If planning to bf, did you have bottles on hand?

kelliwill · October 2009

My plan is to BF as long as I can. ?I will be home til 6/1/10 when I have to go back to work. ?Personally for me, if I bf the entire time I am home that will be a major success and whether I pump when I go back to work or not, who knows. ?I am hoping that bf will go well, but also want to be realistic and prepared. ?I am thinking it will be a good idea to have bottles on hand for pumping or if it doesn't work out. ?Maybe just start out with a few and then buy more as we need? ?What do you think? ?Is this a good idea? ?TIA!

DESXF · October 2009

I did because a friend of mine bought me some.

I was set on EBF at the hospital (with my singleton) but the second night we were home, my milk still hadn't really come in, and DS was HUNGRY! I ended up giving him some formula in a bottle and it was like night and day. I did go back to mostly BFing, but I'm glad I had those bottles and a can of formula just in case.

I will be doing the same with the twins. Especially since I'll have a pump this time around.

jacobandcrystal · October 2009

You should definitely at least have some on hand. BF'ing my 1st just did not work out from the beginning, although I kept trying for 6 weeks. Finally one weekend my IL's were over from out of state, things were nuts and emotional, I was horribly cracked (even pumping was killing me), and I asked my hubby to buy some formula. I had just reached my wits end. Luckily we had a few bottles (the kind we wanted to use) on hand.

Even if you BF, it's nice to have some available. If BF'ing doesn't work out as planned, then you can always buy more!

Addition: I was able to EBF our 2nd (wonderful!), but we still had bottles available. I tried to give him his first bottle around 5-6 weeks old just so that it wasn't completely foreign to him. (He wouldn't take it, but that's another issue...) : )

m_n_mwedding · October 2009

Well with DS, I planned on BFing, but he would never latch or latch correctly so like pp said, when we got home from the hospital, he would just scream and scream so I gave him some formula. I am glad I had formula on hand because he never did BF well. I ended up pumping and giving formula too.

MrsARC1105 · October 2009

Yes, even as a backup so you can pump and let someone else handle a feeding.

Mrstob · October 2009

I did pick up some bottles becasue if the twins need to stay in the hospital I plan on pumping for them and then will just feed them by bottle.

macchiatto · October 2009

I had some on hand. My plan was to start pumping so that as early as possible, DH could bottle-feed EBM for one of the nighttime feedings. The LC (who is a MoM herself and has worked with lots of MoMs) told me I could start doing that as early as possible, as soon as BFing is well-established, possibly as early as 2 weeks. (For others she said to start at 1 month but she knew with multiples it might be more necessary for my sanity!

) I don't think it hurts to have some on hand.

LoveTravel · October 2009

I've been breastfeeding and I sometimes (depending if I feel like it or not) pump after the twins are done eating in to drain both my breasts- the milk in the fridge has come in handy a few times to bottle feed, but most time their at the breast.

bclspeer · October 2009

Yes- have couple bottles on hand just in case. Also you may need to do some supplementation early on before the milk comes in. I did. Another reason to have some bottles is so later on you can have someone else give a bottle of pumped breast milk so you can go out and about to do something fun for a while. Always good to be on the safe side! You can always buy more if you need. Good luck!

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