in February 2025 Babies 🇬🇧

Feeding

I was exclusively breastfeeding my LO for the first couple of weeks, but was advised to introduce formula as she wasn't gaining weight. Since introducing it, life has been so much easier and I have been much less stressed about how much food she is getting. She is also gaining weight really well. I am still breastfeeding her from time to time but definitely more formula now. I am starting to feel so guilty about letting go of the breastfeeding. It was really affecting me mentally to not know if she was getting enough milk from me and the stress I was under was awful, so I definitely want to keep up formula, but I am feeling like a quitter on the breastfeeding side. I couldn't pump as I got so little (max 10ml, usually nothing) and I was getting in such a tizzy over it. I don't know what to do now, whether to push even harder with the breastfeeding or move to formula. I just don't have the confidence to know I am making the right decision!

Show your support

Hey! I totally understand the guilt, but your mental health is way more important than breastmilk vs formula!Looking after a newborn is more than enough to contend with, without putting yourself under huge pressure to breastfeed if it’s not working for you. I never planned to exclusively breastfeed but my milk didn’t ever fully come in and I started feeding formula from when my baby was about 5 days old and still breastfeed and hand express what I can on top, but it’s literally a ml here and there! Something that really helped me was my health visitor said that even a literal drop of breastmilk still gives your baby thousands of antibodies and goodness, so I’m seeing that tiny amount I can give as like a vitamin tablet on top of his formula 😅 Hope that helps a little bit 🥰

I started with breastfeeding my first but after I had an operation when he 8 weeks old I started combi feeding formula and breastfeeding. I gradually gave more formula than breast milk the older he got and I was quite stressed about it. As soon as he turned 1 he had cows milk and I wondered what I was so worried about and it soon all felt like a distant memory. With my newborn now I'm breastfeeding but am happy to give her formula at any point in the future and think I will start combi feeding as soon as I start to feel trapped by the breastfeeding again. Breastfeeding is really hard on mental health and it's best to do what's best for you. I did find with my first baby that a massive weight was lifted off me when I introduced formula but I did have a guilty feeling of giving up breastfeeding. At the end of the day formula made us all happier and I don't regret it

I will add that I always kept the morning breastfeed until he was 1, you could keep a certain number of breastfeeds and then give formula the other times of the day

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌