Combi feeding tips needed!

We combi fed my son and it worked great for us. We did a mix of breast, formula & pumped milk. My husband would always feed him the bottle at first so that was their special bond and I would obviously breast feed. Try and breast feed during the night while your milk is establishing (first 6 weeks) as the milk making hormone is produced over night PLUS it’s way easier to get a boob out in the night than it is to make a bottle up. I found a bottle of formula before bed had my son sleeping really well from early on but I’m told there is no evidence to support that but that’s just how it was for us so worth a try ! All the best mama x

I struggled to BF as my LO wouldn’t latch effectively or feed for long. I would feed on both breasts then top up with formula. Keep track of each feed for the first few weeks - time, amount etc. I also pumped but my supply wasn’t always enough to BF and pump. My LO is now 3 months and had formula in unit day and BF evening and night, it’s working well for us x

I pretty much did the same as Alice except towards the end of my BF journey, my boy preferred bottles so I just pumped instead of BF but it was due to a fast flow rather than any nipple confusion. I also sometimes mixed formula and expressed night milk into one bottle which we found worked really well - he was fuller on formula and also got melatonin from BM so he slept pretty well. Overnight I would just BF as it was just more convenient for me.

Thank you all 😊 I'm so pleased it can be done effectively. I've read mixed reviews about nipple confusion ect but I think this will be the best option for us as my husband can be involved too xx

Can anyone tell me what they're feeding schedule looks like?

@Rachel you do have to take some precautions but it can be done. Apparently nipple confusion is not really a thing, BUT baby can start to prefer the bottle because it tends to be easier (milk comes out faster), so they have to work less. This is why pace feeding is so important and use slowest flow teats and make the experience as similar to breastfeeding as possible (even latch the same, nose to nipple wait for baby to open wide rather than sticking the bottle in). In the early days you will probably need to hand express or pump while bottle is being given otherwise your body will drop production. We only gave one bottle at nighttime but the time varied which I actually believe that helped maintain my supply because my body couldn’t get used to any pattern. So that would be my recommendation.

I also recommend MAM bottles as these are flat like how a nipple goes !