bottle/breastfeeding?

does anyone breastfeed and bottle feed? i want to be able to leave the house and not worry about rushing home to feed my baby. Also when im in class or working.....does anyone do this? do you find it easy to do? Im not sure if im better off just starting on bottles right away ...with breastmilk of course. Opinions please

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

well, i heard youre not supposed to start too soon with bottles in the beginning if you want to EBF b/c you are establishing your supply and there could be nipple confusion too. i started pumping and giving bottles pretty early on like maybe 3-4 wks and had no problems. HOWEVER now at 10 wks i am having a problem. i definitely did not give my DD bottles as consistently as i should have b/c i was lazy and BFing is easier sometimes. she took the avent bottles with no problem though when i offered them until last week. she wants nothing to do with bottles and just want to BF! this is stressful b/c i have to go to work next week
i'm trying different nipples but no...i keep trying though. my advice would be just to start at some point and be somewhat consistent so she is truly used to the bottle and doesn't reject them.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

Posted by ME75

well, i heard youre not supposed to start too soon with bottles in the beginning if you want to EBF b/c you are establishing your supply and there could be nipple confusion too. i started pumping and giving bottles pretty early on like maybe 3-4 wks and had no problems. HOWEVER now at 10 wks i am having a problem. i definitely did not give my DD bottles as consistently as i should have b/c i was lazy and BFing is easier sometimes. she took the avent bottles with no problem though when i offered them until last week. she wants nothing to do with bottles and just want to BF! this is stressful b/c i have to go to work next week
i'm trying different nipples but no...i keep trying though. my advice would be just to start at some point and be somewhat consistent so she is truly used to the bottle and doesn't reject them.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

I did both, I did find it was not only easier while out of the house to give a bottle, it was necessary for me b/c I went back to work. I breastfed at night and in the morning.

I think it's doable, but I would suggest not introducing the bottle until at least 1 month I think, or at least until breastfeeding is established- it's easier to get milk out of the bottle so the baby may reject the breast. After that it may take some time testing different bottles to find one the baby likes.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

My daughter had a problem latching on at first so i was pumping every 2 hours for the first two weeks and giving her bottles. Then when my milk suply was good- i kept trying to get her to latch on- eventually she latched with nipple shields, but always took the avent bottles too. So i woudl only breastfeed her at night and for hte late night feedings and int he morning and all day she would get bottles wiht expressed milk since i tried to get out of the house as much as possible. the key to bottlefeeding breastmilk is to keep pumping every 3 hours just like a baby would feed. It's very time consuming- when i was home on maternity leave i felt like i got nothing else done- becasue i was bottle feeding her- then putting her to sleep then pumping then i would have to clean bottles, etc.

But now i am back to work and she is taking mostly bottles and nursing at night and in the morning- I was having problems with her latching on last week but she latched on this morning and hopefully will still nurse in the mornings. but even if she nurses I still pump after- jsut to make sure I store as much milk as possible. I usually pump at 5 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm and she nurses before bed and around 4 am

It's definately possibly to breast and bottle feed- it just takes lots of patience and time.

Good luck!

check out kellymom.com for tips

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

I did both. I went back to work when DD was 3 months. For her first year she never had formula, only breastmilk. She woudl take both the boob and the bottle with no problem.

I introduced the bottle around 3-4 weeks. We had no problems.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

I BF and I pump as well. I don't give her a bottle every day but I do give her a few every week. I try to pump for when we go to the pool for the morning so I don't have to go into a stall and feed her, for when we go out to a restaurant so if she is hungry I can feed her, if DH and I want to go out to dinner etc.

My ped told me to give her one bottle (BM or formula) starting at one week - I tried at 2 weeks but she spit it all up - so I waited until 4 1/2 weeks to start trying again and she is doing great - she took the bottle right away when I tried at that time and she has had no nipple confusion.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

We introduced the bottle around 4 wks also. My DS has no trouble switching back and forth so far. I went back to work when he was 11 wks old. I pump while at work for daycare feedings and BF when I am with him.

Pumping exclusively is a real PITA. I would try to combine pumping and BFing. When you BF there are no bottles to clean, no bottles to warm and nighttime feedings are so easy. Pumping doesn't only require that you clean the bottles, you also have to clean all of the pump parts. And generally, it is recommended that you pump for about 15-20 minutes every 3 hrs.

Re: bottle/breastfeeding?

We didn't introduce the bottle until DD was about 12 weeks old and it was hard! She was too established with just accepting the boob that making the adjustment was terrible. If you introduce the bottle between 4 and 6 weeks, I bet you'd do fine. My DD eventually accepted the bottle but it was touch and go for about a week. Now at 10 months.....Mommy is cut off and all she wants is the bottle