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Breast/Bottle Help!
in Baby
Hi ladies sorry to gatecrash but thought you may be able to help me!
I have a 20 month old daughter already who i bottle fed with formula from her being born as i made the decision from day one of finding out i was pregnant that i would bottle feed.
Well im due to have another baby in 4 weeks and have seriously been thinking of breast feeding as this will be my last child (so ive decided up to now anyway).
My questions are i would like to breast feed but with a little one already i will need help so was thinking of bottle too, ive seen that some ppl have done breast and bottle but was wondering if when you bottle feed it was with expressed milk or formula i quite like the idea of breast feeding for the first month or so as well as bottle feeding and then just bottle feeding can this be done or does it have to be one or the other im confused sorry if this seems daft just been wondering for a while thanks Sophie 35+5 xx
I have a 20 month old daughter already who i bottle fed with formula from her being born as i made the decision from day one of finding out i was pregnant that i would bottle feed.
Well im due to have another baby in 4 weeks and have seriously been thinking of breast feeding as this will be my last child (so ive decided up to now anyway).
My questions are i would like to breast feed but with a little one already i will need help so was thinking of bottle too, ive seen that some ppl have done breast and bottle but was wondering if when you bottle feed it was with expressed milk or formula i quite like the idea of breast feeding for the first month or so as well as bottle feeding and then just bottle feeding can this be done or does it have to be one or the other im confused sorry if this seems daft just been wondering for a while thanks Sophie 35+5 xx
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Replies
With my 1st i had to top him up with formula as well as bf-ing him, which i stopped at 6 weeks. With my 2nd and 3rd i gave expressed bottles at about 3 week, to get them used to a teat other than mine! I then gave them formula from about 4 week to fill them up...all my bubs have been hungry! I upped the formula by one bottle every week or so and stopped bf at 8 weeks because i wanted to bf first then swap.
Mws and hvs will advise you don't mix as your milk supply will reduce. But if you plan to ff after a while then it should be fine. Also, i know a few ppl who wanted to stop bf but couldn't as their lo wasn't used to a teat. You may want to bf fully until your milk comes in (after 2-3 days) but there's no harm in topping up, or there wasn't in my case!
I started giving my lo formula at around 2 1/2 weeks (hungry boy!) and then started giving him expressed milk too a few days later. He's now 14 weeks and I am still bf-ing him 2 - 3 times a day and he has 5 bottles. i don't express any more because its a pain in the arse!
He's never had a problem switching between boob and bottle, or formula and expressed milk, and he's fine and healthy.
Personally I didn't follow any set plan with how we feed my lo, it just kinda settled into a pattern over time - my milk has decreased with feeding him less but it works for us. I do like keeping the first feed as bf as it means I can stay in bed longer without moving much!!