Mixing formula and breast milk

RoAnt05

I have been pumping for the babies since they were born and giving them bottles of formula and bottles of breast milk throughout the day, but I never mixed the two.  A friend of mine told me that I can give them a bottle mixing the two so that they get breast milk at every feed. Did anyone else do this?  If so, what ratio did you use?  Also, Im not talking about the powder formula.  I use the liquid formula. 

CMW

We mix.  I just split up whatever bm I have and make enough formula to bring the bottle to whatever amount of ounces they need.  I figure it's better for them to be getting even just a bit of bm than none.

bridesea

One warning!  I stopped mixing them because DD didn't finish every bottle, so she was wasting that precious BM!  If I kept them separate, I could refrigerate her bottle and try again later (but you can't with formula). 

MandieSueM

I always mixed for my trio, since I was an excl pumper b/c they couldn't nurse nutritively.  I would pump my heart out and keep all my EBM in chronological order in the fridge for a 24 hour period.  Then I'd do the math (ie - if I had 40 oz of EMB then I'd take 40oz/3kids=13.3; 13.3/5 bottles a day=3.5oz of EBM per bottle).  I'd jut top it off to whatever amount they needed for a full bottle with formula, always making sure that their primary amount in each bottle was from BM first, until I stopped pumping.  We used powdered formula; I don't think it matters; they told me in the NICU as long as it was fresh and either BM or formula, it didn't matter how we mixed it/fed it to them, just make sure they drank it! 

HTH!

Lani Lyons

I did that as soon as my supply was surpassed by the babies consumption. If they needed 6 ounces ,and I had three each of bm, I mixed in 3 of formula (in the beginning I used readymade, but eventually switched to powder- they work the same as far as mixing)

Eventually as I stopped pumping it just went to being a greater proportion of formula to bm, until it was all formula. I actually  worked on making a little freezer stash too, so that even after I was done pumping, I still gave them an ounce or two per bottle of bm for another month or two. It made me feel better, like they were protected a little longer.

tripletmom

i mixed for my babies. and they did fine. to figure out how much bm to give them i would just devide my supple by 3 try to make their bottles half and half or give them what ever i had and fill the rest up with formula