Want to Do Breast Feed & Do Formula.

You'll be fine. I pumped with my daughter for a while since she wouldn't latch on and it was just too overwhelming for me. I started making her bottles half my milk and half formula for a while, but every now and then if she would get a good latch, I would BF too. She ended up on full formula after 3 months old. She was fine and perfectly healthy and she is a very bright, healthy 22 month old now.

I am due in July too and I plan on BFing but supplementing formula bottles once a day so that he is used to bottles. I have heard of situations where babies will not take a bottle at all if it is not introduced soon enough and I have to go back to work in 2 months. After I am working, I am hoping to BF morning and night and formula feed in the day. If my milk supply is running low, i may pump once a day at work.... we'll see.

The point is.... it's TOTALLY fine!

Hi K.,

I just had my baby boy back in January, so I know how excited you are..At first I was trying to do strictly breast feeding but he eats so much and my milk production is low so I starting half/half formula & breastfeeding when he was a month old. It never really affected him or his tummy he takes both bottle and breast just fine. I recommend waiting until he is breastfeeding for atleast a few weeks or a month before introducing a bottle being that the bottle feeds faster and he will get used to it. I hope it goes well for you with the breast feeding I know at first its a little tough but its great bonding time..

Hope this helps.
God luck & take care..

Yosie

My daughter never would take a bottle and we started trying at 6wks! If I could go back I would have tried the bottle and nursing in the hospital. I have many professional colleagues who bottle fed their children breast milk. They just started pumping in the hospital. I'm sure formula can be just fine (my husband was only fed formula and is very healthy) but I would check out the ingredients. I was looking at the Simulac that I received in the mail and noticed that the soy formula has corn syrup solids as one of the first ingredients!!! Corn syrup is nasty stuff for many different reasons. I wouldn't consume it myself let alone give it to my child! Good luck.

Why would you use formula too? You can exclusively breastfeed & return to work. I know many women who have done it. In my opinion, formula should be a last resort. Breastmilk is what babies are meant to consume & digest. The proteins in cow's milk (& soy) are very difficult for babies to digest & cause excessive spitting up, digestive upset and gas, and may have other long-term effects. Why don't you try exclusively breastfeeding & if that doesn't work, you can add formula. Do some research with reliable sources so you can be sure to make the best decision possible for you & baby. Good luck!

I did both, my son was in the NICU, and my milk had not come in, and he had to eat something, so we started with bottles. It took a while for me to make enough milk to keep him happy and satisfied.

When I returned to work at 12 weeks, I BF at night and the morning, and bottles at daycare during the day, but that didn't last long, it seemed my milk supply was not sufficient to keep him happy.

But it didn't make my baby sick, or have nipple confusion, he was a hungry baby who would eat anything. If I could have changed anything... I would have waited to give him a bottle until after I knew my milk supply was sufficient.

Best wishes!

I am doing both. It wasn't a choice at first. My baby was very small and was fed with a bottle and IV after birth. Then the pediatrician wanted me to continue to supplement with formula. But it was difficult with the breast feeding. The formula was interfering with my breast mild. So I don't suggest you use formula for a few weeks until your milk supply is in. Its usually about 6 weeks. Then make sure you don't go too long between breast feedings, otherwise just pump. I use formula when I'm out sometimes. So he may get one bottle in a day. If it is more I will make sure I pump. I would talk to a lactation consultant to help you out. Your breast milk can dry up very quickly in the beginning if your not careful.

K. -

I have 3 kids and breastfed all three. However, with all three, I gave them one bottle a day in the beginning (starting on day one of their lives while still in the hospital) of either breastmilk (that I pumped) or formula to get them used to taking something from a bottle. It worked well for me as I was able to get out of the house without having to worry that my baby wasn't going to drink from a bottle. It is important though in the beginning to get your milk supply going by nursing/pumping, so just be cautious of that as you don't want to affect your supply by supplementing with a bottle of formula.

Everyone has different opinions, especially on this subject. A lot of people say it causes confusion to do the breast and then a bottle. But from my experience, all three of my kids transitioned between the two without an issue and thrived on both breastmilk and the bottle.

If you do use formula though, stick with one kind so that you can determine if your baby is okay with it. They make so many varities of formula that are for milk-sensitive babies, colicky babies, etc. that if the regular version doesn't work, you can try a different one.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

- K. :)

Hi K.
I did both, and it was just fine. I gave both my girls bottles at night, and Bf during the day. I found it helped them sleep through the night better. Just one word of caution; be careful to make sure you get your milk established before you rely on formula too much. If you don't bf regularly in the beginning you might loose your milk supply. This started to happen to me w/my first because I was trying to pump too much in the beginning (so my husband could feed too.) I was told had I used a hospital grade pump maybe that wouldn't have happened. (?) Once everything was established, it was all good! Good luck to you.

I can't offer specific advice because we just did strictly formula from birth, but I do have a friend who wanted to do both but was told it wouldn't be good for the baby's digestive system? She ended up exclusively breastfeeding and just pumped for the bottles while she was in daycare.

Congratulations! :)
Lynsey
PS- and if you choose formula only, please don't let people tell you your child will end up "stupid" and "obese" later in life. Some of the things people have said to me are absurd. My child was strictly bottle fed from birth using formula and he cannot be any smarter or healthier for a 22 month old. There is absolutely nothing "wrong" with choosing formula. Just MY opinion, ladies.

Hi K.,
The most important thing I can tell you is that if you really want to nurse, make sure you latch him on often. If you start with the formula, it may be more difficult for him to want to nurse since taking the bottle is easier. When my son was born, he was in the special cares unit where they insisted on feeding formula. I went in every 3 hours to nurse only a few minutes just to make sure he would. Once we got home, he was fine with nursing.

Best,
S.

As long as your baby is ok with the formula you choose, there's no problem switching between. Tons of moms supplement! Nurse if/when you can, because it's so good for both of you. And use formula when you can't nurse or pump!

if you really want to breastfeed long term, i would definitely recommend you breastfeeding exclusively for at least the first 2 months or so to get your supply in place. then, if you really feel like you need to, you can introduce a little formula at a time. at least try it. im very sure its possible, but i personally dont know of anyone that started out with bottles and was able to truly maintain their breastmilk for any length of time. it puts you in a viscious cycle of never having quite enough, supplementing a bit more, so making even less, supplementing more, etc. but if you breastfeed pretty much exclusively for the first 2 mos, your supply should be pretty stable, thats about how long it takes for you both to really settle in. best of luck with your little boy :)

i ebf both my kids for over 3 years. for the oldest i went back to work when she was 7mo. i pumped in the am as soon as i woke up. then i got ready, got her ready and then bf her (my body was able to respond and make more milk for her). at work i pumped in the late morning and then again in mid-afternoon. i was able to send her to daycare with several bottles filled with the right amount of b-milk for her age and often some of it would come home with her. (i used Avent bottles and pumped right into them using adapters on the machine.) then i'd pick her up from dc in the early evening, and bf her as soon as we got home (altho she would have preferred a snack right in the car!). when she was very young she cluster fed in the evenings but pretty much slept through the night as a result. the cluster feeding was probably the hardest part. good luck.

Hi K.,

I did both the baby should be fine. :) When I came home they were some days I felt that he did not get enough to drink so I gave him formula too. When I went back to work I pumped at work and so depending on how I did at work he would have two-three bottles of breast milk, and sometimes two bottles of the powered fomula. When I picked him up after work I would give the milk to the sitter and she gave it to him the next day. So in all your baby should be fine. I did it for almost 1 year. Good Luck! :) P.S. They say the most important time for the baby to get the breast milk is the first 3 months. It helps developement of the brain cells. Just an FYI :)

Congrats on the upcoming birth of your son; all the best for the rest of your pregnancy! I have a 10-week-old son, and he's 90% breastfed, and in situations when we need to give a bottle, it's a bit of a struggle. Unless your baby has particular digestive issues, it shouldn't be a problem to give both formula and breast milk; I did this with my daughter too...for the first month, she drank both formula and breastmilk from a bottle, and then started latching on when she was about a month old, but was still supplemented with formula. My advice though is to try to get your baby used to a bottle before you go back to work so whoever's feeding him during the day doesn't struggle to get him to take it; feeding time will also be more pleasant for your son if he'll willingly take the bottle. And then just pump at work so you can have bottles of breastmilk too and not just formula. My milk production went down once I returned to work b/c I got busy during the day and my office didn't have a pumping-friendly place, so I didn't pump as often as I should have to keep my milk up. So if you can pump on a normal schedule as if you were actually feeding your baby, that will be to your advantage. I hope this helps!!
God Bless,
A. D

I did breastfeeding and formula from the beginning. I loved breastfeeding, but I went back to work, and I also wanted my husband to be able to feed my daughter too. In the hospital, sometimes they introduce a formula bottle to help the baby get started sucking and then move the baby to your breast. If you do it from the beginning, the baby will get used to it quickly. I was lucky and had no problems with my daughter wanting either the breast or the bottle more. I also spoke to my job and made sure that I had a private place that I could pump breastmilk before I got back. It worked out great.

I did both for my kids. I exclusively breastfed for the first 6 or so weeks (I took off almost 3 months with each of them) Then about a month before I went back to work I introduced the formula slowly (starting at about 1 bottle a day). Then I slowly weened my body back as well. So I was in no pain when I went back to work. I tried to pump but it was to difficult and I got almost nothing after a few weeks so I stopped that altogether. I continued to nurse my kids while I worked. But only wile I was with them. I stopped breastfeeding my daughter at 6 months (I don't think I ever produced enough milk for her) and my son at 9 mos (he got teeth and wouldn't stop biting me). Neither of my kids ahd a problem with it. They are both really healthy kids. I would have loved to been able to do it exclusively, but that just never worked out for me.

Of course you can do both. If you're going to do both from the start, then I would pick one time of day (or night) to offer the bottle and breastfeed the rest of the time. I think the best way to do it is to be consistent with what feedings you offer the bottle and which feedings you offer the breast, so that your milk supply is correct for how often and what times of day you're going to breastfeed.
Good luck. Ask a lactation consultant at the hospital about it to be sure you're doing it the best way.

Hi K., I did both with my first. I started out with the breast first, pumped in between feedings to get my milk up, then started introducing formula slowly after a few weeks. You can even mix both in the bottle until your little one gets used to the taste.

Based on my experience, I would nurse as often as possible during the six weeks of maternity leave and have Daddy or another care giver offer the bottle of formula once per day. You could increase the bottle feedings as you get closer to returning to work.

It is okay to mix and match. We strived for BM in my house as often as possible but sometimes due to my cycle or work-related stress, I was not producing enough during ym pumping sessions in the office. A bottle of formula never seemed to hurt her and she always welcomed me home and wanted to nurse immediately when I entered the house. She was also very "greedy" on the weekends and I think really nursed more often than necessary. Lol.

During the bottle feedings, be sure to pump and freeze that precious milk for furture use.

I am sure you will be able to find the right balance for you and your baby boy. Good luck!!

~C.