Advice on bottlefeeding please! (to complement/assist breastfeeding)

[supergolden88]

My son is four months and a good size - 75 centile consistently.

I have been trying to space out his daytime feeds in order to improve his nightime sleeping. I also have quite a bit of work on and will be employing a nanny 2 days a week as of tomorrow (fingers crossed!). For these and other reasons I have been trying to give him a bottle with every feed this week (with EBM or formula or mix of the two) hoping to eventually have him take a full feed from the bottle. Funnily enough when the bottle contains just breast milk he takes mucg less than when it contains formula or a mix.

Up till now he used to refuse the bottle and only take a maximum of 60ml but recently he started taking it more - but only in his bouncy chair. If he is hungry and the timing is right he may take up to 120-140ml. Usually he does this in one go and will then refuse to take it again. I then usually offer him the breast and he will breastfeed for a bit.

The timings for the feeds are

* between 7/8am breastfeeding. Not very hungry.

* 11am-12am bottle then boob. Today he took 140ml then refused any more. Did not breastfeed much either.

* around 3pm - usually he takes very little here from either bottle or boob. Yesterday he almost refused this one completely

* around 6pm bottle (around 140ml if all's well) and then breastfeeding from 7pm till bedtime

* he will then wake between 11-12am and either take very little from a bottle or breastfeed. He has done nights where he slept from 8pm-3.30 am and others where he woke up every two hours (last night - awful).

* usually another wake up around 3/4am breastfeeding

I just read the formula recommendation is for 210ml for each feed and 5 feeds a day at four months. He takes nowhere near that much from a bottle and I cannot believe he manages that much breastfeeding as he usually only feeds for a few minutes and my supply is not overabundant.

My questions are - do your babies take that much per feed from a bottle? How long do you offer them the bottle for?

If they take less are they hungrier later on? Should I just forget about the amount and go with the flow?

I would like to be able to leave the nanny with a bottle and let them get on with it without having to top up with breastfeeding. And while I want to continue breastfeeding for a couple more months at least I am too exhausted to continue for a full year (which I did with my daughter. She was exclusively breastfed for 9 months only managed to take the bottle then).

[Saffron]

supergolden88 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Funnily enough when the bottle

> contains just breast milk he takes mucg less than

> when it contains formula or a mix.

>

> I just read the formula recommendation is for

> 210ml for each feed and 5 feeds a day at four

> months. He takes nowhere near that much from a

> bottle and I cannot believe he manages that much

> breastfeeding

Breastmilk is generally more nutrient/Calorie dense than formula milk. It would make sense that he would be satisfied with less breastmilk compared to formula.

We started offering Little Saff a few regular bottles of formula milk around 6 months, and I was never sure how much to offer either. Sometimes she would glug it in one. Sometimes she would prefer the breast instead. She is generally a 'go with the flow' baby, so in the end that's what we did.

xx

[Fuschia]

Bf babies take a consistent amount, think it's approx 25oz in 24h and it doesn't increase with age

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

That would be approx 5oz per feed...

My baby takes a bottle of ebm fairly happily but usually 3oz (he is 3m) occasionally 4oz. He feeds every 1.5h hour around the clock atm (!) but I vowed I wouldn;t complain if he EVER bf properly after out tongue tie problems.

[supergolden88]

I did not mean he took less EBM because he was satisfied with less. Rather he took less because he realised - wait a minute I get that from a boob!

Or maybe it was the timing. I am so tired I don't know much anymore!

[Saffron]

supergolden88 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I did not mean he took less EBM because he was

> satisfied with less. Rather he took less because

> he realised - wait a minute I get that from a

> boob!

>

We had that too sometimes with Little Saff, but only if it was me giving her the bottle. She was quite happy to have a bottle Daddy. She once had 12 oz of EBM in 3 hours! While I was out late one afternoon, Little Saff was grumpy, so hubby kept giving her milk until she was swimming in it. I think that was around 5 months.

Sorry that's not more helpful. I guess every baby is different. And if you're mixing breast and bottle feeds, it's tough to know how much is enough sometimes. About 5 oz per feed sounds pretty reasonable to me. Think about it in terms of how much liquid milk your body could produce at a given interval.

xx

[KateW]

I switched our daughter (now nearly 18 weeks old) to formula over a period of about 2 weeks (as a result of post natal depression and my milk quality and quantity dropping). At first I swapped her 2.30pm feed and did this for a week. She would guzzle 2 and a half ounces then would pull off the bottle crying and I thought that meant she'd had enough as I couldn't get her to take more. Then one day I just persisted a bit longer and gave her really good windings (she burped each time) and she went back on the bottle despite the tears, and managed to take 5 ounces. After that I switched one feed per day (she's on a four hour feed routine) and haven't looked back! She is quite petite and has been just below the 9th centile since she was born but to give you an idea, this is what she's currently taking:

7am: 5-6 ounces

10.30am: 6 and a half ounces

12pm: 2 ounces (just before her lunchtime nap)

2.30pm: 5-6 ounces

6.30pm: 8 ounces (she guzzles this feed!)

11pm: 5 ounces

(she then wakes between 4.30-6am when I split the 7am feed)

She is now much more efficient at feeding and takes on average 20 minutes. I gave her EBM for one feed per day from when she was 4 weeks old so she would get used to the bottle. Some days she takes a bit less per feed but is always hungry and feeds well at 6.30pm. If she has less at one feed, chances are she'll be hungry for then next one and takes a full feed then. If my daughter cries during a feed it means she needs winding and once she has burped she usually goes straight back on no fuss. If she's nearing the end of the bottle and cries then but doesn't go back on after winding then that means she's had enough. I don't worry about this now, some days she's hungrier than others just like us I guess. Hope that helps.

[supergolden88]

Thanks Kate - I dont think burping is the issue with my baby although I do burp him if I think he needs it. It's all in the timing. If he is too stressed and crying he refuses it. If he is sleepy but not too sleepy he usually feeds well from a bottle.

The breakdown of the amounts is very interesting - my son never takes more than 5 ounces from a bottle (at least not so far). Today was his first day with a nanny and he took even less (I was with them as well). He was very unsettled all day - new person around and he is teething and not sleeping well (or at all).

It may be he doesn't take more from the bottle because he knows the boob option is there for him. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I really would like to keep breastfeeding but have him take some bottle feeds every day. I keep expressing but it is really hard to see the breastmilk wasted - usually it's when I decide to use all the EBM that he is being very difficult and having none of it!

[Fuschia]

Even at 15m, which is when I stopped expressing and switched to cows milk for daytimes if I wasn't about, my twins never took more than 5oz ebm at a time.

[KateW]

It's really only in the last 2 weeks that my little girl has started feeding well from the bottle; it has taken a lot of practice from us both so I would hang in there. It's not as easy as I thought it would be! My husband is now home after being overseas since she was born and she's not very happy to take her bottle from him yet; she cries and pulls away then when I take over she's fine. It'll take time I know, but he's able to give her more and more each day so we'll just see how it goes. I honestly never thought she'd take more than 3 ounces in a feed and remember being amazed when she took 5oz. Now she guzzles 8oz before bed and I'm sure she'd eat more if I offered it to her but I don't want to overload her little tum. I never managed to express more than 5 oz in one go so like you, she never had more than 5oz EBM. Do you feed her when there are no distractions? I was at an NCT meet-up this afternoon and my daughter was completed distracted by the other babes that it was a real battle to get her to take her feed. I find that being quiet with few ditractions helps her to have a good feed.

[supergolden88]

I just managed to express 8oz. I doubt he will take any at this rate. He had an awful night of constant wake ups. I have had no sleep in months. I am really getting desperate.