Mixing formula & breast milk?

[jackie011]

I'm blowing through my freezer stash in order to leave enough bottles for DS on the days he's with his grandparents. I'm going to try to add in extra pumping sessions, but I think it's going to get tricky.

Can you mix formula & breast milk? If so, I'm thinking 3 oz breast milk to one ounce formula and adjust that ratio as needed. Is this a bad idea?

Also, about how much should a large 5 month old be eating? A lactation consultant once told me that 8-10 oz bottles were a selling tool for the formula companies and a breast fed baby would never need more than 5 oz at a feeding. I usually leave 4 4-5 oz bottles and they never make it to the 4th before I get home.

[vanillacourage]

Yes you can mix but unless you're weaning the baby off BM and onto formula you're better off feeding straight BM and then formula - reason being that you can save and re-use a bottle of BM but once it's mixed with formula it's on borrowed time. At least that's what I remember from hazy years-old memory.

[Yankees21]

Yes, I frequently mixed the two, just made sure they were the same temperature.

We take four ounce bottles to daycare, but DS isn't a big eater.

[smm5623]

I know people mix when they are trying to introduce formula, gradually increasing the Amt of formula in the bottle and decreasing the amt of breastmilk. Not sure if there is a benefit either way in your case.

M took 4 4.5-5oz bottles from 4-12 months in the 9 hours she was at daycare. C is currently taking 2.5-3oz bottles 10x a day at 5 weeks. I'm sure his bottle size will increase in the next several weeks before he starts daycare.

[sent]

You can mix it but I only did that to get her used to it. I used to do like 2 ounces at a time. Once I knew she was taking formula, I would leave bottles of either BM or formula. Not mixed.

She is 9 months old and takes 4 oz bottles of formula just like she used to take 4 oz bottles of BM. If anything, she drinks in smaller increments now because she refuses to sit still and drink all 4 ounces in one sitting unless she is super tired. I basically ignore most of the formula "rules" and keep reoffering the bottle until she finishes it which can take 2 hours.  Whereas when she was younger and less mobile, she would patiently down the 4 oz bottles.

[nomad]

We mixed on the dr's recommendation to add extra calories to the milk. Like pp said if you aren't trying to add calories, wean or just get the baby used to formula I wouldn't do it. Formula goes bad so much quicker than BM.

[bowies]

If your baby will drink formula no problem then I would leave a container of formula and a clean bottle as a "just in case" measure.

[VillainV]

C is 5.5 months, and just went from 4 ounces to 5 a few weeks ago (if breast milk).

He takes about 20 ounces at daycare, during which time I can usually pump 12-13 ounces, so I do an extra pumping session before bed and another early in the morning and have no problem getting enough. But if I ever don't, then we'll just send bottles of formula to daycare to fill in the gaps. You can mix them, but I think it's easier to leave them separate.

[andthentherewere10]

My very hefty 5 month old eats 3.5 to 4 ounce bottles. He's in the 80-something percentile for weight. It blows daycare's mind...they were begging me to bring him 8 ounce bottle the first week he was there.

[thebreakfastclub]

My big eater peaked at 5 7oz formula bottles at 6-7 months. He ate every 3 hours from 6a - 6p. After he got more into solids, bottles declined.

I used Similac's website as guidance on quantity, and they are certainly not advocating 10 oz bottles.

[Deleted]

My LO gets two 3-3.5 oz bottles and one 2oz bottle of BM at daycare. I occasionally up the amount by .5-1oz a day if it seems she breezes through the bottles too quickly, but whenever I up it, she ends up eating it for a day and then the next day she won't finish it. LO is smallish though for her age.

[bookqueen15]

We started mixing formula and BM a few weeks ago. My pumping output isn't great and she was not a fan of formula only bottles but would drink it mixed. Started out with 3 ounces BM and 1 ounce of formula but starting to move toward 3 ounces BM and 2 ounces formula now that she's closer to 6 months, a 4 ounce bottle isn't usually enough but 5 ounces is. I am gone for about 9 hours and she drinks every 3 hours so 3 bottles during that time usually. She is at home with Grandma though and not at a daycare, so my Mom doesn't mind doing the mixed bottles.

[scsarah]

DS eats 4 6 ounce bottles at daycare in 9 hours. He always has eaten well, and still finishes everything even now that he's got solids too. I joke with the daycare ladies, because he KNOWS when he's due to be fed, and will let them know too.

We do 2 bottles of breast milk and 2 bottles of formula. I never mixed them, as pp said, if you do, you lose the breast milk due to formula expiration much sooner. So we just offered straight formula, and he was fine taking that. If he'd turned up his nose, I might have mixed the two for a bit.

I pump enough for one bottle while I'm at work, so the second breast milk bottle is made from extra pumps overnight or on the weekend. But remember to take care of yourself too - if you're switching to combo feeding, it's not going to hurt if he gets more formula some days.

[Deleted]

Sept 16, 2014 22:30:27 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

Yes you can mix but unless you're weaning the baby off BM and onto formula you're better off feeding straight BM and then formula - reason being that you can save and re-use a bottle of BM but once it's mixed with formula it's on borrowed time. At least that's what I remember from hazy years-old memory.

This exactly. There were certain rules in her daycare, IIRC, like they could send home half-finished BM bottles but they had to rinse out formula ones.

And for some reason, my DD didn't like them mixed.

[jackie011]

It never even occurred to me to just have a can of formula as backup! That would honestly make everything easier.

So, do you just give a baby a formula bottle out of the blue, if he's never had one before?

[redheadk]

Sept 17, 2014 13:34:03 GMT -5 jackie011 said:

It never even occurred to me to just have a can of formula as backup! That would honestly make everything easier.

So, do you just give a baby a formula bottle out of the blue, if he's never had one before?

If you aren't sure that he'll take a formula bottle daily, you can buy the packets. They mix into 4oz of water. It was handy to just keep one of those in her backpack in case of emergency and they stayed good longer since they were sealed.