How Much Are You Supplementing with Formula?

makeene

I also posted this in my March group.

Hello ladies I was an EP mom but little one is about to out run me in my production department. Done the teas, the pumping non-stop and all I can get is 6-7 ounces every 8 hours. Sometimes at the 4 hours I can get 5 but it is rare. LO is eating 5oz every 4 hours and we have gone through our freezer stash while I tried to get my supply up.

Well ladies a week of no luck and one hungry baby. DH doesn't get it and is kind of anti-formula but what can I do at this point right?

Anyway: what formula are you using? How much are you supplementing? Every other feed? Should I let myself just dry up?

Thanks ladies!  

mrsjollybrown

Hello. I'm currently supplementing with formula. My LO is 5.5 weeks and eating between 3-4 oz every two hours. I'm pumping 2oz every 2 hours. I've been giving him about 4oz of formula a day because his sleeping allows me to get a couple of pumps in before he wakes up. He will eat 4oz and we will be ok. However once he ups his eating again I will probably up it again. 

The formula we had was the similac ready made bottles. The day I came fom the hospital I got sick and we needed a quick fix. However I now have two samples of similac(complete nutrition and for colic/gassy babies) and an enfamil sample. Similac mailed me samples. I contacted enfamil for thier free tote and they sent a free formula sample too.

Any who by time LO goes to daycare I'm thinking he will be supplementing every other feeding and I just will be taking breast milk to supplement his formula. Lol. HTH

ClandestineX

My little one is being supplemented, he is 5 weeks. The reason I have to supplement with breastfeeding was apparently I wasn't making enough and he lost weight which both scared me and made me sad... 

Anyways, I am supplementing with Similac Advanced since I was given so many cases of pre-made bottles and powder. He does just fine, just have to burp him a lot or else he will spit up a storm. I feed him after every time I breastfeed, he is nursing from both breasts then eats an additional 2-3 oz...

Today I had surgery on my finger and my husband fed him formula only for one feeding and said he ate 5 ounces at once and didn't spit up or throw up... So I guess that is how much he needs at once. Part of me thinks he is going through a growth spurt because at 4 weeks he was 7lbs 4oz.. this last week he was 8lbs 8oz. 

MrsRKJ

My LO is 8 weeks old - a preemie born at 33 weeks.  He was in the NICU for 33 days, and didn't start on BM until about 1 1/2 weeks old.  So while he was in the NICU I had a ton of time to pump and freeze my BM.  Well, now that he's out of the NICU, home and growing, he's eating like a horse and I can't keep up!  I'm still trying to pump every 3 hours, but it's getting hard.  

I called the pedi, and they told me to start with 1/2 oz of formula with the BM.  He's on about 3 oz of BM and now 1/2 oz of formula.  We use Enfamil Enfacare.

Good luck! 

wholenewworld

My baby is 11 weeks old and has started increasing his intake in the last week. He was eating roughly 22 oz a day, but the past week he has eaten 25+ every day. I am able to pump about 25 oz per day, so where as we used to just need 2-4 oz of formula per week we are needing more like 2 oz per day. I'm hoping this is just a growth spurt, but from what I read he is now eating about an average amount.

We use similac advanced. They have ready mixed 2 oz bottles that are great because they are the perfect size for what we need to supplement. We wait until we are completely out of pumped milk before supplementing, not any sort of schedule. 

Ditto what a pp said, pumping every 4-8 hours probably isn't adequate to keep your supply up.

Only you can answer the question if you should let yourself dry up. I know what a big effort it is to EP. You have to decide what amount of breastmilk makes it worth it. I know a lot of people say that any is better than none, but when you get down to the amount of time and energy you put into getting just a little, it may feel not worth it. For me, as long as I can provide the majority of my son's intake, it's worth it.

doremi29

Have you tried "power pumping"?  (I think that's what it was called) Basically pump for 10 minutes beyond when you stop getting milk at each pumping session. 

GL!  I'm not supplimenting at all this time, but with DS we supplimented 1 bottle a day or every other day.  I used Up&Up (target) brand sensitive stomach formula.