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Infant feeding

Can you see any problems/ offer advice on my plans?

10 replies

Wiggy29 · 03/02/2013 10:22

I am planning to breast feed dc fully until about day 4 and then do one formula feed per day until 3 months (long story short- we want to try for another child very quickly due to ongoing issues with precancerous cells and this is when my next smear is).

I want dc to be used to the bottle as, if at 3 months, my condition is no worse, I plan to stop bf so that period returns. If things are already worse, I'll need treatment in which case I'll just bf for longer and then we'll consider if we should try for dc3 in time.

I bf dc1 for 10 months and would ideally like to bf dc2 for longer but not at the expense of not having a third child. I know guidelines are not to mix breast/ bottle at first yet, in my experience, guidelines change all the time and many people I've spoken to found they struggled to get bf baby to switch to a bottle and we won't have the advantage of time on our side.

Any advice/ thoughts?

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blonderthanred · 03/02/2013 11:08

Only one experience but my DS took his first bottle at 6 weeks with no probs. He had had a dummy from 1 month.

I would try and get the first 3-4 weeks as ebf if you can to establish the breast as you don't want to give up bf sooner than you'd hoped. If you do want to give a bottle sooner could you start with expressing a feed?

If you definitely want to start formula I think the advice is not to drop an evening/night feed at first as it will interfere with your supply.

It sounds like your situation is pretty unusual so of course you should do whatever you can to reduce your stress levels and make life as easy as it can be to enable you to go ahead with your plans. Best of luck.

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Wiggy29 · 03/02/2013 15:25

Thank you blonderthnred. I was hoping that a reasonable (ish) gap between feeds might encourage periods to return without having to stop bf altogether. I did mention this to health visitor but she seemed to think bf had no influence on periods returning whatsoever- despite the NHS website and others stating otherwise.

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JuliaScurr · 03/02/2013 15:35

for mixed feeding, I introduced bottle on day 1 on advice. Ignored all 'you'll never get breast established' shroud wavers. It was fine. :)

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julielizzy · 03/02/2013 15:41

If it helps we did what you are proposing for other reasons (we have 4 kids!) and had very little problems. As long as the the bottle is given at around the same time each day (not in the night) you should be fine.

The only problem we had was when I was very sore and tired we thought an extra bottle won't hurt. Unfortunately with bf being supply and demand it does and the next day was hell!

We found the best time to use the formula was in a late afternoon early evening feed. I don't know if you will find the same as us but it reduced cluster feeding, which helped prevent me getting to sore.

If it also helps the last two I BF my periods returned within 6 weeks of birth!

Hope this helps and good luck x x

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MumOfMissy · 03/02/2013 15:48

I think your plan sounds sensible. The best time for the bottle would be last thing at night as thus is when your breast milk supply is at it's lowest. I did mixed feeding for first 2 months as my baby was unable to suck for first 5 days and had to lap formula out of a little cup (she had complicated delivery and hurt her neck during birth). My breast milk took ages to come through but I persevered and eventually dropped the bottles altogether. So yes, I think mixed feeding is a good plan for you, babies are very adaptable and clever and your baby should cope with both.

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BabyRoger · 03/02/2013 15:57

I used bottles from 3wo for one feed a day with both my DC's and never had any problems going between the breast and bottle.

I used the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles.

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Wiggy29 · 03/02/2013 17:34

Ohhh, this thread is so reassuring - thank you Grin

I already have some Tommy Tippee closer to nature bottles in as they were on offer.

I was planning the formula feed to be the latest one (e.g. 22:00) as that means DP can have a nice bonding feed/ snuggle with the baby before he goes to bed while I can go to bed earlier and try to get a bit of shut eye before the night feeds start.

Thanks again for all your advice.

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crochetcircle · 04/02/2013 21:52

We started dd2 on a bottle at 2wo and have not looked back. I expressed initially, but now she's 5mo she has a bit of formula too. I didn't bother about time of day, just made sure she got a bit by bottle every few days.

Good luck with everything Smile

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KatAndKit · 05/02/2013 09:22

I don't think it is necessary to start with bottles right off to get your periods back early going by my experience.

I ebf'ed at first and then introduced some expressed bottles at around 2 weeks so that I could get some early nights. It is important that you continue to do the middle of the night feed - to do with hormones that control milk production. And I think these are the same hormones that keep your period away.

Anyway I went on holiday just short of 4 months. My mum came with us too so that DP and I could have some time off. DS was used to the odd bottle of formula by then. All it took was for me to miss the middle of the night feed two days in a row (after also going out for the evening on one of those nights and only expressing a little bit on my return) and bingo - 4 weeks later my period was back.

So I would say if BF early on is important to you, EBF with a bit of expressing for the early weeks so that you know the baby will take a bottle, and then you can switch to mixed feeding after a couple of months when you have decided what you are doing about ttc.

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whyno · 05/02/2013 09:28

I did same thing from day 4 (and it was a night feed that was the bottle each day in my case.) Combined breast and bottle successfully for 9 months so it worked for me. Although did still have the odd week where he refused bottle later on.

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