So, I've been breastfeeding Drew since he was born with about 2-4 ounces of formula supplemented through the day. He wasn't gaining a ton of weight so his Pediatrician suggested it.

Now, we've been having some issues..

Since he was 2 days old he sucks so hard the he draws out blood with the breastmilk. It's gotten so severe lately that if/when he spits up it looks purely like blood so I think I've made up my mind to switch to formula. It's painful as hell for me and he's been quite fussy so I am guessing the amount of blood he's taking in is upsetting his stomach.

The nurses all checked his latch on, it was good and they checked my positioning which was still good. One nurse stuck her (gloved) finger in Drew's mouth and said she couldn't believe how hard he was sucking. Did I mention OUCH! ?

So, how much formula do you offer a baby at a time?
How often?
If the baby doesn't finish the bottle can you (did you) stick it back in teh fridge and offer it later?
Is it okay to boil my tap water to make formula?

 

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start at 4ozs every 4 hours then go to 8ozs if that isn't enough. if he gets hungry every 2 hours, go w/ that. whatever you already have established.


heat formula or milk only once. start small til you are pretty sure how much he will drink. you can always refill the bottle for that session of feeding.

tap water will really depend on your area honestly. do you have well water. like that. not a good answer but i think the one that is the best. unless you want to be absolute and just go gallon jugs at the store.

 

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its not well water

 

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My first thought is....have you thought of pumping your milk for him? I'd do that and supplement with the formula. As far as how much, I'd start him off with 3-4 ounces and offer an ounce at a time if he still seems hungry.

You can use tap water as long as it's boiled for a few minutes before adding the formula. Don't keep the prepared bottles more than a day or so in the fridge though and never save the unused formula from 1 feeding to the next. Don't use the microwave to reheat bottles. You can buy a bottle warmer or use the old-fashioned method.....placing the bottle in hot water to take the chill off.

 

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My kid wasn't gaining weight fast enough so we supplemented with formula too. No idea how much we gave, started small and worked it up as he took more I think. Leftovers in a bottle he was using were tossed. Whatever we'd mixed before though we kept for 24 hours, think that was from the directions on the box. I hated tossing that stuff considering the price. =/

Wife got the cracked nipples problem (whatever that's called) and whenever kiddo got a bit of blood he was fussy and tended to barf everything back up. That was brief though and she stuck it out for almost a year. At 6 months we started him on cereals too and he suddenly started growing like a weed. (He was super low on the chart for weight and quickly got to 50th percentile.) He's perfectly fine now, that chart is not something to take too seriously anyway.

 

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I would get a nice pump system and feed him from the bottle with mommy milk. That would be much easier on you and he still gets the milk.

 

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First my opinion is to try as hard as you can to BF but don't go into a depression over it.

I had the same issue. I also went to formula. First thing I did was is bought a water filter for the tap. I use to use a bottle warmer, make some in advance which you can store in teh fridge, such a waste of time. Warming up the bottle just prevents some tummy problems, they don't really need it warmed, or so i read. Now i use just warm water from the tap. I also bought the Playtex advantair bottles cause he was soooo gassy and that cut down on it a lot. I started formula at 1 month and was doing 4 oz every 2 hours or so. He ate so often cause he slept though the night, about 10 hours or so. He's eating 8 oz a feeding now but only 4-5 bottles a day. He's eating solids though. I used this chart as a guideline for feeding. Brokk is usually in the average amount per day. I totally let him dictate the schedule and it worked out great for us. He's gonna be 6 months this weekend is a very scheduled baby. You should use any mixed formula that baby is drinking within an hour or toss it cause of the bacteria from your LO's mouth will grow in the formula.

I totally didn't plan on bottle feeding and was at such a loss too when I was trying to figure out how to do it.

 

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I've given him formula for the past 3 feedings .. he's more quiet and happy than he's been since he was born.

It's like a different baby! I feel so bad that he was suffering through breastfeeding so much now.

Now i get to suffer through my milk drying up and my boobs being engorged uhg

 

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My son never latched on, so I ended up pumping for the first six weeks (as long as I could stand being tied to a pump, my husband at the time was in Iraq and the whole every two to three hours to feed, then pump, then chores, etc got old REALLY fast).

I have never warmed up a bottle. Any left over breastmilk you can store in the fridge for days (iirc I usually kept mine two or three, I've heard of people keeping it for a week like that) and in the freezer for six to nine months. If it was frozen I'd move it to the fridge 24 hours beforehand to defrost, then I'd use hot water out of the tap for a minute or two on the outside of the bottle to knock the chill off.

Choosing to never give him milk any warmer than body temperature meant that once I switched completely to formula, he could eat anywhere at any time. I kept a Brita water pitcher on the cabinet to use while we were home, and in the diaper bag I kept a can of formula and some pre-water filled bottles (my best friend did the opposite, she put the powder in the bottles and brought along bottled water. I chose to do it my way so that I could be away from home for extended periods of time - I can always get bottled water while I'm out.

I'm sincerely hoping that this baby will latch on, I'd love to breastfeed as long as I can.


edit - I used tap water and ran it through the Brita pitcher. If you don't live in a city (for example, if your water comes from a well), boiling it sounds like a great idea. When we were out, I'd use Aquafina water most often because it didn't have any added minerals like whatever Coke's brand name water does. Any purified water would work, imo.

 

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BTW Babies R us has a program where you buy 9 cans of formula you get the 10th free (by a coupon in the mail). This is for Nestle Good Start, Similac and the Babies R us brand. The prices are comparable to other stores. I did Nestle Good Start for 2 months then switch to the Babies R Us brand cause it's 14$ cheaper. Was a great switch. Brokk likes it just as much and my wallet does too.

 

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