Breastfeeding/Formula

Exclusively pumped for 3 months then combi fed for 1 month then went onto formula. No effects on growth at all when u switched he continued gaining weight well. It did help him go from 3 hourly wakes to 6 hourly but then we hit the regression etc and everything changed anyway. Supply took ages to go away I would say over a month. Never regretted stopping.

@Elena thank you x

Im still breastfeeding and my daughter is 2 and 1/4. It is a myth that overnight is easier if they have formula over breastmilk. My daughter was ebf she did 5 hours, woke for a feed then slept 5 hours at night from 6 weeks.

EBF for 6 weeks, then combi fed for 2/3 weeks then just switched to formula. The first night he had a bottle of formula was the first time he slept 10 straight hours. He slept through from that point forwards. I stopped due to my health and medication I was on meaning I could breastfeed for a few weeks, supply dropped and just didn’t have the time to try and get it back up. But for me personally my mental health improved when I switched to formula. I found breastfeeding incredibly overwhelming and overestimating

Breastfed my first until he was 2.5 years. He was a bad sleeper for the first few months but started to sleep through more after he was 1 and was sleeping through consistently by 18 months. My second baby is 8 months and I’ve no plans to switch to formula. He has been a better sleeper but still usually has at least one wake up

I breastfed until just recently my supply has been slowing down so much it’s been hard to keep up with demand. I breastfed for eight months and it was so hard since I only pump because my son would keep biting me really hard. We combo fed for two months and now we only do formula and it’s been great!

@Natalie hoping I will be able to breastfeed like you. 😍 Baby is EBF. currently 3 months. Baby used to sleep through the night but is now cluster feeding again so he wakes up quite often right now.

I have been telling people I hope I would be able to breastfeed until 2 y.o. People keep telling me I don’t need to do that. Just until 6 months is more than enough. I plan on going as long as I have enough milk to give my baby.

Breastfed my first til 11 months and then moved her onto cows milk. She’s never had formula, always 91st percentile weight. Slept through from 7 months. My supply stopped almost straight away but I was around 20 weeks pregnant. I knew I wanted to stop and have her weaned for turning 1 and starting nursery, so because I had that goal in mind I had no regrets

I’m still breastfeeding, my little girl is 1 in just under 2 weeks and I hope to continue. As mentioned, formula doesn’t mean better night sleep. We have a similar situation to Natalie, our lg started sleeping 6 hour stretches at 5 weeks and she slept for 12 hours not long after until now. I could count on one hand how many times she’s woken in the night since, 2 occasions being that she was hungry! It was her signalling she needed to up to that 3rd meal a day. If baby is hungry it can cause wakes and I think formula can be more filling if your supply is low which then leads people to think it’s the formula that’s helped sleep but really it’s just being full and satisfied? Either way sleep really is down to baby’s personality for the majority and you should do what works best for you

I still breastfeed my 2 year old and I’m due with my second baby next month. I plan to tandem feed. Breastfeeding certainly had its challenges for me and I’m not someone who loves doing it - but I keep going because I believe the longer I can breastfeed the better it is for my kids physical and emotional health. The only way it’s been sustainable to breastfeed this long has been to contact nap and safely bedshare at night. So I can get good sleep while my boy latches several times in the night.

I BF for 6ish weeks. Then started pumping and he was 100% express bottle fed. At ~3 months we started building a freezer stash and substituted 1 bottle of formula each night. By 6 months my supply was noticeably and consistently dropping. The less I could pump, the more formula he got. By the time we got to 8 months I was barely able to pump enough for even 1 feed/day despite pumping 4hrly from when I got up till I went to bed. It was starting to feel like my time and efforts weren’t worth it anymore, so I finally made the choice to stop pumping. I haven’t notice a difference in his growth. Nights haven’t changed due to feeds. I think my supply stopped fairly quickly. If I squeeze I can get a few drops out, but I’m not leaking overnight. Stopped because supply dropped. Id picked up a short term job (truck driver delivering lengths of steel tubing mostly) when bub was 3.5 months old and returned to my regular job (spray painter) at 6m pp. I wore wearable pumps in both jobs.

Mine is 2 months & pump so that both myself & partner can feed her. When we are out we use formula & takes it well. Doing formula when we are out is just easier on us.

We are almost to 7.5 months of EBF, no pumping, no bottles!

I still breastfeed my 2 year old and breastfeeding my 3 week old also x

I stopped after 2 months but I was combo feeding she wasn't gaining weight as quickly as she should she was also very sleepy on the boob so I felt like she wasn't drinking enough and she was also puking a lot doesn't matter if it was bottle or formula so that was also causing a problem with her weight gain she slept through the night all the time definitely don't regret stopping just wishing I was able to do it a little longer just cuz one can of formula is 62$

I ebf my daughter until she was 14 months, she never took to a bottle so never drank formula or expressed milk. I only stopped because we wanted to start IVF. She however has always been a really good sleeper and would sleep long stretches through the night from about 4 weeks old.

@Christiana I was considering using formula whilst out aswell. Have you done this from birth? Also did your baby not like it the first time?

@MercellaOur baby didn’t mind it all, she drank it the same as breastmilk but I’ll say lately she’s been getting picky about the temperature of formula, it has to be a little warm at least

@Jill the guidelines (WHO I think?) recommend until 2 :) I'm at a point where she only has a feed first thing in a morning and neither of us are showing signs of wanting to stop that so it'll continue. @Mercella The main thing I found impacted how well she slept feeding wise was if she fell asleep feeding then she'd sleep worse cos she would be looking for that to settle down in the night.

I breastfed until 10 months. By that point it had gone to one feed in the morning and one in the evening because he was eating a lot of solids. I got pregnant at 8 months pp and I struggled with my supply from about 6 weeks pregnant. My little boy also started biting me at the same time 😖 He was sleeping 11-8 from 8 months so it didn’t really change his sleep. I would’ve liked to carry on up to a year but the biting was upsetting both of us.

@Natalie I know it’s the WHO recommendation. But sometimes people just want to be in your business. Like rn my dad seems like he is insisting on me mix feeding. I told him that it’s my child and I decide on what I feed him and how I want to rise him.