Have formula on hand before labor?

[Anonymous]

For those of you who supplemented, how did you decide you needed to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are just overgrown apes. What do you think the gorillas do? Formula the first week is a disaster - your body makes colostrum which isn't milk but still really necessary for your baby so giving formula is not a good idea. Just relax, let your body take over and embrace your inner gorilla.

Gorillas in the wild have a 30% infant fatality rate - sometimes as high as 50 -80%.

If you're okay with a 1 in 3 chance of death for your kid, you're probably not a very good mother.

They don't die from lack of milk. There are lots of ways to die in the wild.

Actually, a lot of animals in the wild DO die from a lack of milk. That is why at zoos, sometimes they have to bottle a raise a baby animal even if there is a mother animal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. If you plan to BF, you don't need any bottles or formula. Having it around just makes it easier to doubt yourself and give up. Unless you had issues previously, I wouldn't even worry about it.

This is not true. Studies show that women who supplement before their milk comes in are more likely to be successful in breastfeeding. It helps when the baby is calm and doesn't end up in the NICU with hypoglycemia or even worse, brain damage from dehydration.

Milk can take up to a week to come in - a baby will die if not given food or water within 3 days.

Stop fear mongering. Please cite these BS "studies". It's incredibly rare to have a newborn hospitalized for dehydration and there are plenty of signs you'd have to be an absolute moron to miss. Plus, you take the baby to the pediatrician and they check for such things.

I've had multiple children and never purchased any formula. If you really feel you need it in a few days, plenty of places have curbside pickup. I wouldn't bother with it, and I definitely wouldn't supplement unless my pediatrician told me that I needed to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. If you plan to BF, you don't need any bottles or formula. Having it around just makes it easier to doubt yourself and give up. Unless you had issues previously, I wouldn't even worry about it.

This is not true. Studies show that women who supplement before their milk comes in are more likely to be successful in breastfeeding. It helps when the baby is calm and doesn't end up in the NICU with hypoglycemia or even worse, brain damage from dehydration.

Milk can take up to a week to come in - a baby will die if not given food or water within 3 days.

Stop fear mongering. Please cite these BS "studies". It's incredibly rare to have a newborn hospitalized for dehydration and there are plenty of signs you'd have to be an absolute moron to miss. Plus, you take the baby to the pediatrician and they check for such things.

I've had multiple children and never purchased any formula. If you really feel you need it in a few days, plenty of places have curbside pickup. I wouldn't bother with it, and I definitely wouldn't supplement unless my pediatrician told me that I needed to.

You're an idiot.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285917305661

We had data on inpatient feeding for 105,003 (96.6%) vaginally delivered newborns and 34,082 (97.0%) delivered by Cesarean. Among vaginally delivered newborns, readmission after discharge from the birth hospitalization occurred for 4.3% of those exclusively breastfed during their birth hospitalization and 2.1% of those exclusively formula fed during their birth hospitalization (p<0.001)… For Cesarean births, readmission occurred for 2.4% of those exclusively breastfed during the birth hospitalization and 1.5% of those exclusively formula fed during the birth hospitalization (p=0.025)…

4% is not rare. The reason it isn't higher is because most people use common sense and supplement.

Some people do produce enough milk soon after birth. Many, many don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who supplemented, how did you decide you needed to?

Baby was hungry. I was not producing milk. I gave baby formula.

As I've repeatedly noted, I nursed exclusively until 20 months and 2 years, so it really made no difference in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who supplemented, how did you decide you needed to?

The baby was not gaining enough weight.

[Anonymous]

My sister produced milk, but too little. Her baby screamed for weeks and did not sleep and was constantly trying to nurse before she finally decided to try formula. The poor thing gulped down a bottle and literally passed out from exhaustion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who supplemented, how did you decide you needed to?

Echoing pp, baby is hungry! It's a design flaw that we don't make milk for a few days. My ped said just give the hungry baby some food for God's sake, nothing bad is going to happen because you give a few ounces of formula for a few days while your milk comes in. Bonus, dad can do it and you can SLEEP. Please don't listen to these insane mommy martyr lactivists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 2 ounce Enfamil Neuropro Ready to Feed bottles are what a lot of hospitals and pediatricians provide and recommend. They're the ones where you can order the tops that just screw on for feeding the baby directly.

I had a few of these, but never used them until my second baby. Wouldn’t hurt to have some. Also get a pump now if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always do. My milk doesn't come in for a few days and no need for baby to starve. I nursed until 20 months and 2 years.

Oh gosh, this is nature. They aren’t starving. Them going bonkers to get that milk to come in is how it’s supposed to work. They definitely won’t starve otherwise humans wouldn’t have survived this long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. If you plan to BF, you don't need any bottles or formula. Having it around just makes it easier to doubt yourself and give up. Unless you had issues previously, I wouldn't even worry about it.

This is not true. Studies show that women who supplement before their milk comes in are more likely to be successful in breastfeeding. It helps when the baby is calm and doesn't end up in the NICU with hypoglycemia or even worse, brain damage from dehydration.

Milk can take up to a week to come in - a baby will die if not given food or water within 3 days.

Stop fear mongering. Please cite these BS "studies". It's incredibly rare to have a newborn hospitalized for dehydration and there are plenty of signs you'd have to be an absolute moron to miss. Plus, you take the baby to the pediatrician and they check for such things.

I've had multiple children and never purchased any formula. If you really feel you need it in a few days, plenty of places have curbside pickup. I wouldn't bother with it, and I definitely wouldn't supplement unless my pediatrician told me that I needed to.

No, it's not rare for an infant to be re-hospitalized, and exclusive breastfeeding by a first-time mother is the #1 risk factor. The consequences of infant dehydration are really severe (plus it's just really unpleasant for mom & baby if the baby is starving).

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/191546

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I always do. My milk doesn't come in for a few days and no need for baby to starve. I nursed until 20 months and 2 years.

Oh gosh, this is nature. They aren’t starving. Them going bonkers to get that milk to come in is how it’s supposed to work. They definitely won’t starve otherwise humans wouldn’t have survived this long.

Mother Nature doesn't care if a certain percentage of babies die, get brain damaged, or are just plain miserable due to delayed lactogenesis. Unless you're a hard-core anti-medicine and anti-modern-conveniences person, then there's no reason not to supplement before the milk comes in.

[Anonymous]

In this day and age, I'd definitely bring the Ready to Feed bottles to the hospital. I would want to limit needing to go out to stores.

It's also really important to understand the behavior of nurses in Baby Friendly Hospitals. If you even indicate that you're at all interested in breastfeeding, they see their job as expressly discouraging you from formula. So the fact that you're initially interested in breastfeeding means that you may encounter nurses who guilt you into not using formula, or just straight out withhold it from you unless the baby is literally medically compromised from starvation/dehydration.

So for that reason, bring it with you.

Baby Friendly Principles:

"6. Give infants no food or drink other than breast-milk, unless medically indicated."

Also from this document:

"6.1 Guideline: When a mother specifically states that she has no plans to breastfeed or requests that
her breastfeeding infant be given a breast milk substitute, the health care staff should first explore the
reasons for this request, address the concerns raised, and educate her about the possible consequences
to the health of her infant and the success of breastfeeding. If the mother still requests a breast milk
substitute, her request should be granted and the process and the informed decision should be
documented. "

https://babyfriendlyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GEC2016_v2-180716.pdf

So they basically create bureaucratic red tape for you to be ALLOWED to access formula to feed your baby.

Also, due to Baby Friendly guidelines, the nurses WILL NOT SUGGEST formula, even if your baby would benefit from it.

You can avoid all of that by just bringing the formula with you.

[Anonymous]

But it’s possible that I’ll make enough colostrum to thoroughly hydrate/feed the baby while waiting for the milk to come in, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But it’s possible that I’ll make enough colostrum to thoroughly hydrate/feed the baby while waiting for the milk to come in, right?

Yes. If your baby isn’t pawing to be fed every second of every day, you’re probably okay. You’ll also get baby’s weight at discharge to see how much they’ve lost and you’ll see the pediatrician within a few days of that to make sure they’re gaining. I had GD so they tested baby’s blood sugar the first couple of hours, and knew straight away that I wasn’t producing enough colostrum as his sugars were very low. Some formula on top of nursing and lots of skin to skin was what he needed. He was also slightly jaundice, and the extra formula kept him from going under the lights.