People and organisations that support breastfeeding will tell you that if you are breastfeeding you can’t or should not give your baby formula. People and companies that support formula feeding (including the corporations that sell the formula) will tell you that once you start on formula you can’t 
go back to breastfeeding. It is very rarely that someone will ever mention the idea of combined feeding. There is no doubt in my mind that breast milk is the best thing for babies and it is easier for me to breastfeed most of the time. However, when push comes to shove, formula is the best thing when breastfeeding gets difficult or can’t be done.
When a baby first starts hitting the big growth spurt around 4 to 6 weeks of age, many mothers feel they can not keep up with the milk supply and they give up breastfeeding and turn exclusively to formula. This isn’t necessary. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, that is your choice, but you don’t have to do it. You can always use combined feeding. And it doesn’t have to end when your baby finishes her growth spurt.
A mother’s breasts will produce as much or as little milk as the baby requires. If you start to give baby a bottle of formula once a night, your breasts will reduce the amount of milk they produce to account for the fact that your baby isn’t feeding from you as much. If you decide to go back to breastfeeding full-time, that milk supply will increase again.
This is exactly what happens when a baby starts on solids. Gradually, each breastfeed gets replaced by a meal of rice cereal and various other baby foods, but the baby can still have her breast milk feeds. The same thing goes with using formula feeds before the baby starts on solids. It is usually a good idea to get breastfeeding established properly before introducing a bottle, but this usually only takes about a week or two to do. Once you and the baby are comfortable with it, if you want to give baby to someone else, eg: Daddy, to feed from a bottle, and extracting enough breast milk makes you wonder why you’re taking the extra effort to that when you may as well just feed the baby yourself, you can use a bottle of formula instead. It is okay to do that.
My eldest son wanted to help out by being able to give his baby brother feeds from a bottle. It is a great way for other family members to bond with the baby, so I encouraged it. After a few weeks of exhausting myself trying to extract enough milk for my voraciously hungry baby, I eventually gave up and got some formula. Once each night before my eldest went to bed he would give his little brother a bottle of formula. Then they would both be asleep for several hours at the same time and I’d get some peace and quiet! Throughout the rest of the night and day my baby would still breastfeed, and it gave us no problems at all. It became so much easier for me to do that, I have kept it up.
During the evenings, my little one gets a bottle of formula and is breastfed the rest of the time. If in a pinch I need to leave him in the care of someone else during another feed time, he gets formula then as well. It is no different to replacing each feed with solids later on. If I run out of formula, I still have enough breast milk to stop him screaming the house down until I can get more. If I go out somewhere, I don’t have to make sure I pack enough bottles of formula for him. But I don’t have to extract huge amounts of milk or make sure I’m there for every single feed either. We have the best of both worlds.
Sure, there are some disadvantages. When regular breast milk feeds are replaced with formula feeds at a time it isn’t usually done, my breasts swell and ache a bit until they are drained or become accustomed to not being used at that time, but it doesn’t take long to settle down. If I’ve swapped a formula feed for a breastfeed, the opposite happens and my baby drains me to the point where I start to wonder when he is going to start drinking my blood instead. But I can deal with that and it doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t bother him. Of course, not all mothers can deal with such discomfort, so for them I would recommend making sure that the feeds are of the same type at the same times each day to avoid it.
Another problem with it is that babies have to work their mouths and tongue harder to extract milk from the breast than they do a bottle. So for them, a bottle is like a lazy little holiday. This is why breastfeeding should be established properly before introducing a bottle. If they get too used to a bottle too soon, they can become lazy feeders and that can make it harder to breastfeed.
I am not saying that combined feeding is the way to go and everyone should do it. What I am saying is that for some mothers, exclusively breastfeeding can be difficult, and exclusively formula feeding has its disadvantages. I’m simply saying that this is just an alternative option for those that wish to use it, rather than give up breastfeeding entirely or suffer through it. Breastfeeding should not be about suffering, and if using combined feeding makes life easier, it’s okay to do it.
Ultimately, the most important thing is that baby is well fed and healthy and mummy is happy and comfortable.
(May 16th) (
