EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

I'm so upset, but I think i'm going to have to start supplementing with formula soon. Probably after my winter break, which would be Jan. BUT I might be working only part time for a while starting in Jan so I might not have to, but I want to be ready in case I do.

I just can't keep up with the 5x/day pumping sessions (3x at work). And I only have about 50 oz of frozen BM. I absolutely love BFing and won't give that up anytime soon, but the pumping i've just grown to HATE. I'm still willing to pump 2x/day at work and I nurse her in the morning and evening and bedtime.

DD will be 4 months old next week and has never had formula, so I have some questions. We go to the ped next week for her 4 month check up so i'm going to ask him also but wanted to get some advice...

1. If the ped says it's okay to start her on cereal at 4 months, will she then be eating less breastmilk? Or is cereal given on top of the breastmilk they are already drinking? (trying to avoid giving formula, if you can't tell lol)

2. How is she going to react to the formula... well I guess you couldn't know, but how did your DC react? Which formula did you use?

3. If she takes 4-5 oz of BM in a bottle, would she take the same amount of formula?

4. If I do 1 formula bottle per day, what time of day should it be given? (I nurse her in the morning and evening and before bed and she gets 3-4 bottles of BM with MIL during the day now.)

It's probably not that big a deal and I guess i'm being silly but humor me.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

I can't answer your questions specifically, but I wanted to offer some .

I felt some sadness when I stopped pumping and BF. But for me, I knew I was going to transition my DS to formula before I went back to work. I really loved that bonding time with him. It made me feel so good that I could take care of him that way.

To answer some of your questions:

Cereal - My DS started cereal at 3 mos because he was eating over 32 oz of formula a day, which was a lot. She said that once he starts cereal, he should take less formula. I would imagine the same would be true with breast milk.

Reaction to formula - He transistioned really well. He does get gassy and constipated at times, but our Ped lets us give him prune juice whenever he gets uncomfortable. However, as you know, every baby is different. We give him Similac Advance only b/c that's what they gave us in the hospital.

Quantity - the quantity should be the same, at least that's what my Ped told me when I transitioned my son to formula. He said that he might go a little longer between feedings once I switch to formula because breast milk is easier for them to digest and they get hungry again quicker.

When - I know a lot of moms supplemented with formula for the middle of the night feedings. Since she's sleeping through the night, maybe your MIL could give it to her as her first bottle after you leave for work?

You are NOT being silly!!

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

First of all pumping SUCKS so don't feel bad about wanting to supplement. Happy mommy = happy baby, always remember that

1. If the ped says it's okay to start her on cereal at 4 months, will she then be eating less breastmilk? Or is cereal given on top of the breastmilk they are already drinking? (trying to avoid giving formula, if you can't tell lol)

- Cereal should be given in addition to BM/formula. It's just used as practice for feeding. It has very little nutritional value other than iron and some vitamins. She may want to eat less, but it should not be a lot less. However, you can use the # of oz you used to make the cereal and subtract that from her daily total, if she finishes it all by spoon.



2. How is she going to react to the formula... well I guess you couldn't know, but how did your DC react? Which formula did you use?

- We started with regular Similac but that made DS gassy so we switched to Enfamil Gentlease. He was fine after that. It's all trial and error.


3. If she takes 4-5 oz of BM in a bottle, would she take the same amount of formula?

- Yes.

4. If I do 1 formula bottle per day, what time of day should it be given? (I nurse her in the morning and evening and before bed and she gets 3-4 bottles of BM with MIL during the day now.)

- That does not matter at all, but I would advise to start with it in the morning so that if she gets gassy and uncomfortable it goes away by the time she goes to bed, and you can work on finding the formula that works.

Don't think you're being silly at all. This is not as intuitive as you might think! It's a lot of trial and error and even then, you have to remember, every baby is different!

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Thanks for your responses! I'm hoping to make it until I go on break which is the 18th, then i'm home with her until Jan 4th and I MIGHT be working part-time starting then.

She gets gassy sometimes with BM so i'm worried about how formula will affect her. I guess it will just be trial and error like you said.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

You sound like me! When I was home on maternity leave, I wished I would have pumped more but it really would have been impossible b.c I was breastfeeding on demand. I didn’t have any sort of frozen bm stash for when I went back to work. and when I pumped I was always trying to play catch up. I came to terms that I had to supplement. i bought similac advance formula which is supposed to be most like breastmilk. Basically, I nurse in the morning, pump twice at work, nurse when I come home and nurse her to sleep. While I am away she will have one bottle of mommy’s milk (5 oz), and two bottles of formula. She is getting more breastmilk than formula, so that is fine by me. Plus I ebf her on the weekends. dd is 11 months and I want to continue bfing for the next 4-6 months! I hate pumping though! cant wait to end pumpin sessions!! Eventually, I will knock it down to one pump session while at work. I hope the nursing in the morning and evening will keep up my supply enough to continue for the next 4-6 months ( for morning and evening feedings only) . she will be starting whole milk soon so I am excited to not buy formula anymore!!

Before you start cereal I would try out different formulas to make sure you find the right one for your dd. I know rice cereal made my dd a bit gassy and I learned through LIF that it is very common. A lot of people start with rice and move to oatmeal cereal shortly afterwards.
Your dd will not take less breastmilk,don’t worry!! I nurse in the morning, give her cereal afterwards. She drinks plenty of milk- and that is the way it should be! she is still in the phase where milk provides the most nutrition.

Good luck!

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Because of a medical issue I had to go cold turkey and put DS on formula with no transition from BM to formula at 4.5 months. I pumped and dumped for 1 week.

I was pumping about 32 oz per day (in addition to nursing twice a day!) to keep up with DS. DH thought that the "medical issue" was really a blessing for me to start supplementing.

I resumed BFing to twice a day and supplementing the day feeding. I will tell you that my supply drastically dropped and eventually at 6 months I barely had any milk left and could not BF anymore.

1. If the ped says it's okay to start her on cereal at 4 months, will she then be eating less breastmilk? Or is cereal given on top of the breastmilk they are already drinking? (trying to avoid giving formula, if you can't tell lol)

Cereal is on top of the milk per day.

2. How is she going to react to the formula... well I guess you couldn't know, but how did your DC react? Which formula did you use?

Ped said to start with the basic one. Then if it does not work, to switch. My point is, unless you know DD has issue with milk allergies, go to a regular formula. Don't start with Soy!

I had similac samples. The blue cans. I used those and that worked for us.

3. If she takes 4-5 oz of BM in a bottle, would she take the same amount of formula?

yes.

4. If I do 1 formula bottle per day, what time of day should it be given? (I nurse her in the morning and evening and before bed and she gets 3-4 bottles of BM with MIL during the day now.)

Start her on with the 2nd feeding of the day (like the feeding after your BF her). Like in the morning. That way she has time to digest it and see if she tolerates it.

ETA: I would not start both cereal and formula at the same time. You need her digestive system to adapt to either one. So do the formula first since she is still young. Then if she is fine with it, add the cereal. That way if she is gassy, it will be easier to pin point what it is. The cereal or the formula.

Message edited 12/3/2009 5:59:24 PM.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Message edited 12/3/2009 8:18:55 PM.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

I've always supplemented with 1 bottle of formula a day. They get the bottle at night, right before bedtime.

As for the solids, I now nurse about every 4 hours instead of every 3. The breastmilk should be part of their meal.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

I started supplementing around 4 months exactly and she was great taking the formula. I tried Nestle Goodstart Gentle plus and we never had any problems.
I'm pretty sure she took drank the same amount even when we started cereal.
I dont think it makes a big difference when you give the bottle of formula, whatever works, I would give it at different times.
And don't beat yourself up, I was so upset about supplementing but its probably the best thing I did. I now nurse 2/3 times a day and I am so much more sane and rarely ever pump b/c I freakin hate it so much!!

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Thank you all so much!!! I'm totally bookmarking this post.

I guess we all feel the same way about pumping! I don't think i'd mind it if I didn't have to do it so much each day. And whatever I do (eat oatmeal, drink mothers milk tea) my supply doesn't really get any better... and DD is starting to eat more than I can pump in a day!

I'm feeling better about supplementing from reading your replies but hoping I can wait until January to start, when she's about 5 months.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

I exclusively pumped fro both my boys until 12 weeks and then just for Ronan until he was 6 months. My supply severely dipped at 5 mos PP since I got AF and also I didn't have to pump as often. I started him on Good Start and he had no issues.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Jess, I've had to supplement with Luce from the beginning.

I pump at least 8 times a day and put him on the boob at least once in the evening.

each and every one of his bottles is a mix of breast milk and formula. he almost never has a pure formula bottle. but whenever i had enough BM, i'll give him a full bottle of that.

for some reason, I like that he has BM at every feeding, rather than split up.

he also is almost never constipated..I think maybe once he was. we had him on regular enfamil and then switched to Gentlease.

it costs about the same and they say Gentlease is most similar to breast milk, so maybe just start with that....it might make the transition even easier for her.

Re: EBF moms who started supplementing with formula around 4-6 months, I have a few questions...

Thanks! I was actually just reading that enfamil lipil and gentlease are "closest to breastmilk" - whatever that means.

Posted by Ophelia

I pump at least 8 times a day and put him on the boob at least once in the evening.