately). It tastes disgusting so we've been advised to get baby used to it asap if I don't want to BF for the long haul.

Can anyone help - I'm really anxious about this???

 

[gemstone]

Hi there hun, I combi feed. As I have very uncontrolled asthma. Often have to go on steroids that dry the milk up. All I do is offer her the breast & feed for as long as she likes. Then top up if it's not enough. Or I just bottle feed. I did this so she could have the immunity from me to protect her against the world & nasty bugs. But I have notice that she is a lazy feeder now & gets very angry with me if the milk isn't there as she has to work for it lol. Supply on demand! So every 3days she has a wobble. So I will be stopping the breast soon. But she has had the best bit the first 3days before your milk comes in. I believe it doesn't matter how you feed your baby. A happy mum is a happy baby. Also if you put to much stress on yourself the milk production will slow anyways. So it has to be a stress free time. A feed baby is a happy one. Don't stress too much about what other people think or say. Its your baby & body. Do what makes you happy. I breast feed my 2 older girls. But moved too the bottle at about 6months but kept up the breast for bed. After the stress I had with my second dd when my milk never came back coz the meds. I had a very hungry unhappy baby coz she couldn't use the teats. Was heart breaking but she got it in the end. So I told myself this time I would get her used to teats just incase! Good luck hun what ever you choose will be the right one for you x

 

[mandaa1220]

I didn't want to read and run. I'm a FTM though, so can't help. I hope someone comes along with good advice!

 

[Missnurse]

I combi fed DS well he had breast during the day the bottles at bed time from 4 weeks, he slept through from that point and just generally seemed happier. Honestly though do what it best for you and your baby and family, who cares what anyone else thinks

 

[chathamlady]

I combi-fed as well I would say a night -feed or the supper bottle make sure your oh is the one giving the bottle at first(to get lo used to others feeding him/her) and you may need to leave the room or baby will want you

 

[Mummy to be x]

I've no experience with this but from what you went through the first time around I would say just do whatever works for you, it's your body and your baby. Stuff anyone else's opinion.

 

[Gingerspice]

My dd had big issues with feeding, with hindsight it was reflux but by the time this to she was o n solids. She was monitored for weight gain issues (still is) and HV offered little stop with my desire to breat feed and kept just telling me to quit and bottle fed. Anyway I compromised and we mixed for a while. It made no difference to her weight gain though so didn'T revolve that issue but tbh we Combi fed only for a few weeks as it quickly caused the ease of knowing how much she'd had and me not wondering whether she'd had much and was her crying because she'd not fed enough so needed more etc resulted in a pretty quick decision to stop breastfeeding altogether.

This next one i'm pl awning to see how easy bf is and plan to combi fed straight off but I am aware it's likely to lead to reduction and fairly quickly comple tr e stoppage of bf

 

[Gnomer]

Although I didn't use formula, I combi expressed milk and breast for a couple of weeks with my son, until he was only on expressed bottles.
When I was just breast feeding, he'd cluster feed at night time and i couldn't cope with the lack of sleep. I had a good supply and expressed and breast fed during the day, then OH would give him a bottle from 5/6pm onwards. I'd do breast from 9am ish. Sometimes I'd be expressing whilst he was bottle feeding, because I got so full overnight. But if I'd put him on the breast at night I'd never get him off.
After a couple of weeks I went onto expressed completely. A month or so after that I had to start topping up with formula because he was a greedy little monkey. When we introduced formula I'd use it as a little 'snack'. Just a few ounces to see how he reacted to it. Eventually we went to a formula, then an expressed and so on.

 

[emeeorevan]

I personally combi-fed but I didn't know what that was!! I was really young with DS#1. He was losing weight and I was exhausted from CONSTANT feedings that were not very productive. I had to supplement with formula at about 6 weeks. I finally figured out that he had milk allergies and had to have a specific formula to supplement with (it was VERY expensive, about $20/can and this was 12 years ago!)

So I tried to continue BF and formula feeding but I eventually completely dried up at a little over two months.

With DS #2 I made it about four months EBF before I began to dry up. Once again I supplemented with formula and the had to completely switch to formula by 6 months.

I did notice the laziness of my boys did increase as the number of bottle feeding increased.
If you are worried about baby not taking the bottle you can always express/pump and introduce the bottle using breast milk at 4 weeks old.

I personally will be doing this as I go back to work at 6 weeks and grandma will be bottle feeding my lo while I'm at work. I plan on introducing the bottle with breast milk at about 3-4 weeks through dh and then slowly increasing the number of bottle feedings during the day to prepare for my return to work.

I believe the key it to introduce the bottle early but not too often and to be sure the flow is fairly similar to the breast. both my boys had to be given a bottle in the hospital for low blood sugar (only one bottle). But i do think that that aided in reducing the nipple confusion. I plan on trying the Avent bottle and nipples first but it is often trial and error with the bottles/nipples.

Good luck to you! I hope everything goes well.

 

[Pix]

Great thread!! Rather curious as well. I had opposite experience.

With Dd I tried to ebf but unaware I overproduced and clogged. I tried so hard but DH was dying to feed her. So combifed from one breast. After a few weeks of being lopsided I allowed them to dry up.

With DS I ebf until 9 months when he decided to start grinding his teeth. OUCH!!! But I pumped and had DH feed him.

I know my sister ebf and her Dd had horrible allergies.

Every baby is different and perhaps this one may not have any allergies. You never know!! I would say give it a try and see what happens. I def agree with a pp that said have DH be the one to bottle feed and you bf. I also like the idea of topping off with we did with DS in the hospital.

 

[Rickles]

I personally combi-fed but I didn't know what that was!! I was really young with DS#1. He was losing weight and I was exhausted from CONSTANT feedings that were not very productive. I had to supplement with formula at about 6 weeks. I finally figured out that he had milk allergies and had to have a specific formula to supplement with (it was VERY expensive, about $20/can and this was 12 years ago!)

So I tried to continue BF and formula feeding but I eventually completely dried up at a little over two months.

With DS #2 I made it about four months EBF before I began to dry up. Once again I supplemented with formula and the had to completely switch to formula by 6 months.

I did notice the laziness of my boys did increase as the number of bottle feeding increased.
If you are worried about baby not taking the bottle you can always express/pump and introduce the bottle using breast milk at 4 weeks old.

I personally will be doing this as I go back to work at 6 weeks and grandma will be bottle feeding my lo while I'm at work. I plan on introducing the bottle with breast milk at about 3-4 weeks through dh and then slowly increasing the number of bottle feedings during the day to prepare for my return to work.

I believe the key it to introduce the bottle early but not too often and to be sure the flow is fairly similar to the breast. both my boys had to be given a bottle in the hospital for low blood sugar (only one bottle). But i do think that that aided in reducing the nipple confusion. I plan on trying the Avent bottle and nipples first but it is often trial and error with the bottles/nipples.

Good luck to you! I hope everything goes well.

Thanks. With DD we waited until 6 weeks to try the bottle - petrified of creating nipple confusion... Then the health visitor helpfully said we'd probably left it too late - which we had... so this time it will be in week one... We've kept most the bottles and teats so hopefully we can find one that works early on!!

But I guess I could express for the bottle in the first couple of weeks... xx

 

[NotNic]

I combi fed. To begin with I allowed DS to cluster feed and started to offer a bottle at 4am as that worked for us and at 11am after his cluster feed period (6-10am). We then added another bottle at 6pm, bfing at 8pm and again before we went to bed. DS was a starving baby though and could eat for England! Once we got down to more regular feeds we dropped a bfed a week either dropping all together or replacing with formula. I did express once a day at 10pm before bed as that made me more comfortable and prevented leaking and drying up. I tended to keep it in the fridge for use at one of the bottle feeds in the next few days, but if memory serves me right I never got enough from 1 express to do a full feed. I guess you really need to follow your baby's natural pattern to prevent problems with production but DS was 2 days old when he had his first formula bottle and from day 5-8 he was on only bottles (expressed) to help me heal, then bfed with nipple shields. From 3 weeks we began the supplementing (adding the 11am feed) moving over to combi, eventually stopping at 5mths where at that point he was just having one bfeed a day. I agree with pp about a slow teat on the bottles. We stuck with size 0 for ages.

This time I will try to bfeed for the first 2-3wks but have my shields and bottles at the ready if it is as tricky as last time!!

 

[Rickles]

That's really helpful - thank you! x

 

[NotNic]

Also another bit of advice - see if you can find a health visitor who is pro combi-feeding. Mine was great and really supportive. While I was combi feeding I had my son weighed every two weeks to keep a check on his weight and I found her super helpful. Not all are like this so keep trying clinics until you find one.

 

[sweetcheeks78]

Hi hon, I really struggled with BFing with my DS. He really struggled to latch on and ended up having a couple of bottles of formula in hospital. When we got home I tried to exclusively breast feed but he kept falling asleep, so I started expressing which meant that we knew how much he was getting and it allowed DH to help too. By the time he was 5 weeks though he just seemed so hungry all the time, so we started topping up after each BF with a couple of ounces of formula. My milk started to dryy up after that so by 9 weeks he was totally switched to FF, and was a much happier baby who slept through from 11pm - 7am. Do what feels right for you and your baby. I'm planning to express for DH to do the late feed this time and we'll see how it goes but if he's as hungry as his brother we'll be combi-feeding from quite early on too.

 

[Shineystar]

I combi fed DS well he had breast during the day the bottles at bed time from 4 weeks, he slept through from that point and just generally seemed happier. Honestly though do what it best for you and your baby and family, who cares what anyone else thinks

This is what I plan to do - I felt an enormous amount of pressure last time, and my LG had reflux so she was on and off the breast all the time, which rubbed me raw and i had bad mastitis.

I promised myself i would try again as it may be a different story this time, but if i get mastitis again i am just stopping and not letting anyone guilt trip me - I was screaming in pain as she fed, which wasnt fair on anyone. I also expressed until the point the milk was full of blood so that was game over for us.

I also believe my daughter instantly settled better on the bottle (with gaviscon for reflux mind you!) and we had a baby sleeping from 10pm to 6/7am from two weeks. theres alot to be said for a good nights sleep!

anyway I cant offer advice as i am not there yet, but I am concerned about how I am going to enforce my decision to combi feed as all i got last time was people telling me combi feeding was not recommended and just to make my mind up about it!