I believe any sensible mum in this generation knows breastfeeding is the best for your baby and all of them have been asked the question: “Is you baby bottle or breastfeed?”. Even before you leave the hospital you will be asked this and I guess most of the first time young or middle aged mothers will try to breastfeed their baby but sadly lots of them will give up before the child reaches 6 months for different reasons. One of the most common reasons for this is the physical exhaustion cause by sleepless nights and the following busy days particularly if the mum is in charge of the house work without any extra help.
It is also the time when you start to jump meals, eat junk food or choose that easy pasta Bolognese you have been eating for the last 3 days. However, this is the time you are supposed to eat well once you start breastfeeding and your baby needs all the nutrients he/she will need to grow. So, at this point some mums will carry on until their baby reaches 6 months or even longer than that while other mums will start to bottle feed their baby earlier. It is worth remembering most of them will also try to express milk before moving on to formula milk but who ever tried to express knows it gives the same or even more work than breastfeeding your baby directly. In fact the discussion concerning this subject is not about breastfeeding or bottle feeding but about breast milk and formula milk. If you choose to express regularly because you are uncomfortable to breastfeed your baby, he/she will still get all the goodness of the breast milk.
The government campaign for breastfeeding is to introduce only breastfeeding for 6 months, however if you are considering formula milk you can always do BOTH! Yes, it is perfectly possible to do both breastfeeding and expressing milk once you start to train your baby to accept both. The Advantage of this is the fact that your baby is still getting the best milk for them and you will not be left with the sensation of having failed. You can also catch up on your sleep once you able to either get some help during the night with feeds or get some extra hours sleep (since formula milk sustains for longer than breast milk, giving you a bit more time to prepare a proper meal, or just go out for dinner). Doing things that make you happy will eventually just help you get back your energy and then you can give more to your baby.
How to train your baby to breastfeed and bottle feed both?
To begin with choose one of the many formula milk available on the market and don’t forget to choose one compatible with your baby’s age.
Firstly prepare around 30ml of milk because your baby will probably not accept much if he/she has been breastfeed for a long time. If your baby is between 2 or 3 months old they might accept more so its good to test some more and see how much he will have. The older the baby is the more difficult it is to introduce the bottle or formula. The trick is to start breastfeeding using a position where your baby is sitting on your lap and after a few minutes you can remove baby from breast to give them the bottle. It can take a while for the baby get use to this but it works if you do it all the time and soon they will get very excited when they see you coming with the bottle.
Don’t worry, your baby will not start to refuse breastfeeding and only enjoy the formula. They always prefer the breast milk for obvious reasons such as the taste will be different each time - but that’s the idea they will have both. Once your baby starts to drink the formula milk ok with you, you can put somebody in charge of the middle of the night feed or during the day when you go out.
You may be worried they will not accept the bottle but when baby is hungry and sees you are not around they will take the feed. It is a good idea to tell whoever will be in charge of your baby that they will cry and try to refuse but they should still continue to offer the feed because eventually baby will take (this is expected in the beginning of the process, that’s why its important somebody else is in charge of the night feeding and you stay out of the way).
Once your baby gets used to the bottle and starts to associate it with food you can start to manage when you want to breastfeed during the day and starting a routine for it.
Don’t you worry about your breast milk; it will not finish, but it can decrease and adapt to your babys needs.
One other thing you may notice is when your baby becomes ill they will refuse the bottle. This is normal and your milk will provide baby with the defence they need to fight it.
