Hi mums,
I’m seeking advise on how I feel about feeding my baby.
I’m blessed to be able to breastfeed my baby (DD 10 weeks currently). I have 2 children that I fully breastfeed for 12 months as I didn’t work. Time is ticking for me to go back to work and it’s making me so anxious.
I’ve never given any of my kids formula. I feel guilty at the thought of it.
My partner is a SAHD and is all for mix feeding because he wants to feed baby too. I’m trying to express but finding my supply isn’t enough for expressing and feeds as well.
I feel like a failure, I don’t know where to begin!
How do you cope with the guilt?
Is bottle feeding easier?
Where do I even start with formula?
Did you find your baby wasn’t interested in formula?
Any mums that mix feed, how do you manage it? Breastmilk at night and formula during the day? Or did you express and have baby drink from bottles? While you were home too?
Any help and advise is appreciated. Thanks mums
2 Replies
You'll probably need to express at work for comfort in my experience. I found I expressed enough for feeds when I was at work with my second as I had an electric double pump. With my first expressing was tiny amounts only and mix feeding was needed. Formula isn't evil. Your baby will be full and will get antibodies etc from you when you are feeding. Don't compare what you did previously. They were different situations and honestly, your genetics will influence how they develop way more than breastfeeding does
You need to do what works for you! My youngest was mixed fed for about two months while he was in the special care nursery after birth. He was tube fed, so the nurses had a formula they used to determine how much to feed him at each feed. Throughout the day and night (if I woke in the night) I would express as much as possible from both sides, because it was going to the hospital the containers had to have his hospital label added but also the date and time expressed, then I would take it in the hospital next time I went in. The nurses would then give him the EBM throughout the day until it ran out, then give him formula until I took more EBM in.
Offer bub the breast as normal, then try expressing from both sides. Perhaps contact the Australian breastfeeding association to see if it’s worth expressing between feeds or what you can do to increase your supply so you can express enough so dad can feed bub while you’re at work. Get some formula sachets as well, just in case you don’t leave enough EBM to get through the day. Tins need to be used within a month or so of being opened. At the end of the day no one but you and dad will know what bub was fed. There is no way to tell who was breast fed (or EBM) and who was formula fed. As long as bub is fed and growing, it really doesn’t matter.