What else can I do to eradicate formula top ups?

Thanks MadB and Barb. Hopefully I will get a call back at some stage. Barb, PMing you shortly, cranky miss willing

Hey emmajayt, You have already received some great advice, I just wanted to offer you some encouragement! I have had breast reduction surgery, so have supply issues. Miss P is my third child and as you can see from my ticker she will be 2 in November. We are still happily BF'ing after much stress in the early days. Our story is similar to yours in that I needed to use FF top ups but wanted to increase my supply as much as possible and offer Miss P the greatest proportion of BM that I could. We greatly reduced the top ups around about 7 or 8 months when Miss P was eating a full and varied diet. By the time she was 12 months, I only offered formula at night before bed. We co-sleep and if I didn't offer that last FF Miss P was on the boob literally all night long and neither of us got any sleep at all. By the end of the day I just didn't have enough supply to offer her the last big feed she wanted.

I was disappointed that I had to supplement with formula, but Miss P was losing weight and I knew my supply couldn't keep up with her demand (trust me, I tried everything). Ultimately, I had to do what was right for my baby and that was to offer FF top ups. For Miss P, the bottle was always about business and the boob was about lovely squishy goodness. She has always preferred the breast. I figured if Miss P was happy and healthy, I should be happy too. The fact that I had to FF top up doesn't mean that I failed. Here we are, almost two years down the track, still BF. You may have to FF top your baby but you are a breast feeding mother. You are doing a magnificent job, be proud of what you have achieved instead of feeling bad about what you can't. :hug:

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I was disappointed that I had to supplement with formula, but Miss P was losing weight and I knew my supply couldn't keep up with her demand (trust me, I tried everything). Ultimately, I had to do what was right for my baby and that was to offer FF top ups. For Miss P, the bottle was always about business and the boob was about lovely squishy goodness. She has always preferred the breast. I figured if Miss P was happy and healthy, I should be happy too. The fact that I had to FF top up doesn't mean that I failed. Here we are, almost two years down the track, still BF. You may have to FF top your baby but you are a breast feeding mother. You are doing a magnificent job, be proud of what you have achieved instead of feeling bad about what you can't. :hug:

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Thank you - you made my day. The bottle is definitely about business here too :D

Just had the best late night feed ever. For the first time she has emptied both sides and not asked for a top up. Over the moon.

I've heard from my local ABA group too - thanks Barb :)

Great news!! Well done to both of you.

Thanks. She slept til 6 so I'm pretty sure she was happy :D

Woo hoo! That's great

Emmjayt that's so wonderful.

DD is 8 months old today and still having 4 BF's a day as well as 2 - 3 meals and some top ups - yesterday 200 mls all up. None before bed though and she slept 8 hours :D

I'm getting lots of wet nappies, a slow consistent gain and have a mostly happy small girl

Well done!

Just thought I'd update. DD is three weeks off turning one and is still having 4 feeds a day. She loves loves loves her solids too and is down to one bottle a day last thing at night and often doesn't finish it. She's grown heaps and is now happily in the 50th percentile for everything

We did it. We made it to a year!

woohooooooooooooooooooo

Oh wow that is huge! Congratulations clever and wonderful mama!

Thank you :)

19 months and counting :)

Woohoo, Emma!

22 months and she's still going strong. She's missing the odd feed during the day but seems to make up for it. I was away for one night for work and didn't pump, but supply has been fine