Questions for moms who FF their babies

[oceania]

Hi all, I have breast hypoplasia and insufficient glandular tissue and most probably will be FF from birth when I have a baby. I would be curious to know your experiences of formula feeding. I had a thread about life with baby on the WTT section but pretty much only moms who breastfed answered there...

How well did your baby sleep and how often did you feed him/her? Did you have any me-time? Did your baby have problems digesting formula, did you have to switch the formula many times to find the right band. (for some reason I have the idea that formula feeding takes less time and is done less often than BF and that FF babies sleep well?) Any other comments are welcome too.

Thanks,
Sofia

 

[Saphira]

Hi there
I'd be glad to share my experience. My daughter fell into her own routine with bottles really quickly. She was like a clock! Every 2hrs. on the dot she wanted to be fed. This pretty much went on for the first 6 months of her life but don't let this scare you because I don't think it's all that common for so long. She was just a snacker and took smaller amounts at a time but for that more often. Thankfully by 3 months she would go longer intervals at night between feeds to make life easier for us but during the day, nope, so we didn't go out for long periods of time ever.
She had discomfort digesting the first 6 weeks - 2 months really. I can't put the blame on formula though because she was fed mainly breastmilk in the first days and combi-fed for the first 3 weeks. She was just very gassy and it wasn't easy getting her to burp. She spit up a ton too but never showed signs of being in pain from it and gained weight steadily so that wasn't a problem. I think most babys' stomachs need time getting used to digesting regardless.
Nope, never switched formula brands. We tried her on a couple hypoallergenic formulas because she had very dry skin but she refused both so we had to stick with the regular formula. Luckily her skin condition has nothing to do with a cow's milk allergy anyway, it's weather related and also very sensitive to over the counter products. Everything used has to be completely free of scent.
Hope that helps!

 

[Lady_Bee]

Hi The sleep thing is mostly myth I think. My baby was a terrible sleeper! He still is pretty bad at 11 months. As a newborn he needed a bottle every 1-1.5 hours sometimes. The longest he would go without a feed was 2 hours (4 at night, sometimes!) until he was 5 months old. Then he could o 2.5-3 hours. Now at 11 months he still doesn't sttn, so sadly not all formula fed babies will be good sleepers. My baby doesn't like to have much milk in one go (5 oz usually is his max) - I'm sure this is unusual and most babies will take more milk less often.

He never had any digestive issues wit it though. Maybe I just got lucky with the brand I chose! We switched him at 5.5 months only because we moved to a different country and they didn't have the same brands. He was fine with the change, just had a couple of weird pops and then back to normal.

And sadly no I hardly ever get any me time! He is totally worth it though. I just tell myself I will have plenty of me time when he's older and I'll miss the days when he was this freaking cute.

 

[mommy0629]

As the pp said, the sleep thing is definatly a myth. Do you feed less often? not really, not with a newborn anyway. As they get a little older maybe because ff babies won't go through the cluster feeding with growth spurts (not as much anyway, my lo does want to eat more and a little bit more often with growth spurts) but other than that it's pretty much the same.

I started lo on bm (mostly pumped because she was a preemie) and once I switched to formula (around 3 weeks old) her sleeping and frequency of eating didn't change at all. She still ate/woke up during the night to eat every 3 hours. Now she sleeps through the night, but that's only the last 3 weeks or so and she still eats every 3 hours during the day.

Me-time? Well, yeah, I guess I do get it, but I don't think it would be much different at this point even if I was still bfing. DH feeds her like once a day on the days he works and a bit more on the weekends, but even if I was bfing I'd be pumping some so he could do the same. So, for that question I'd say that other than the first few weeks when you're establishing bfing, it's not really any different.

We did have to switch formula's a few different times because lo is very gassy and has mild-moderate reflux. We went through 4 different formulas until we found the one she does best one. I will say though - she had the bad gas when she was on bm also, maybe even a bit more-so. She also popped after EVERY feeding on bm and had a diaper rash thet would not go away because of the constant pooping. On formula she only poops once, maybe twice a day so that issue was gone within a few days of switching to formula.

I thing a lot of those myths about ff babies sleeping longer etc. stem back from like the 70's when formula was really popular and first created. It was probably a bit thicker than it is today and people were also told to put baby rice cereal in bottles to help baby sleep better I think formula has come a long way and at this point is really close to bm so it digests pretty much the same.

 

[oceania]

Thanks a lot ladies! I'm happy to say that my eyes have been opened and I no longer expect a 4-hour feeding interval or STTN from a few weeks old lol. It's funny how some of these myths can still prevail so strongly today.

 

[Twinkie210]

I am EPing for my son but he does get occasional FF and eventually I will transition him over. My husband kept telling me to give him formula at night instead of BM so he would sleep better. Guess what! It didn't make a difference what he at LOL. My first was FF from the beginning and I think the sleep thing depends on the baby and their mood that particular day. Both of my guys (my first on formula and my second on EBM) would eat 3oz every 2.5-3 hrs as newborns. They increased their intake fast and now my youngest will eat 6-8oz of EBM every 4hrs during the day and will usually go 5 hrs or so at night. I have no doubt that he will do do the same when he transitions to formula.

How often and how much your baby sleeps and eats will depend more on your babies needs/personality than what you chose to feed him or her.

 

[flamingpanda]

Hadley took to it like a duck to water. She goes anywhere between 3-4 hours for a feed and actually in her case she does STTN. She only occasionally wakes for a 3/4am feed. Other than that she goes 7pm to 7am.

We're switching formula today to a comfort brand as we're concerned again about her wind. All in all though we love formula feeding. It works really well for our family and she's growing beautifully. I wish I hadn't been so nagative towards it when I first started because she really is thriving on it now.

 

[080509]

We switched at a couple of weeks, he was much more chilled out and slept well afterwards, this wasn't the only reason we switched though. Formula does sit heavier on their stomachs which is often why breastfed babies feed more. This isn't a dig at either feeding methods by the way, i enjoyed formula and breastfeeding pretty much equal, but if i'm honest do prefer formula feeding as it means i can jump in the bath and since i have alot of appointments due to health problems, i can leave them with my mum/OH whilst i go to them.

My first LO had problems on SMA, so we switched to HIPP and he was fine afterwards. My Second LO had issues with HIPP, so switched to Cow and Gate and again no problems.

My first LO didn't sleep well until 16 months, up all night for feeds and just generally wide awake! I reckon he slept on average 5 hours out of 24 hours for the first 16 months of his life haha.
My second LO slept great (long may it continue) slept well from 2 weeks, then had 2 night feeds until around 12 weeks then since goes from 10pm to 8am without a peep.

Both babies fed every 1.5 hours in the day time, my 7 month old still does but occassionally will go 2 hours, so is alot of sterilising/making up feeds, but i figure thats part and parcel of having a baby if i bottle feed! doesn't last forever x

Hope this helps xx

 

[aliss]

My oldest was FF and he had a lot of digestive problems. In hindsight, I think we were too quick to jump to soy formula when he was showing dairy intolerance, I had no idea that some dairy-intolerant babies were also soy intolerant? There are specialized formulas to suit babies like this, but we didn't get much help. IF your baby seems to have issues, keep in mind this But your baby will probably be just fine. Good luck! He STTN at 23 months, unfortunately it was no rule, LOL!!