Question about supplementing with formula

kbowman78 · July 2013

Some of you might remember I tried to get some breast milk donated by my sister in law to help with feeding Oliver, but most of the breast milk she donated to me has spoiled. It's all stuff she pumped back in February and March.

I've been able to pump out enough for Oliver to last most of the day but the last two bottles of the night I'm about an ounce and half short for each one. I've just been feeding him what breast milk I have and then topping him off with an ounce and half of formula. Does that seem ok? I guess I'm just curious how others have done this. I'm not sure if it would be better to just give him one formula bottle a day and save the breast milk or if it even matters. Thanks!

mrsd0907 · July 2013

If she stored the breastmilk in her freezer, it should be good for 6 months. If she pumped it back in February, it would be good until August and he might use a good portion of it before then.

I don't think it really matters how you do the formula. When we weaned off breastmilk, I saved all of the breastmilk for the morning and evening bottles but I know many people top off their babies with formula after a breastmilk bottle. I think whatever will be easiest for you is the way to go.

kbowman78 · July 2013

I thought the milk should still be good too, but every time we thaw a bag out, it smells terrible and a couple of times he has almost rejected eating her milk. I talked to a LC who said breast milk is usually good for 3-5 months in the freezer, but depending on the person, it may spoil sooner or later than that.

Thanks for the feedback!

slwprincess · July 2013

I supplemented both kids from the beginning. I never pumped much so I never had much of a freezer stash. I stressed about it terribly with Gavin but with Sophie I just realized that life was so much easier combo feeding and we just went with it. I would just keep some pre-mixed formula in the fridge and top off the bottles as much as I needed. Don't worry about mixing the BM and formula, it's fine as long as they are the same temp at mixing. Meaning that I wouldn't mix warm formula into cold BM. Mix them first and then warm. My pediatrician gave me the best advice about combo feeding- he told me that BF was still worthwhile even if its not exclusive. Even when I was down to only a couple nursing sessions per day, he said to view those as "highly nutritious snacks" like an extra boost of goodies on top of the vitamins/minerals in formula. For some reason this really helped me keep going.

mingaling2 · July 2013

I've done it both ways, just depending on the day and my breast milk stash at the time, and it didn't make a difference.

Daisy22 · July 2013

I've done it both ways too. To make things easier on me, I usually just did one full bottle of formula a day and usually did it as the last bottle of the day.

NewMrs07 · July 2013

I neve had enough breast milk so I always breastfed first and then followed with a bottle of formula. My kid never had nipple confusion so it was fine to switch from breast to bottle. He was a huge baby and needed more milk than I could produce!

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