Supplementing Formula with breastfeeding

[Tara11]

Hello,
This is my first time on the message board, so I hope this goes ok.
Here is my question for anyone who has tried this system before:

I once read about a mom who had her husband give the newborn the night feed (10:00) with a bottle of formula. Every other feed throughout the day, she breastfed. This of course gave her a chance to sleep for a bit longer, and for the dad to have that quality time with the babe. It was recommended this routine start right from the hospital. Has anyone tried this before? I will be having my second baby the first week of December, and I have been thinking about trying it out.
Please advise if you have experience.

Many thanks, Tara

[HeatherC]

I didn't do that particular routine myself, but I did supplement with formula while breastfeeding.  However, I have met many women who do give a formula bottle during the night and breastfeed at all other times.

[GraceKellysmom]

Going to move this to the breastfeeding forum.  :wink:

IMHO, for the first few weeks you should aim to nurse once in the middle of the night, especially between 1am and 4am, this is when your prolactin levels are the highest. If your dh wanted to do a dreamfeed bottle, this is fine. You could even pump after your first morning feed for that bottle so you don't have to worry with formula.

[~*~Janelle~*~]

I too would highly advise feeding during the night, and pumping for any bottle feeds.  If you want to breastfeed for any length of time, you want to do everything possible to keep your supply up.  Some women make a ton of milk and all is well, but others find that dropping one feed will lower their production.  Even though the thought of sleeping MORE in the night with a newborn is a welcome one, it depends more on what your long term goals are.

[Aiden and Marlo's Mama]

Since I'm starting back to work in 1 1/2 weeks  :cry:  :cry:  :cry: I've been supplementing DD's daytime feeds with formula for the past week 1/2 (since she was 3 weeks).  Everything's going fine, except I don't have much fullness at all during the day - even though I feel them letdown a LOT (under strange circumstances but that's a different post) - and I have the fullness at night.  I don't plan to pump at work because I really can't afford to buy or rent a pump, nor do I have a place to do it, and as some have suggested to pump in the car I don't think I'd feel comfy trying to do that with a manual pump.  :oops: Anyhow - if you plan to breastfeed for a long time, I'd try to get as much of a supply as possible, but if you don't plan to do it for long then I don't see why you couldn't give a bottle of formula every now and then...