Has anyone gotten a baby to breast and bottle feed at the same time?

Question

I am researching breastfeeding. I plan to breastfeed for at least six months, but I am a graduate student and so I will have to leave my baby four days a week for probably three or four hours per day to go to school. My family situation will fortunately allow me to leave him only with family and not with a regular day care, but obviously my family cannot breastfeed him.

I had planned to pump and figured it wouldn't be a big deal, but now I am reading all this business about nipple confusion and stuff saying that it is really hard to get a baby to take a breast and a bottle at the same time, that the baby will develop a preference for one and refuse the other. I don't want to have to pump all the time and exclusively bottlefeed, but I don't want to go on formula either and obviously, the baby will sometimes need to eat when I am not there.

Has anyone successfully had a baby on both at the same time? How hard was it and how did you do it?

Answer 1

I think the key in not letting your baby get nipple confusion is to allow them to nurse from the breast exclusively for the first few weeks at least before introducing any bottles. Just so you can establish a good breastfeeding relationship, and it will reduce the possiblity of them rejecting the breast.

After that, the baby may not want to make a bottle from you (vecause he/she can get the real thing, lol), but you'll probably find they'll quite happily take the occassional bottle from someone else.

Answer 2

I have been successfully doing both with my 7 1/2 month old son since I had to go back to work when he was 2 months old. My husband give him 1 bottle while I'm at work for 5 hours.

The first few weeks, if possible, try to just exclusively breast feed. But if you DO give a bottle that soon, it's FINE!! My son had a few bottles when we first came home from the hospital (he even had one IN the hospital because of jaundice and they wanted to make sure he ate a lot). But try to limit it to ONE bottle a day. Depending on how old your baby will be when you start leaving him, he should only need one bottle in the time that you are gone. So, just make it that he gets that one bottle while you're away and then for the rest of the time, nurse exclusively. And if possible, don't be the one to give your baby the bottle first. Ask the person that will be watching him to give him the bottle. Some people say the baby won't take the bottle as easy with the mom because they can smell your breast milk and will want to nurse instead. My husband was the first one to give our son the bottle. And he still nurses perfectly fine after 5 1/2 months of using both methods. We have been using Avent bottles and I think they're great to transition between both with. We've had no nipple confusion with those bottles. I also have a few Soothie bottles and they are fine too.

GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 3

My breast feeds and bottle feeds no problem and he has right from the beginning.  I think it's key, though, to not introduce a bottle until your breastfeeding relationship has been established (good latch, milk supply, etc.).

Answer 4

Don't read all that garbage!  Honestly, I breast/bottle fed both my boys.  I breast fed more at first, but kind of rotated when I was in the hospital.  I breast fed during the day, and bottle fed at night.  I pumped breast milk, and also used that, and the formula.  I would definitely suggest, trying to wean a little, before going to school, I leaked a lot, which was embarrassing, no breast pad helped.  You should be absolutely fine, just introduce both breast and bottle to baby.  Good Luck!

Answer 5

Mine was breast and bottle fed for 3 weeks before just being bottle fed. He did just fine, but when you do both it is best to use a wide mouth bottle, they are closer to nipples. Mine went back and forth with Avent and with Sassy MAM. He had less nipple confusion with the Avent bottles than with the MAM ones. Avent would be the best, in my opinion and if you're worried about BPA they make the drop-in types or (expensive) BPA free ones. I personally like Avent bottles too, people say they have problems with a leak but I never have at all, just s***w the cap on tight and pull the nipple in tight.

Answer 6

I breast and bottle fed my youngest (now 2) very successfully. I started a bottle at the beginning, even if he didn't need it so that he could get used to it. (after my milk fully came in) At least one bottle a day or one bottle every two days. So, when he needed a bottle of breast milk and I wasn't there, there were never issues. I feel that it was not hard because he was used to both the breast and the bottle at the beginning.

I plan to do the same thing with my newborn when she comes. I really want daddy to help and it makes him happy to help. It really helped with bonding time with daddy and my 2 year old too.  

Answer 7

my son figured out how to breastfeed very quickly and we didn't have any problems at all. he was also gaining plenty of weight (he's a very big healthy boy) and he got his first bottle of expressed milk when he was a week old. wait until baby has learned how to breastfeed before giving a bottle or baby might get nipple confusion. after about 5 weeks of giving him one bottle in every 24 hour cycle, he decided he didn't like the bottle. just refused it. it was in the middle of the night and obviously i woke up and just fed him. thinking back, we probably should have tried a little longer that night and he wouldn've accepted it.

anyway, i have a friend that's also a student and had to leave baby with family and he was given a bottle of expressed milk when she was in class. it wasn't a problem for them. he once refused the bottle but she soon found out with a bit of perseverence he would take it eventually.

i tried to get my son back on the bottle when he was around 4-5 months but he never took to it. we tried every night for 2 weeks and all we got out of it were head aches.

but it is possible so at least give it a go. it's great that you're wanting to breastfeed!

Answer 8

i did both without any problem

Answer 9

Mine breast and bottle fed pretty well. Avent bottles have nipples shaped like the breast and seem to be the best for this situation.

Good luck!

Answer 10

Of course millions of women successfully combine breast and bottle -- that's how they manage to pump at work. While an occassional baby needs to be coaxed/convinced to take a bottle, most learn to go back and forth.

The main thing to remember is that, to reduce the odds of nipple confusion, wait to introduce a bottle until around 4-6 weeks. (OTOH, don't wait TOO long, or baby may refuse the bottle completely.)  The earlier the give the bottle, the greater the chance of confusion, and the greater the chance that your milk supply won't become well established.  

If you only need to be gone for a few hours a day, you may find that baby doesn't want/need a bottle.  Most babies, after the first few weeks, will begin to go at least one longer stretch of 3-5 hours. While most do this (we hope...) at night, some will do what's called 'reverse cycling' where they nurse more often during the night and evening, and eat very little during the day. (Even some babies whose moms work 8-9 hours will reverse cycle. They might take one bottle during the work day, and then nurse every couple of hours the rest of the time.

So do start pumping and offering a bottle at around 4-6 weeks, or about a week before you return to school (whichever comes first), but don't be suprised if baby opts to wait for you to come home rather than drinking from a bottle.