Combining Breast & Fomula Feeding
Hi Girls,
Just looking for some advice from anyone who has successfully combined breast and formula feeding.
My DS has been exclusivly breast fed from birth, having EBM when I'm at work 3 days a week. Whilst at work I've been expressing about 180ml which is then used for DS feed the following day.
I also used to pump at night as DS has sleept through from 6 weeks. However in the last month I've found it increasingly hard to get more milk when expressing. Therefore our supply of frozen EBM has dropped and we no longer have a "buffer" of milk. We've tried increasing our feeds, dreamfeeding and basically popping my boob in his mouth anytime his awake, using warm compress and massaging when expressing however nothing seems to increase the amount I can get whilst pumping.
Myself and DP are weighing up are options at the moment, eg; lactation cookies, medication to boost supply. However If this is usuccessful we're thinking of substituting those 3 feeds a week with formula.
Has anyone sucessfully done this before? what problems did you face? Can you recommend a specific brand of formula?
Any info or tips you can give would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance everyone
xx
Combining Breast & Fomula Feeding
I had to top up dd1 with formula after breastfeeding to keep her weight up, as she was never a strong sucker, I then had enough ebm to feed for a while but like you it dropped off. She was fine having formula if I needed her to as she was used to having both bf or a bottle.
I think you would have more problems if your ds had never had a bottle before. Maybe try ebm or a bf then give a bottle to see how he goes. Dont feel bad about it, It's a better solution than having to give up bfing all together.
Combining Breast & Fomula Feeding
I did it with DS. Had to start topping up at 3 months due to weight loss and weak suck. The stress of that meant I couldn't express very much and my stash quickly got used up.
My aim was to get rid of the comp feeds which we did at around 9 months and continued breastfeeding until 14.5 months.
I did:
Express after each feed
Top up with EBM or formula after each feed using a supply line. This meant he was still at the breast stimulating my supply. I used a supply line for about 3 months until his suck improved.
Always gave breast first, then bottle. Every 4-5 days reduce the amount of formula by about 10mls. If he still wanted more, I gave him breast again. This took ages and we sometimes went backwards. But we got there in the end.
HTH