introducing formula

Question:

I am currently, exclusively, breastfeeding my son who is 6 weeks. I am working one or two afternoons/nights a week. My husband is finding that when he bottle feeds him he is not fufilled...we are toying with the idea of introducing formula to see if that will make a difference filling him up when I am not here for a 7 hour block of time.

Questions:
How do I know what brand to use?

Is there a difference between the powdered or the liquid form?

Is this something I would need to do daily so as not to upset his digestive system or are random formula bottles OK?

Are there any draw backs to introducing limited formula?

TIA
~CarrieAnn

If you want to start formula I would call the doctor first. Our peditrician wanted Kiera to start on Similac Advance. But I think every doctor has different opinions.

This may sound stupid, but I wanted to ask you if you tried giving your son more in the bottle? Maybe you just need to increase the ounces? Are you sure he's crying because he's hungry? He might be getting upset because he's getting a bottle which may leave him gassy or just upset that's he's not being nursed by mom.

I don't believe there's a difference in the powdered and liquid form, but if you're only going to use it once in awhile, I would suggest using the powder. The liquid ones need to be used in 72 hours after you open them. The powder is one month. So if you're still going to mostly BF, I would say go with the powder.

As for his digestive system, I don't think you have to do anything. I would start off by mixing in a bottle of breastmilk and formula so that he gets use to a different taste. I still pump and every bottle Kiera has a mix of breastmilk and formula. Some people say not to do that because if the baby doesn't finish the bottle then you're wasting breastmilk. But at 5 months my daughter has never not finished her bottle.

I haven't heard of any drawbacks.

HTH.

Why not just give more ounces of breast milk in the bottle?? When I was breastfeeding Angela for the first 6 months, she would take 6 ounces in the bottle, if she was still hungry after a feeding I would just give her another couple of ounces. If you are doing well with nursing and pumping for bottles that is so great - I wouldn't introduce formula at all!!
When I introduced formula they told me Similac Advanced, which is what they recommended if she would have been getting formula at birth. Some docs recommend Enfamil Lipil, so ask yours. But I would stick with the breast milk!

JMO..but since you asked I will give my advise. There is no reason to introduce formula and honestly, it can be difficult to find the 'right' one. I would leave more ounces for your husband. It is hard to know how much a nursing baby is eating so maybe the baby just needs an extra ounce or two with a bottle.
Formula is NOT the same as breastmilk and your daughter would have to ease into it. I personally would not do that when everything is going so well with the nursing/pumping.

We EBF for 3 months, when I made the transition we used powered Nestle Good Start. I had heard great things from other moms I knew who weaned from BM to FF.

(Unfortunately his first couple bottles were Similac Advance which was rough on his system. I had gotten samples in the hospital and they flooded my mailbox with samples as well, the dr said it was ok to try. They really push that stuff. )

I found that Good Start was the most like BM, even in color and smell and no bubbles/foam.

I would try more BM first though, if not the Good Start was a good transition for us.

ETA: when weaning, I Bf'd at night and FF during the day, so the change was gradual. kept adding more formula bottles.

thanks for all of the input...I spoke to the Dr. today and the info he gave was very sim. to what I am reading on this thread... :)

I am upping the pumping and leaving more behind for hubby to feed...baby is telling us he needs more, so more we shall give...we'll try that first...

(I didnt realize the formula they use to guess how much they eat per feeding...the nurse told us to take his weight and divide by two)

THANKS!
~CarrieAnn

We've gone through A LOT of bottle and nipple combos - so far the Playtex nursers are the best. Cole started with preemie nipples and when he 'outgrew' them, he was SO gassy until we switched to the nursers. The soft nipples work really well for us, and pushing the air out of the bottle cuts down his gassiness.
HTH