Hi Ladies,

I think im pretty much decided to start using formula and bottles. i have exclusively BF our month old boy. The last few days he has been taking an expressed bottle in the middle of the night. Last night though he took the2 oz and was still hungry and emptied a boob aswell which kind of defeats the object of using the bottle!? I then tried to exoress from the side he had later today to get a bigger feed for tonight and only got a few drips, when on the other side i get 2-3 ounces prob more if i keep going. Im starting to thinrk maybe the left side doesnt let milk out as easily as when he feeds from this side, he always wants the other side too.
He is putting on average 12 oz a week, so i know its going well. But i cant seriously just express from one side, or if i stop he wont be introduced a bottle at all?
What are your thoughts? Also what formula do you recommend? and will my boobs just gradually go down themselves? I dont think i really want to combine feeding as thats just complicated and id rather do one or the other.
D and 4 week old harry x

Hi, I only breastfed for 3 days so I cant really help with that side!! Think your boobs will do down themselves as mine did. They went rock hard first!! As for formula Aptamil is "suppose" to be one of the best. Its a bit more expensive but has more goodness in it, thats nearest to breast milk. My LO is 3 months old and has been fine on it. He poos regular (every day). I know some people complain that some formula makes babies consipated. Hope that helps a bit! x

sma mad amelia constipated and her stools hard, im now using cow nd gate and i think its brilliant. ur boobs will go solid for a few days cause they fill right up but eventually go back down normal size. xx

I use aptamil and it smells the best and is the closes to breastmilk!

It depends how much milk you are producing re your boobs! If you aren't producing a lot you are probably safe to just stop, but if you are producing a lot it is recommended to cut out one bf at a time so you don't get really painful boobs!

As the others have said your boobs will go hard and them slowly go back to normal. Mine did this, occasionally i still get the odd leakage (i gave up 7 days ago). I also use aptimil and LO seems to get on ok with it. He seemed to struggle a little bit when pooing but he's fine now.

I agree about the doing one or the other. I mixed fed from birth until last week and whilst i found it reassuring knowing he was still getting my milk it was a right faff. If i wasnt sterilising bottles/pumps, i was expressing or making up feeds. My life seemed to revolve around the kitchen and what i had to do next in order to make up a feed. Now were solely on formula i know exactly what im doing, i make my feeds up in the morning and have them ready in the fridge when i need xx

Thankyou for your replies. At the moment I am doing combined feeding as I'm producing too much milk and god they are massive and painful! I'm having to express a bit off them every now and then. Yesterday they left a wet patch on my top whilst I was in town! I wasn't happy! And I'm going through breast pads like there's no tomorrow!
LO is on aptimal and is taking it well. At the moment I'm just adding one more bottle in every other day to try to get my boobs to settle slowly! He's having one at 7pm ish then another in the night then breast in the middl then another in the morning so far.
Thankyou for your help. I feel slot more confident about going out knowing I have a bottle on my bag just in case!xx