breat and bottle/formula??

[lochness]

Hi everyone
sorry didnt know when forum to put this in and probably been asked before..but...
i am due with bubs on the weekend - still just waiting waiting..but
I am think i would like to try and breast feed for a little while if i can, but my question is, has anyone supplemented 1 or 2 feeds a day with formula?
Is this possible?
Good or bad for bub?
Good or bad for me/boobs?

Anyways comments?
Thanks

[Tam-I-Am]

Hi there, and congratulations on your pregnancy :)

A lot of people will tell you that they supplemented with formula just fine, and their babies are fine and they were fine and it's all fine - and that's probably true, FOR THEM - but for many other people, just 1 bottle of formula can be disastrous.

You might like to read this article called 'Just One Bottle Won't Hurt - Will It? (http://www.health-e-learning.com/articles/JustOneBottle.pdf)", it's a wellspring of information about how supplementing a baby with formula changes their gut flora - for up to 6 weeks, if it's only a single bottle. Given that our gut flora is essential to our health, that has far reaching implications.

Worse than the gut flora is that every feed your baby DOESN'T take from the breast, is milk that your breast doesn't make to reproduce. In the early days in particular, this can be have really disastrous effects on your milk supply. Often supplementing with formula is a slippery slope to full formula feeding, as your supply dwindles.

It's common for breastfed babies to settle less well than formula fed babies, for the simple fact that breastmilk is so easily digested, and so perfect for them, that they need feeding often. Often formula fed babies sleep better, and many formula proponents will point to that as a good thing - but biologically speaking, it's not a good thing at all, nor a biologically NORMAL thing. What happens is that because formula is SO difficult for a baby to digest, it takes up a lot of their energy (energy that would otherwise be used for growth and the development of their brain and other vital bodily functions and organs), and causes them to sleep to recoup the lost energy. Physiologically, it is normal and healthy for breastfed babies to feed frequently.

Sometimes every mum needs a break - but it's really important that, in the first 6 - 12 weeks in particular (when your supply is establishing) that the baby is offered the breast upon demand, so that your breasts get the right messages about how much and what kinds of milk to produce. Everytime your baby has contact with the breast, their saliva interacts in a fundamental way with your breasts, and tells your breasts exactly what they need, how much, and when. No formula can ever come CLOSE to replicating that (no matter what they claim!). If you need a break, expressing some breastmilk and cup feeding (so as to avoid breast/bottle confusion) is a viable option for a lot of women.

And finally, in conclusion - here is a list of 101 reasons to breastfeed your baby. (http://www.promom.org/101/index.html) It's awesome!

Good luck with for a beautiful future and breastfeeding relationship with your bubba!

[Opinionated]

Excellent post Tam.

[BabyPaparazzi]

Excellent advice :thumbsup:.

I found in the first say 2 months that when I had to skip a feed, which was only a couple of times a week while I was at uni, that more poor boobies suffered.

I had people telling me to just use formula (I think to make it easier on her carers) but I believed that expressing her milk was best, for her and my overloaded boobies. :D