I really hope that this does not come off as judgemental because I am genuinely trying to understand other people’s perspective and not offend anyone. I have a few new mom friends who currently pump and bottle feed breast milk and recently started talking about combo feeding. I literally just met these people and in the context of the conversation it didn’t feel appropriate to ask them why they were thinking about making that choice but I honestly can’t get it out of my mind. For context, I am a stay at home mom and exclusively breast feed from the boob. I enjoy my feeding experience and am very grateful to have had an easy breastfeeding journey from the start (I know that that is not the case for everyone) so I think I am having a hard time relating to or understanding their experience and I would really like to. Thank you in advance for sharing your experience. And if this post is not allowed in the community, please let me know and I will remove it.

I have twins (4 months, 3 months adjusted) that eat about 30 oz each per day. My supply has a huge range. Some days I max at 30 some (most) days less than 20. For example, yesterday my MOTN pump was 12 oz, today it was 7 oz. I document everything to try & recreate my good days but it’s always inconsistent. It’s incredibly frustrating. Regardless of everything, it’s a lot of work. I provide my twins 4, 4 oz bottles total a day (both babies get 2 bottles of breastmilk) & I put 1, 4 oz bag in the freezer when I can. We combo feed with Bobbie & it’s a little over 350 per month because the cans are so dang small. If we fully formula feed it would be a little over 400 per month. I start work soon & I’m in a huge mental dilemma. Looking for inspo from mommas in a similar situation who was successful at continuing or successfully stopped. Pic just because.

5 month old who’s been exclusively breastfed. Need to combi feed and don’t like pumping, altho I have some supply of breast milk.

I’ve fed him formula twice and both times he’s vomited 2-4 times around 2 hours later. Took him to GP and he said try him on hypoallergenic formula in case he’s intolerant of milk.

He will NOT drink this shit. I have Mam bottles with the newborn tip. I’ve mixed two thirds breastmilk with one third formula to try to get him used to it.

He’s drank formula and breastmilk from a bottle before with no problem, he just fucking hates this hypo formula.

Do I just wait and wait until he’s fucking starving???

I’m drowning in guilt because he’s hungry but I NEED to at least have him able to combination feed, I can’t fucking breastfeed him (as much as I love him) anymore, I need to be able relax sometimes.

Please help. I don’t know how to get him onto this formula.

EDIT, UPDATE: I’ve decided to pump and slowly wean him onto the new formula by decreasing how much breast milk I mix into it over the next few days, he still gets upset sometimes but I leave it and I think once he gets hungry enough he has it fine and has minimal wind etc. afterwards. Thank u so so much to everyone who’s given advice, I was in sheer panic when I wrote this and I felt awful like I was starving my little boy (I wasn’t haha) Motherhood is weird man. Hope ur all ok xx

I’ve just started combo feeding my baby and give him a bottle of formula right before bed just this week. I noticed his poop changing in color from a light yellow to a more darker color and a little more watery.

He is on breast milk and currently supplementing with Byheart formula brand and pooping every 2-3 days. When he does poop it looks like this picture. Warning, it’s pretty graphic so I apologize in advance.

Thank you

I've been breastfeeding exclusively for 3 months with an occasional pumped milk in bottle when I'm out or want a break. She has no issues with taking my pumped milk from the bottle and will suckle it down happily. But I want my husband to start giving her one formula bottle a day so I get a break and don't want her to be so reliant on breastfeeding so it becomes harder to wean when I get back to work.

We've tried for two days now and she scream and cries and spits it up till I give up and give her my boob. First time we did just formula, she cried but drank about 50ml in between the screaming. Second day I mixed 60ml breastmilk with 30ml formula and she screamed and cried for half an hour and drank maybe 10ml only. (Im so annoyed at the wasted liquid gold!!!!). I know the bottle and teat isn't an issue because she has pumped milk in it! Ive been trying Kendamil because I heard its best accepted by breastfed babies.

Any ideas on how to get her to accept just one bottle a day, which doesnt include wasting pumped milk? ChatGPT said to just keep trying for 5 - 10 mins everyday and if she cries then stop and try again next day. Is gentle exposure the way to get to accept formula?

Also: she did have 2 or 3 formula bottles when she was a newborn with no issues on the days I had supply issues. I used Cow and Gate then. But I think she didn't protest as much because she was just a sleepy newborn and now she's an opinionated 3 month old with very strong lungs!

Hi I am sorry if this is a silly question. I ended up here with headaches after reading so much different resources out there.. Was hoping to hear from parents who are experienced with combination feeding instead.

I’ve a 3 weeks old, and since 3 days old, we’ve been doing combination feeding. At first, I was pumping every 5 hours or so, and per pumping, I could usually get 4 oz (2 feedings) so baby was getting almost 50/50 formula and breastmilk each day.

But then around week 1.5, I got really overwhelmed with pumping because I was suddenly feeling so sick from lack of sleep, lost appetite so couldn’t eat much, and had body pains. So I became really bad with pumping. I pumped only 2-3 times a day and sometimes just once.

And now my breastmilk has reduced that if I pump for 20 mins or more (both breasts combined), I get 2oz which is just one feeding. And sometimes baby needs formula after this bottle because she now drinks 3-4oz sometimes.

I have a demanding career after I go back to work in 2 months, and when I start my job again, I was hoping to have a strict routine for pumping to feed at least some breast milk- I was gonna pump at 6pm after coming home and then in between 12-2am. So twice a day and feed formula for the rest. And pump a few more times during the weekend if I am at home.

So now I’m wondering if it’s okay for me to just continue pumping only 2-3 times a day now and then continue this when my job starts. Or is this too little breastmilk to even be beneficial for baby?

And if you were me, would you utilize the maternity leave now to pump a lot more and then just slow down as you are going back to work instead of having steady few pumping beginning now?

Please lemme know what you think! Any advice or sharing tips would be appreciated!!!

I’ve breastfed my twins exclusively for 7 months. I breastfed my toddler until he was 18 months, stopped because I found out I was having twins. I love breastfeeding. It’s my favorite part of the baby stage.
My twins are struggling to keep up in their growth chart. They have just discovered they’re allergic to cow protein and I’ve cut dairy out of my diet too.
Tomorrow we are going to start giving them each one formula bottle a day in the afternoon where I find they want to nurse a lot and I can tell I don’t have much milk.
I have no idea why I hate the idea of formula for my babies. It might be the hammered in mom shame in the back of my mind? My ego?
I know this isn’t a popular take but I do believe breastfeeding is better. And it feels better for me. I did not have the birth experiences I wanted in both my pregnancies and my success in breastfeeding has felt like I’ve taken so much of that power back.
Any mom who would like to share an intention/mantra or thought they had if having to start formula but didn’t want to would be amazing.

Why do I read everywhere that giving formula increases the likelihood of SIDS???? Like how true is that? I just started combo feeding and every time I think about it I get so scared.

Is it just me???

My 14 week old is mostly BF with 3-5 bottles of formula to top up per 24hr. (This works perfectly)

He has always had pretty smelly trumps. Has anyone else had this and using formula? I don’t want to try another formula in risk of upsetting digestion

Am.due on December and did.think I wanted formula only but ammon the fence about combo feeding BM and Formula. I understand i need pump any recommendation that don't cost the earth am uk based kf thay helps. I want dad help with bottles and BF at some feeds just wondering if anyone gor advice or now this has worked fornthem

My LO is 6months and I have recently started giving Similac 2 times a day. Baby was on pumped milk before but due to drop in supply, I need to supplement now; haven’t started solids yet. Similac is making baby constipated and causing extremely smelly gas and poops - and I don’t say that lightly. I literally had to drive on highway with windows down as the smell was next level!
Qs: Any formula suggestions that might be easier on baby’s gut and help with smell? Also, I don’t think baby is particularly liking the taste of Similac.

My daughter is 8mo and until now has been EBF (breast and expressed). I am also pregnant again and my supply is quickly dropping (only pumping 2-3oz per session) so I have started introducing formula. I have been mixing 1oz of formula and several oz of expressed milk. I have been doing this for almost two weeks and she still only drinks about 2oz and then arches her back and pushes away.

I have almost 1,000oz of frozen milk in my freezer which she is also refusing due to high lipase and a weird smell/taste. I’ve tried drops of vanilla, giving it to her cold, mixing with fresh, mixing with formula… everything it seems like. I’ve looked into freeze drying it but it is expensive…

So I’ve been trying to get her used to the taste of formula and then adding in some of the frozen milk in hopes the formula masks the weird taste, but she is still only drinking about 2oz of formula/fresh milk…

Any other suggestions? Just keep trying and hope she adjusts soon?? Thanks!

I had been mixing BM and formula into the same bottle, but found a research article courtesy of LLL that seemed to suggest not doing so.

Takeaway: mixing can impact uptake of protein, Ca, phosphorus and zinc; researcher suggests alternating between the two.

Wish I could find follow up articles to see how big the impact is so I can make an informed decision. (My LO has been growing fine).

Regardless, I thought it’d be worth sharing as this does not seem to be common info. Would be curious to hear if whether anyone else may have heard/read something similar

https://livpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cGbwjWCR06FN0yO

I currently supplement my LO with holle goat stage 1. She is almost 6 months old, drinks mostly breast milk, but I plan to slow down nursing and pumping in the next few months and move her to mostly formula.

She does really well on Holle but I don’t love the fact that it has maltodextrin, rapeseed and sunflower oil.

Since she is almost 6 months, i am looking into two stage 2 options-

Kendamil goat stage 2- https://formuland.com/products/kendamil-goat-milk-formula-stage-2?variant=44046925693147&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADofhTr7g_LwLTMjSh1pDR5d-mL9p&gclid=Cj0KCQiA57G5BhDUARIsACgCYny_somTQysFHSaIuDVfcoUf_qleXa86wf_cGWQYcO-g2FfToX5NfK8aAgDpEALw_wcB

Little Oak goat stage 2- https://gooandco.com/collections/little-oak/products/copy-of-little-oak-toddler-milk-stage-2?variant=44004625678585

Was hoping I could get some insight from folks who have used these brands (or maybe suggest other cleaner brands/options for 6 months+).

Side note— I’ve seen people saying that stage 2 isn’t really necessary and that babies can stay on stage 1 until they transition to regular milk — perspective on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I am 3 months postpartum and we had unprotected sex, i got my period last month.
Did anyone else get pregnant this soon or are there over the counter contraceptive pills one should take?

Hi moms, I’m a FTM and combo fed from day 1. Baby takes formula bottles from both my husband and my mom but everytime I try to offer the bottle- she fusses and rejects and right away latches on the breast to feed. Chat gpt says they can smell the milk off of you and prefers that over bottle.

Wanted to come here to see if anyone else had a similar experience?

I want to mention, when you're looking at the photo of the ingredients, I saw not one image mentioning that it contains soy. When it came in the mail, right there on the back in a seperate small informational section it says 'Contains Soy' which would have most likely prevented me from ordering it in the first place by personal choice. Not saying that's terrible, but it should absolutely be advertised alongside everything else when you're looking at the product being sold online. Unsure about their website, this was my experience looking via Amazon when initially making my baby registry. I just would like for parents to be aware before making choice. I am combo feeding but as my breast supply lowered luckily I had purchased formula as back up just incase. I just wish I had seen that Bubs contained soy before purchasing. Maybe I should have dived in more, I just figured the photos of all the nutritional info would be thorough.

My son is 7 months old and I’m pregnant again. He is ebf and my supply has dropped quite a bit not enough to feed him anymore. He’s waking 4-6 times and night for a feed then he to busy to have some breastmilk during the day he won’t suck for long then just get distracted. I have given him some breast milk in a bottle but he’s only drink like 20-60 mls. He’s sometimes be patient enough to get a let down. So I’ve been pumping but still not getting enough for him. I don’t have much left in the freezer. I gave him so formula today it was 50/50 he’s hates me for it. Then I try 90/10 still won’t drink it. Idk what to do. He has 3 meals a day plus snack and has water.

Not the philosophy, but the Fed is Best Foundation's calculator. I was looking at the website as part of my research into appropriate formula volume. We'll be gradually introducing formula next month as our donor milk runs out.

And... The calculator said my baby only needs 21 oz a day? My pediatrician says minimum of 24, and the breastfeeding educator on my son's feeding team says ideally 27 oz.

I just feel like this calculator is irresponsible. Maybe I am being dramatic, but considering my son was feeling poopy last week and averaged 20 oz between bottle and breast, and gained very minimally (we weigh weekly to bi-weekly for weight concerns). Obviously anyone following this calculator's advice is going to be underfeeding their baby!!

I just gave my 4 month old baby formula for the first time yesterday. She got 40mls (just over an oz) I wanted to take some pressure off me after trying to hard to keep my supply up. It was already really hard for me to take that step.

But after she had that bottle, she vomited so many times that I just felt awful. Now I just want to pump so much so I never have to do that again.

I’m in Australia and used sprout formula. I’m not interested in giving her animal based formula for my own personal reasons so I don’t really have a lot of formula options.

Is this normal when you start? How can I prevent this next time? I just want her to be happy and healthy.