Beginning to Supplement Q

73jewels

Hi - 

I am very new to formula feeding and hope you guys can help me get the hang of it.  My son is a little over 8 months old and until this past Saturday he has only had Breast milk (and solids).  I am having trouble getting enough pumped milk and decided it was time to start Supplementing.  I had a bunch of different samples I had gotten over the past months and figured I would try those first.  I started on Saturday with the Ready made bottles that are "made for supplementing".  My son (who will normally drink a bottle of pumped milk with NO issues) HATED it.  Barely drank an ounce and complained the whole time.   Sunday I made him a small (2 oz) bottle with the powdered formula (no special type) and he drank it fine.  So I made him 1 bottle to send to day care today from that same powder.

My question is twofold: 

1) Has anyone slowly eased to formula from Breast milk, and if so what formula have you had the most success with?

2) My son (who normally wakes up 1 time in the night, eats, and falls right back to sleep), has been up both Saturday and Sunday nights, numerous times (4 or 5), and SCREAMING his little head off.  Do you think this could be a reaction to the formula (like maybe he needs sensitive or something?), or just a coincidence?  (He is teething, so it could be that...)

Thanks in advance.

73jewels

Thank you - I have given tylenol in the past, but it just didn't seem like his usual teething pain so I just wasn't sure what was going on.  Since it was the only other thing that changed, I just wanted to know if anyone else had a similar experience.

I *guess* he's doing ok with the formula I had given him - but I wasn't sure if the screaming was due to a stomach issue from the formula - not sure how long it would take to effect him if that was the case (both times he got formula in his second to last feeding (around 6 ish)

73jewels

Thank you - this is all so new to me!

73jewels

Thank you for all the information.  We have been doing 1 bottle per day and he seems to be adjusting better.  One last question - at 8.5 months, what is a normal size bottle of formula?  With Breastmilk, I have been only sending him with 4-4.5 oz, but I know formula fed babies are supposed to get more.  

For the next few weeks, I will still be breastfeeding when we are together, pumping for day care the next day and then supplementing what I don't pump with formula.  He usually gets 3 botles a day, and I have been pumping enough for about 1.5 bottles of breastmilk.  How much formula should I send?

Thanks

73jewels

right now I am sending 3 - 4.5 ounce bottles, so about 13.5 ounces total.  However, 2 of those bottles are breast milk and the third is formula.  Right now (this is our first week doing it so he's a little unsure of the formula still), he finishes the 2 bottles of breast milk, but leaves .5-1 ounce of formula in each formula bottle.  I feel that he should be drinking more in his formula bottle, but maybe I just need to give him time to get used to it.