Introducing formula as well as breastfeeding

Hi there. I have a 4 and a half month old daughter, Sophia, and I am interested in introducing a bottle of formula once a day. At the start of this month I started her on solids. At the moment her feeds for a day consist of about 8 meals a day. Of these meals 7 are breastfeeds and 1 meal of solids at around 12-2pm when i give her about a teaspoon of puréed fruit/veg mixed with a teaspoon Raffertys Garden Organic Rice Cereal and add water to make a nice consistency.
I was thinking that I wanted to make one of her night feeds with formula to get her used to being formula feed when I go back to work. I don't want to give up breastfeeding so i will be working nightshift so she will only ever need 1-2 bottles while I'm not home.
I have brought Aptamil Gold to try as when she was born I had to top her up for a couple weeks with S26 and it gave her a sore tummy and constipation so I'm staying away from that.
Any suggestion or advice would be really appreciated.

Bianca

Personally I would rather express some milk and use that to feed in a bottle to get her use to drinking from a bottle, I don't have anything against formula but it will decrease your milk supply. You can always express some in the morning when there is usually a strong supply and you can also freeze it.

I didn't want to express, i used to express and feed it to Sophia in a bottle when she born and i dont have the patience for it anymore and i dont what to get my milk supply up more than it is as i have a HUGE supply. And Sophia feeding during the night is very irregular so I'm used to going 8hrs between a feed and then having to feed every 6hr then all of a sudden she goes back to feeding every 2hrs and I've never had a problem with a drop in my supply so that doesn't worry me.

Well I'd just give it to her on the feed you are planning to be at work for. Just offer it one night and see what she does, if she had top ups at birth she possibly will take it quite happily. I'd also rather express but understand your reasons for not wanting to.

Hi
I did see the Bellamys and was considering it. Do you know if they sell sachets for samples?? And Milk Savers? Clever idea!!!! Thank you for the help!!


Bianca

Just wanted to mention about milk savers, I found when I used them they tend to just collect foremilk not really any hindmilk so DS would drink it happily but then be hungry again very quickly.
Like pp says I would just start replacing her night feeds with a bottle of formula. It might reduce your supply a little bit but if you're giving formula at night you want a reduced supply anyway right?

Just wanted to point out - expressing wont increase your supply as you are still missing a feed when giving her the bottle. iykwim. So the amount you are producing wont change. You could express during the day once then from then on try expressing in the evening after you have given her yesterdays EBM bottle. You can also express at work at the times you would normally be feeding her then use that milk for the next night.
If you could possibly handle it, expressing would not be that hard to organise and you wouldn't have to worry about supply issues or preference issues that come from mixed feeding.

I work in a casino and I don't have anywhere to express while I'm there but buy the sounds of it the milk savers might be the idea while I'm a work!!!

The milk savers sound like a great idea! Are they in stores or online?

Last month I had to go on my internship, this ment that my husband took care of our 6 month old. To make this work we decided due to the stress of the situation we would give her 1 bottle while I was at school. Since coming off my internship she has wanted to continue with the bottle a day and my milk supply is fine. She likes 1 bottle in the middle of the day, 5 b/feeds and 3 meals a day. She is happy, gaining wieght and healthy. She knows the diffrence and loves them both.

I found it too difficult to express as there was not an approprate place to do so and then the worry of storage and transport. Formula was the safe alternative.

Your baby is still getting fed and you are able to continue b/f when you return to work. Good on you! It is great that you can continue with most of the feeds. I will be doing the same as I return to work next week.