I know someone who breastfeeds their 7 week old son, but she feeds him formula...?

Question

sometimes and the doctor okayed it. Im 6 12 months along with my thrid child and i plan i breastfeeding this one, i didnt with the other two. What is the point of breastfeeding if you feed the child formula sometimes if you donthave enough milk? I know all about the benefits of breastfeeding and all. But i dont get it with the whole formula thing, people didnt use formula way back when, so how did they get by if they didnt have enough milk? Has anyone else done this? Has anyone never had to use formula? Im confused, I wanted to breastfeed my child completely,not add formula on the side. Any ideas here?

Answer 1

I breastfed both my babies exclusively for the first 6 months. Some doctors will tell you a beer a day is good for milk production.I never needed it though. I suggest for someone who doesnt believe that they are producing enough milk to start pumping an extra bottle a day, that will bring milk production up...and besides, you can freeze that stuff(we called it liquid gold) for 4 to 6 months depending on freezer type.
Really its personal choice, some breast milk is better than none

Answer 2

Supplementing is really quite common. I did it, even though I didn't plan to.

I had problems with my milk coming in, and then one of the nurses in the hospital was giving my son bottles. She was reprimanded for it later, but the damage was already done.

I nursed my son for 4 months, which was the minimum time I had hoped to do it for.

And even if there's no problem with milk coming in, sometimes people supplement because they're uncomforable breastfeeding in public, though, in this case, you can pump your own milk and bottle it for later.

And some women find that they just don't like breastfeeding. It can be painful, uncomfortable, embarassing, and difficult. It's like the baby has a mouthful of teeth, and you're always wet, and it's so time-consuming that you never get anything done. But the payoff is amazing.

Even if someone can't commit to nursing exclusively, there are so many good things that come with it that some women choose to nurse at certain times of the day, and use formula for the rest of the time. A little breastmilk is better than none, don't you think? Why did you choose to do only formula with your first two, and now are wanting to nurse the third one?

My grandmother never breastfed either of her two children, and she told me that there were a few things that she mixed together to make a bottle with, but I can't remember. This was before they made formula.

Answer 3

The vast majority of women do produce enough breastmilk for their children. It's when the baby starts cluster feeding or is in a growth spurt that they think the baby isn't getting enough. It's simply not true in that situation.

You do not have to have formula "just in case". The first bottle will start you on a slippery slope to latch problems, nipple confusion, and dip in supply among other things. I speak from experience on that one. ;)

Watch the wet and poopy diapers. A newborn should have about 8 a day. Wet is more important than poopy as a breastfed baby won't poop every day. Perfectly normal. Watch for growth spurts.

Remember, too, that just because your breasts don't feel full doesn't mean they aren't. Once you get over the initial engorgement, they should only feel full when more than the "normal" time between breastfeedings has past.

The third link has information on formula.

Good luck with your new little one!

Answer 4

On my first child, I was forced to supplement with formula because I had extreme post-partum bleeding which knocked down my milk production to almost nothing. Your breastmilk is made from your blood, so you can see how I couldn't make enough. I tried Fenugreek tablets and that helped me boost my production. After 4 months of breastfeeding and supplementing, I went to totally feeding formula. The baby gets everything they need in the first 3 months anyway. That's the most critical time.
For my son who is 4 1/2 months, I have just stopped breastfeeding this week. In the beginning, he could not latch on properly and wasn't getting enough milk. This time I had a textbook birth and my milk supply was there, but he couldn't latch on and pull enough out. My supply started to dwindle and he lost weight, so I had to supplement again. Having to supplement with formula doesn't mean that you are failure. I just looked at it as I gave all I could to my babies and they got breastmilk for at least 4 months in the beginning. With my son, I know that breastfeeding him saved him from getting a serious virus. When I took him to his 1 month well-baby doctor visit, my daughter, nanny and myself all got a horrible virus. I continued to nurse my baby and give him my anti-bodies to fight it and he didn't get sick.
Breastfeeding is truly worth the work.
Best of luck and do what you feel is best for you. Breastfeeding is a personal journey. Both of my experiences were different just as the birth experience is different with each child.

Answer 5

Sometimes the mother doesn't produce enough milk, so they supplement with formula. There are things you can do to increase your milk production.
Some women stick with supplementing with formula, others only do it for a short time, until they've upped their supply.

Make sure you drink lots of liquids while breastfeeding.
If you do find that your baby is still hungry after breastfeeding, talk to your doctor, and to a La Leche League.
The first 6 weeks of breastfeeding are the hardest, but it gets easier!

Answer 6

Breastfeeding mothers need lots of help. If you get stressed out sometimes your milk production slows. You may have to supplement with formula if you don't make enough milk.
I had to breast-feed, supplement with formula, and pump from the time my baby was 3 weeks until she was 7 weeks. Then I was back to simply breastfeeding again (still do, she's 18 moths and nurses morning, naptime and night).
Good-luck and don't give up and try not to stay stressed.

Answer 7

Back in the old days, they would do one of a few things if they couldn't produce enough milk:
1) Find a wet nurse...essentially another lactating woman who would feed the baby
2) Feed it cow's milk or goat's milk
3) Feed it pureed people food.

Anyway, I have to supplement. I have been to lactation consultents, tried lots of "tricks" (fenugreek, oatmeal, pumping every hour, pumping after every feeding, etc.). But my baby wasn't gaining weight despite having a "good latch". There are some signs, apparently, that would have told me I might not be able to exclusively breastfeed (my breasts never enlarged during pregnancy, they never engorged after birth, I never felt let-down, etc.) I am a bona-fide non-producer. LOL. So, I pump (7-9 times a day) what I can (my baby won't nurse after getting the bottle...she wants the milk NOW, and my flow is too slow for her), give that to her (about 12 oz/day), and give her formula to make up for it. It ends up being about a 50/50 split except during growth spurts, where she ends up getting more formula.

My best friend has exclusively breastfed all three of her children for the first six months, and then breastfed w/solid foods until at least a year for each of them (well, her youngest is 11 months right now, and still bfs, so I'm guessing she'll go to at least a year with him).

The point of doing even some breastfeeding/pumping is that it still confers many of the protective immunities that are present in ANY quantity of breastmilk. There are over 50 known (and probably many more unknown) elements of breastmilk that cannot be duplicated in formula. In addition, if your baby is nursing on you, any germs/bacteria in their mouth will be transferred to your body while she sucks and your body will produce antibodies for that specific illness, which will end up in your breastmilk, and, ultimately, the baby (I try to get her to suckle even though I know she won't actually eat much...just to get some "specific" antibodies for her). Even partial breastfeeding helps to prevent a lot of future problems....obesity, diabetes (which runs in both sides of our family), allergies, etc. Some is better than none. I'm going to try to keep it up until a year (she's a bit over 3mos at this point), assuming my milk doesn't randomly dry up (my body is screwy).

Answer 8

Most women can make enough milk for their babies and they don't need to supplement, but they choose to supplement because of either personal or necessary reasons. A handfull of women can not breastfeed at all, and some women can breastfeed but are unable to produce enough milk to feed their babies and therefore breastfeed exclusively, due to hormonal or anatomical reasons (such as not having enough milk ducts).

I have a pleantiful milk supply and I am able to nurse my babies exclusively (I'm actually nusing my 2 year old as well). I work outside the home and I pump and I'm able to store milk in my freezer as well. Neither of my babies have ever had formula.

A girlfriend of mine also nurses her baby and wouldn't have supply problems, except she works outside the home and hasn't been able to pump. Her baby gets formula while she's gone and she supplements with formula on the weekends because she doesn't have enough milk to breastfeed exclusively because she doesn't pump. That's what she has to do and there's nothing wrong with it. Her baby is getting the benefits of her breastmilk still and that's what's important.

Answer 9

My daughter-in-law and I both had to supplement with formula. My daughter-in law's baby was 2 weeks early and weighed 11lbs4oz at birth. By the time he was a month old she had to start supplementing. My milk just did not satisfy my child. In the old old days women used wet nurses. Women also used goat milk and cow milk. Now there is something called La Leche League It has been around at least 35 years. Women who have extra milk save and freeze it for others to use.

Answer 10

My son is 2 years old and I breast fed him for about 14 months. I had to supplement because my I wasn't making enough milk to fill him up, he couldn't get full. I only supplemented at night mostly and only for the first, oh, about 3 months and for some reason I started to make enough milk and stopped supplementing. It didn't hurt him a bit, in fact it helped him to sleep better when he did get the formula at night. I don't think it hurts one bit to use formula while breast feeding.