The first few days all bubs needs is colustrum the stomach is the size of a walnut hence the amount of milk required is not much, and they constantly want to feed as the milk is absorbed so quickly. Also the more the baby sucks the more you produce it is important not to introduce the bottle unless you intend to bottlefeed, as they will have issues latching on to your boob. Some hospitals do this to quieten the baby as they think it is hungrey and needs feeding but all bubs is doing is asking for another breastfeed

It does take a few days for the milk to come in.  but if you feed on demand you will soon be hit with over full breasts and wishing you had a few bottles and a good breastpump!  Big help and means your partner and other people can have a go feeding bubs too.  We do this with ours, but it has taken us 4 babies to finally get it right!  And I'm still trying to perfect the art of breastfeeding.

There may have been some special reason for them giving a bottle, but whe I had both my boys they were straight on the boob & the boob alone. With my first it took a bit longer than normal for my milk to come in due to a long and very bad labour with a c-section at the end but he was still exclusively breastfed. With my second my milk gushed in at 3 days.

Hi
When i had Jalan by ceaser she wouln't suck or latch on at all
No matter what anyone did she would not latch on so the nurses milked me for want of a better word and fed it to her with a eye dropper.
On the second night when they took her to the special care nursery they gave her some formula...when I found out about this in the morning i cracked and got a incident report written up.  I had the head honcho from the hospital in my room very quickly apologising. One of the nurses was supposed to get permission from me...she was severly reprimanded over this. 
Later that day after being milked my paediatrician who had also queried why she had been given formula came to me and asked me would it be ok if they gave Jalan formula as she was a lazy suck.   In the end on his advice i said yes but i still want to try breast feeding first.  He said i understand that and we set up a regime where i would try breastfeed then they would milk me as she wouldn't latch on or suck at all no matter what anyone did.  Then they would compliment with formula.  Usually given on a syringe or teaspoon as she wouln't suck anything.
In the end i said to try her on a bottle with formula in and she took 3mls and then had to be fed with a syringe again.  This is when i made my decision to put her on formula as I am not a cow and don't wish to be milked all day.
When she was 3 months old she still would not suck her bottle properly and during this time at home more relaxed we tried to put her to the breast numerous times but she would not take it no matter what. 
She had no sucking reflex at all and to this day still doesn't have it. 

To this day there are still nurses who decide to give a baby a bottle at night without asking.  Speak to someone in charge and find out why.
This was just my experience under 2 years ago
Luv Deb

I've never heard of a hospital either giving the mother bottles. Confusing. Maybe she should've asked questions first.

hi

they shouldnt be giving bottles unless stated by the mother the colustrum is plenty enough untill your milk comes in baby will not starve

good luck

strange that ,, my friend has her twins early and she was still told to pump out her colustrum for her little one's . her milk came though on the third day and even know she couldnt breat feed them she was still asked to keep pumping out the milk to feed her twins,, i would be asking questions to the hospital staff as to whats the reason why they did this ??

it was only a few min after i had given birth and my son got the all clear that he was put straight onto my breast ....i was still in the delivery room also ...

hi,

personally i think the first few days is most important as the colustrum is very good for your baby i was lucky i was able to breasstfeed up untill my daughter was 4 months then i never had enough milk and in that 4 months she had baby juice and breast milk only then as it slowed down i had to introduce her to formula

When my baby was born they took her away to the NICU and I could not breastfeed right away.  They said that she did not want to eat from being sick, but to pump so my milk would come in and so when she was ready to eat we could feed her my milk. The first few days they gave her formula because I was not pumping. I'm one of those lucky women that has ample supply and don't have to do anything.  On the 3rd day, my milk came and that is when I started to really do anything. It was like bam! I got so engourged.  I pumped every 2-3 hours I think and brought it to her.  Problem was she was so hungry that they ran out and I could not make it there all the time to breastfeed.  They had to sub with formula a few times, which they asked me first if that was ok.  I really liked that. For my sis-in-law they gave her formula as well to feed my niece while she was in the hopital.  This is done for Jaundice.  Because the baby needs to move bowels to clear jaundice, many parents are told to suppliment some with formula.

Here's a link to some breastfeeding myths. http://www.kellymom.com/newman/11some_bf_myths.html

I had twins first up (labor then emergency ceasarian) and breastfed them, but for the first two days they had nasal gastric tubes which the nurses would use to feed them instead of bottles.  they called it comp feeding and they would do it at night so i could sleep/recover from the op. I asked the nurses to take them out because it made it harder for the kids to swallow.

second time around, i had a ceasarian (9lb11 breech baby) and I breastfed. because i hadn't laboured it took longer for my milk to come in and I basically fed my very hungry baby hourly (colostrun only) for three days.  After day two the nurses said if the milk wasn't coming then we would have to think of other options and they kept weighing him, but seeing as he wasn't loosing weight they were happy. And thankfully the milk came and we all got some sleep by day three otherwise I would have gone for formula.

i'm not sure why your friends brestfed baby was given bottles. normally they won't if you say you're breastfeeding. every hospital has it's own rules. speak to the midwives about what you want and take it from there. in the end, they will do the best for the baby. the best thing is to know what you want, but keep an open mind.

 

Like others said, you have colustrum during the first few days and this is good for the baby because it has a lot of antibodies. But for some babies this is not enough. This is the case with my son. He was very unhappy even after nursing. My hubby and I couldn't figure out why, until we were told to try and give him formula. When we did, my son was instantly happy. But since I know that it is important to still nurse even if my milk hasn't come in (as it is the suckling that stimulates milk production), I breastfed all the time and then gave him formula. It is a good thing that I kept up with the breastfeeding even if my milk hasn't come because it took about 2 weeks before I got my milk. I am guessing that I don't think my milk would have come in had I not kept up with the breastfeeding. But once my milk came in, my son refused the formula.

 

There are a lot of reasons to supplement with formula for a new baby. I was so "drunk" from the meds that I couldn't breastfeed until almost 14 hours after bub was born, so they had to give her some formula to fill her little tummy. My mum didn't have milk for almost 7 days, no colostrum, nothing. Needless to say my little sis was a bottle fed baby b/c of this. Colustrum is important but sometimes there isn't enough or any at all and bub is hungry so you have to improvise.

colustrum is important...  I tried breast feeding from the moment my son was born but he was not attaching well and also not getting enough so I had to supplement with formula.   topping up with formula is ok as long as your child is getting some breast as well.  Good luck with it all. 

yes the first few days you produce colostrum and this is very important for your baby.....this is were all the antibodies you have, you pass on to your baby, and at this stage it is also very important to help establish your milk......if you don't persist at this time your milk may not come in........it's the actual suckling that your baby is doing that helps you milk come in.....i find the fact that this hospital is doing something like this very unprofessional......i can understand why this has confused you........i hope you can understand what i have tried to say here.......this is the most important time of breast feeding......regards Sandra xxx

With my 3 they were all breast fed from the colustrum that came in from the time they were born,,, so why they would offer formula is very weird...Only thing i can think of is that mum was tired and they offered to make a formula bottle... So what your friend needs to do is ring the head nurse and ask her why this has occured, had she not being explained to before...

I think all mums do whats best for their bubs, bottle or breast, and they need to have understanding from the hospital from day one,...

so good luck with the decisions you make, and hope that your friend gets the answers as well..

take care
love cazza

it could of been that a lot of parents these days are  using bottles and not breast. I assume that if you start from bottle straight away then you dont get the milk prob that you can.

It's actually not allowed unless the mother says specifically to give her baby formula.  They need the parents to sign that they've said to give formula in the hospital.  I know that recently a friend of mine had a baby and they actually asked if she'd like to feed the baby or should they make up a bottle! When she told them that it's illegal for them to have asked that they did apologise for it and said that since she'd had a c-section delivery and her son was of low birth weight being premmie they thought they'd offer in case she wasn't up to it.  I think that this hospital should be reported.  It used to be that hospitals would give formula to babies through the night, even up to 7 years ago they used to give a night bottle to let the mum sleep but luckily they know better now and understand that this is one of the major contributing factors to people's inability to breastfeed once they left the hospital.  I would be complaining to the hospital board about it.