Topping up with formula?
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Category: Have A Baby?
Forum Name: First baby? Second or more?
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Topic: Topping up with formula?
Posted By: UpsyDaisy
Subject: Topping up with formula?
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 5:23pm
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I am considering giving a formula feed to my twins as they are having slow weight gain and plunket beginning to get worried about the wee girl in particular.
Feel like I have given bf my all and seem to spend all day doing it and supply/weight gain a constant worry for me. I have tried lots of things they think my supply is okay but that she is only getting the foremilk... I have tried lots of skin to skin, 3hourly feeding (which I found to hard to sustain with two) also she doesn't seem that hungry if I wake her that early. Ilysa started small is 3rd percentile for weight, height, head etc she was following their growth chart curve fine but today for the first time she has dropped down a bit which she can't really afford to do... DH really wanted me to keep bf and i did also but when he came home at lunch and I was so upset again he suggest that we give them one feed of formula a day. We've bought the formula now and the lactation consultant said it was up to me her only point was that its supply and demand and may be a slippery slope to formula bottle feeding (which I don't want to do). i express once a day and get enough for a feed for 1 baby so can mix some of that with the formula or give one formula one day and ebm the next. I'm wondering if others think supplementing some formula resulted in them ending up formula feeding their babies more and more? |
Replies:
Posted By: kebakat
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 5:31pm
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we started a bottle at night as the last feed of the night that dh could give at like a month old or so. it started out as ebm but then i thought why not just use formula for that cause it saves on me having to pump. its fantastic as a break!
for us it wasnt what resulted in me giving up breastfeeding. i did that at 3 months. i discovered that daniels silent reflux didn't play as much havoc on him after that formula feed as opposed to my breast milk. worked out it was dairy in my diet making it worse but i didnt wanna mess with my diet too much cause i'm a vego. when daniel would be horrible with his reflux id give him formula and it was a god send, thats what made me give up breastfeeding, it wasnt the bottle/formula part. |
Posted By: monikah
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 6:29pm
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i had the same thing with the formula/reflux thing but i had supply issues despite meds, homeopathic, herbal stuff etc...
i reckon it could have been possible to keep up the BF but my supply was so crap once i started formula i found it so much easier. i was topping up after every feed and expressing though so it was a hell of a process and so time consuming. if you have the mental power and really wanna BF i reckon it will be fine as a top up just express while DH does the feed or something so your supply doesnt decrease ------------- 
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Posted By: Raspberryjam
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 8:40pm
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It is a slippery slope yes for sure - my girl was tiny and the more bottle she got the less nipple she wanted
I would take her to a GP and get a medical done and medical advice on her weight gain because she is in fact gaining weight - albeit slow - but gaining none the less Sorry I have little faith in Plunket when it comes to not text book births / babies ------------- http://lilypie.com] 
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Posted By: Bizzy
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 8:49pm
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the problem with plunket and the weight charts is that they are not based on fully breastfed babies, who do not gain as much as fast as formula fed babies.... ------------- http://www.myfitnesspal.com/weight-loss-ticker"> 
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Posted By: Jelly
Date Posted: 18 June 2010 at 11:30pm
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Ignore the charts, how do they look? Are they happy and healthy? Are YOU happy and healthy? And also about the charts, do they have a separate chart for multiples as they would have been born smaller than a singleton anyway?
I wish every day that I could go back in time to tell my midwife where to shove her formula. From 4 days old C was having 1 bottle a day, by 8 days it was 2 and now he is basically a fully FF baby. He does still have booby, but he always needs a bottle afterwards because I just don't make enough milk for him. It was definitely a slippery slope for us, and I will NOT be introducing formula next time unless DP and I believe it is required. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  
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Posted By: mumtooboys
Date Posted: 19 June 2010 at 8:50am
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It did for us and DS1, though it did take a while. The top ups started 'small' when he was 4 weeks old, but within weeks were significantly larger than they were and he was on formula full-time during the day at 4.5 months. This was NOT my intention when I was basically forced into topping him up in the first place because he was gaining so slowly. Wish I had listened to my gut. Looking back now, nearly 7 years later the poor boy had horrible reflux (could spew with the best of them) and colic for 3 months....no wonder the poor wee thing was having a hard time.
Then DS2 was born and though he was larger at birth, he followed a similar weight gain trend as his brother and well....I refused to listen to Plunket about 'fattening him up" and looked at HIM. I then refused to take him for weigh ins because despite me explaining that I was fully ff as a baby and didn't weigh alot and find it almost impossible to gain weight......all she cared about was that he wasn't gaining enough according to her. DS1, who was 'small' as a baby is now at the top of the charts for height and weight for his age, DS2 who was off the bottom of the Plunket charts (but interestingly never off the height for weight WHO bf charts) for more than 8 months is now on the 50th centile for height/weight his age. Considering we talk about how 'fat' our population is becoming, when we see babies who don't weigh that much that is seen as worse somehow than if they were 'fatter'. Weighing less doesn't necessarily mean that they aren't healthy or that something is wrong.........just as them weighing more doesn't mean they are healthy and that something isn't wrong. Have a look at http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/growth/index.html - Kellymom , they are a great source of information about what is normal and things you can try and do to boost weight gain etc. Hang in there, you're doing a great job and do what you feel is right for you and your family not what anyone else things you should do. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: tiptoes
Date Posted: 19 June 2010 at 12:41pm
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One feed at night was working really well with us and didn't cause any problems but when I thought he wasn't gaining enough and did top ups really rapidly the top ups got bigger and bigger and before I knew it he was refusing to be breastfed and I was really disappointed. After I ended up giving in and switching to formula, I tried again a few days later just in case and couldn't get him even near me.
So one formula a day is probably going to be completely fine, don't mix the EBM and formula though. Just do EBM for one and formula for the other and switch the next day. ------------- http://alterna-tickers.com">  
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Posted By: bext1
Date Posted: 19 June 2010 at 1:36pm
we started Luke and Zavier on a formula bottle at night and they still continued to BF during the rest of the time up to 10 months, so I would say why not give it a shot? They slept through the whole night too once they started having the bottle as the night feed.  ------------- 
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Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 19 June 2010 at 9:58pm
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Took ages to get Ty to take a bottle and then it had to be formula coz he refused EBM. I really needed the break coz I'm high risk for PND and I was really tired but I'm really gutted now coz its got to the point where he needs a top-up every feed except his 7am one.
If you decide to topup be tough about when you give them that bottle. I wasn't firm enough and my DP, in his attempts to be helpful and supportive (hes a doll  ) gave Ty a bottle for every feed he could get away with and since I was napping alot he wouldn't wake me up. Kept me from getting PND but its a slog now to get my milk back up coz I desperately want to keep BFing.-------------   
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Posted By: UpsyDaisy
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 7:52am
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Thinking about my wee girls weight gain I am going to see how the next couple of weeks go. She was born 2.3kg and now at 10 weeks is 3.72. Twice now she can gain really well one week then the next just 40g. I think I just need to be really careful that she gets the hind milk and get used to that both are slow feeders. She doesn't act any different in the weeks she gains well and the weeks she doesn't. Last night DH gave our boy a bottle and I gave her both sides. She is not all that keen on the bottle at the moment where he takes the bottle really well. He settled well after the bottle and so did she after both sides (normally can only get one!) so think maybe mixing it up a bit will help stop any preference. The night before they both had some formula and it made settling them really easy it was fantastic. I need them to be full and have a good sleep at night and am thinking that if only using a small ammount of formula that can get away with it not affecting supply to much. I just don't have enough time to express more than once a day, I will have to be tough with my DH too, he tends to think the cause of any unsettled baby is must be hungry! and wanting to help out to give them a bottle. I have told him we can't give them more than one bottle of either emb or formula a day. |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 8:46am
Aren't SO's so sweet but sometimes so misguided in their attempts to help out 
I hope you get it sorted hun!! A full baby is a happy baby and having 2 of them is an added challenge. Glad you've got an idea of what may work - FX for smooth sailing!! -------------
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Posted By: littlestar
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 10:30am
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You need to do whats right for you and your bubs. If that means having a FF then thats whats right. I think you are amazing for BF twins, it would certainly be a challenge. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: Raspberryjam
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 11:23am
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Sounds like you are working through how it feels for you, which is a big thing, I agree that do what works for you and your a star for feeding two at a time
Having huge gains one week and not the other is normal from my point of view, so I think your doing a fab job and you should continue to follow your instincts ------------- http://lilypie.com]
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Posted By: rorylex
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 1:28pm
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i am having the same problem with my son who is 20wks today, he hasnt put on much weight since 8wks, b4 that he was fine, i held out giving him any top ups as his lack of weight gain wasnt picked up til after 12wks. he seemed perfectly fine he was well hydrated so supply wasnt to blame, he had blood tests which showed nothing, only thing i can think of is he doesnt stay on very long, i think he is refusing the hindmilk though he hasnt a problem with foremilk nor the formula top ups. i am still doing both breast and bottle though im a little worried about supply now so looks like ill be pulling the supplemental system out,
if its an option try the nursing system i know that with twins it might not be so simple with the extra set of hands you have to fight off (the tubes become a magnet to baby hands), it will allow you to feed your babies extra calories through the formula but still maintaining supply. ------------- Mummy to 4 boys Samuel - 18.6.05 Rory - 15.7.06 Mason - 13.06.08 Emmett - 24.01.10 Baby #5 - cooking |
Posted By: mumtooboys
Date Posted: 20 June 2010 at 9:11pm
Are they being weighed every week? If they are I would stop doing that. We did that with DS1 and it creates a huge amount of stress on everyone which won't help. I mean seriously, how many adults do you think gain weight every week or are expected to, yet babies are?  DS2 I refused to have weighed any more than once a month, and this was even when he wasn't gaining 'well'. "Hindmilk' is available to the baby once let-down is achieved so if you are getting let-down then you should be okay. I hate the 'foremilk/hindmilk' business because it implies that one is 'bad' and the other 'good', when in fact it's all just milk.
I used the growth calculator from Kellymom with the weights you gave; the low end of average weekly weight gain for a bf baby her age is 155gms a week, she has put on an average of 143gm a week which is a difference of 12 gms a week and way better than DS2 was doing as between birth and 9 weeks he was averaging a 'measly' 91 gms a week which is a massive difference of 64gms a week . Keep doing what you feel is right...but just wanted people to show that actually it's not as 'bad' as it might appear at first glance. ------------- http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: mammaE
Date Posted: 29 June 2010 at 4:00pm
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I started toping DD up with formula when she was about 6wks as she was very slow puting on weight, only about 150gm above her birth weight.
Only one bottle at night time and I always BF first. I also did everything I possibly could to boost my milk supply. At about 3 months she was on two bottles a day still BF before bottle. Over time my milk supply has dropped but she is 1 year old today and I'm still BF. Good luck! You are doing a great job feeding two, must be very hard work. |