Combi feeding

I started doing something similar to this and eventually my baby was no longer interested in the boob because she was getting milk far easier from bottle ☹️ just something to consider xx

A friend told me that's what they were doing for the first few weeks. They have a 4month old. The one bottle of formula at night got them some sleep! We are now taking this tactic.

Yea there’s hardly any info on combo-feeding but I think what you’re doing seems reasonable..I usually do one formula feed right before bedtime but when she wakes up in the night I give her breast milk. Sometimes when she’s very hungry during the day and not settling, I would offer her a formula feed after offering the breast a couple times. And if she takes formula during the day I avoid giving it to her at night. When we are outside and travelling I try to limit to around 2 formula feeds but have also gone up to 3. Ive set 3 as the maximum formula feeds she takes in a day when/if needed…just so that in a typical day she takes about 6/7 times breastmilk and 1/2 times formula. My baby is almost 6 weeks old for reference

I’m mixing breastfeeding and expressing so I can’t comment on the combo feeding but one tip if your baby does become less interested in the boob are nipple shields. Mine became less interested in the boob but I have mam bottles and I got some mam nipple shields and she now takes the breast again just fine. Also I found that bottle feed ruined her latch to the nipple shields also save my nipples now. X

@Anisha yeah it’s a good point, need to keep offering the boob as well I think

@Ayesha good way to think about it, setting formula feeds at 3 per 24 hours

I don’t think BF is supposed to hurt nipples. I don’t really feel anything

Yes you can do that! A good tip I got was do every 2nd feed on breast / FF, which I’ll be doing this 3rd time. And yes it’s hard to find info on combi! I was hospitalised for 5 days from breastfeeding and had 2 months farther of complications from BFing after my 2nd. All the best! X

I did this too because I found the pain excruciating and also allowed mg husband to help out. I did 1-2 formulas a day, a few pumped bottles and a few breastfeeds. By month 3 the pain suddenly went and around the same time he decided he no longer wanted the bottle so we are now ebf. I don’t miss sterilising all the bottles and pump parts!

Invest in silver nipple cups to wear in between feeds. So good for healing.

@Harriet that’s interesting! I’ve heard the pain suddenly goes and I really hope that happens for us as I don’t want to go fully formula and would also like to stop sterilising all the time 🙃

We do this because her appetite suddenly increased and I'm not expressing enough for her! Her latch isn't great so we use nipple shields and she breastfeeds for about 3 feeds during the day but only for about on average 15 minutes before she falls asleep. We then finish her off with a bottle of expressed breastmilk or formula. Just now she's at about 2 formula a day, 1 during the night and 1 during the day. I'm hoping my supply increases to reduce this but it works for us just now! With regards to supply, I was advised to express every 3 hours for 20minutes, even if I dry up after less time expressing as it stimulates the breast to produce more. I don't so every 3 hours during the night anymore as it was too much - I do just before bed, at 3am and at around 7 depending on her feeds