Successful combi feeding?

[cat_reversing]

Anyone does this? Currently combi feeding, baby had formula and breast from birth due to low blood sugars. Would prefer to ebf but she just gets so hungry we give in. She has 90ml at night and about 60-90ml middle of the day, rest of the time i feed. Seems difficult to find positive stories..

 

[rory83coyotes]

We combi feed. Have for 6 months. I find she will take breast or bottle without prefernce. Just as long as she has milk.

 

[Celesse]

Thats exactly what I was doing with my DD at that age. She was a late latcher with a big weight loss and ongoing weight loss issues. She needed 2 bottles a day, she just didn't gain with 0/1 bottle. After Cranial Oestophathy her suck got stronger and we where able to drop her to one bottle at 10 weeks-ish. Finally got to exclusive BFing at 4.5 months and she's still BFing at nearly 3 yrs.

If you want to get back to EBF try and get your supply to match your demand. Best way to do this is the express at the same time or close to the feeds. You will probably find as baby gets bigger and stronger and faster at feeding its easier to up your supply and skips the bottles. A good time to loose bottles is during a growth spurt as baby is constantly feeding to up supply anyway.

That said with DS I introduced a bottle at 4 months for no reason other than to give me a break. If it works for you and you are happy with the routine then stick with it. Best way to combi feed is to BF on demand and FF to a schedule and thats exactly what your doing!

 

[cat lover]

i combi fed dd1.from 2 weeks to 14 months so it can be done. i am now combi feeding dd2. i do two bottles a day at roughly the same time, it seems to work for us xx

 

[lauraemily17]

Worked for us. We started off breast feeding at start of each feed then topping up with formula at 3 weeks. by about 3 months it was bottles on schedule and breastfeed on demand. We're now down to just 1 morning breast feed though. Mainly because he loves his solids and has 3 full meals a day and the booby had turned into more of a snack/needed to nap or sleep. It's worked out well though as I never intended to breast feed past 6 months anyhow.

 

[NotNic]

We did what Celesse did - bf on demand and ff at set times. We managed very successfully until 5mths when I stopped because my son wouldn't feed for more than 5mins in the morning and wouldnt ask for it any other time. He wasn't interested anymore because he was on solids. He also ate so much that he wasn't fussed about finishing large bottles either.

Combi-feeding / supplementing can work if you're consistent. I don't think there is enough discussed about this approach as there's a bit of a general feeling that using formula means you're cheating or you're not bfing properly. It kept us going through very unhappy nipples, growth spurts and weight drops. Next baby I'd do the same again.