Combo feeding

I've been told that a breastfed baby, should only be given 4oz bottles, but not sure if that's of breast milk or formula 🤔

@Jenny I’ve heard something similar too however last time I saw my Health visitor I had told her about giving him the odd formula and she never mentioned anything about limits etc

Hmm maybe formula is different then 🤔 my LO is satisfied with 4oz atm, so I suppose maybe start on 4oz and see, can always up it if baby doesn't seem satisfied

I think the risk is that it can stretch their stomachs if they have more than 4oz and so it can be hard to fill them up with breastfeeding after that, but I've no idea if that's actually true

@Hattie Ahh i see! I never thought at all I was just making him a bigger bottle and pace feeding and allowing him to dictate how much he wanted 9 times out of 10 usually 5 ounces, I’m assuming I can just decrease this to 4 and he will get used to it! How interesting though

@Hattie how does this work when giving top ups though? I have no idea how much she's having from me and then I'm suppose to give 3oz top ups... this could mean she's getting more that 4oz total 🤔 it's all so confusing

@Jenny yeah I know, I think that's why sometimes it's hard to get back off top ups? But also I think because formula is less nutrient dense than breast milk it's probably necessary when you need to give top ups. 5oz is probably fine though it's just you wouldn't want to give the sort of 6/7oz bottles a fully formula fed baby would take.

@Hattie ahh ok I see, I only ever give 4oz max if I'm doing a full formula feed anyway. And we're just kinda doing our own thing now with feeding. Still trying to juggle, breastfeeding, formula and pumping though haha its madness

My baby has 5oz. I asked a breastfeeding consultant if it was too much and she said it's a lot, but every baby is different and if he has 5 then thats fine x

I was told by a dietician to take the recommended oz for a day, divide by how many times you normally feed in a day e.g 8 times in 24hrs, and start with that amount of oz xx

@Elle I actually think he would take more than 5 sometimes I just hate seeing it go to waste so only ever make up 5🙈 I might continue with the 5 see how much he wants to take and ask my HV next time they see me, he’s only on the 2nd centile for weight as he’s super long

Yeah tbh I give my baby 5oz regardless of breast milk or formula, however the bedtime 5oz formula sometimes isn't enough and he does a little 5/10 mins on the boob after anyway

I combi fed with my first 3 years ago and I had literally never heard this 4oz rule before until reading it on here recently. We just followed the guidance on the tin, sometimes he would finish it sometimes he wouldn’t. Doing the same with my June baby 🥰

I’m also following the tin measurements giving 180ml around 2x a day then as much as I can pump in breast milk but she doesn’t always finish x