Advice needed on combi feeding

I was exclusively expressing my (c section) son until about 6 days ago when we mixed in some formula- reason being, I couldn’t keep up with his feeding increase and he was being sick a lot from the breast milk. With the breast milk, he wasn’t as settled and would spit up a lot. We were also given wrong advice at our 5 day checkup and told to up his feeds by 30ml in one hit (we’ve since stopped this due to overfeeding). He’s been in just formula now for 2 days and is doing great. He’s up over his birth weight, settling well and doing stints of mainly 3hrs at a time. I’m torn whether to give breastmilk another try or just move over to solely formula. It’s a very emotional decision as I want him to have my breast milk but can’t see him upset, be sick and not settle. Ive also read up that he may have been getting more fore milk than hind milk which could have also contributed. Thoughts and advice please?

Show your support

My situation was different to yours but I had an emergency c-section, initially tried breast feeding and then just expressing but physically was so exhausted. We now just formula feed and our little one is thriving, I initially had some guilt over not breast feeding however when I attempted expressing I knew I couldn’t keep it up. I know this isn’t exactly what you asked but I now know I made the right decision for both of us 😊

I went to a lactation consultant today and I’ve had similar problems with oversupply and my LO not being able to keep up/reflux and being super gassy and unsettled due to probably getting more fore milk than hind milk (fore milk has more sugar and less fat and makes baby more gassy). I’ve been advised to hand express for comfort on engorged boobs and then latch him on, taking regular breaks and burping in between (takes basically 40 mins to do this). I’ve been advised 5 peppermint teas a day for the over-supply/engorgement, cold compress in between feeds, xx We’ll see how it goes

If you want to breastfeed then you could combi feed, maybe breastfeed in the daytime then in the evening switch to bottles so baby less likely to be refluxy. Breastfeeding has many amazing benefits for both you and baby, but ultimately it has to be something you really want. The beginning stretch is often challenging, in the longer run it is usually easier but the first few weeks not so much. Babies go through many phases and you always have to make sacrifices somewhere. Formula fed babies often sleep longer stretches as it takes longer to digest, that's quite normal. Personally I think the benefits of breastfeeding are too good to miss out on but it's very much a personal belief and choice. You gotta do what feels right for you.

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌