Combination feeding means feeding your baby a combination of breastmilk/breastfeeding and formula feeding.

Whatever your reason for combination feeding, we want to help you to maintain it for as long as you want.

Usually, two problems happen when you want to maintain mixed feeding and avoid giving up breastfeeding:

• The amount of milk: when babies nurse, they receive small amounts of milk at each sucking, and this requires effort and time. With a baby bottle, they feed very fast, and they get a lot of milk within a few minutes. This makes some babies frustrated when they are back at the breast, as breastfeeding is a slower process.
• Suction: Babies don’t latch onto the breast / human nipple, and a baby bottle teat in the same way, and this causes some babies to unlearn what to do in these different situations. The sucking movements that babies make at the breast follow a perfect sequence, and any interference can cause, in some babies, a rejection of breastfeeding as they don’t know how to suckle, this is called nipple confusion.

So if your decision is to maintain combination feeding, you have to take into account these 4 basic guidelines:

1. Give the breast first

Whenever possible, breastfeed first and leave formula for last and offer it only if you see it’s necessary.

2. Choose your supplementing method

Secondly, try to look for a non-invasive supplementing method that allows your baby to decide how much formula they want to have, and it will be the parent or caregiver’s responsibility to give the milk slowly (see the paced bottle feeding method) so that the baby has time to notice the signals of fullness they feel when they have enough. At the same time, the chosen method should ideally limit the sucking confusion mentioned above if it is less invasive.

3. Keep your baby close

When you give your baby milk with your chosen supplementing method, the mother and baby should remain as close as possible and keep eye and touch contact for as long as the feed takes, thus resembling the physical contact of breastfeeding.

4. Regarding commercial formula milk

The reasons for combination feeding should be assessed. If the mother has enough milk supply, it may be counterproductive to increase the amount of formula offered to the baby as they grow.

Following these simple rules can make it possible to achieve happy and long-lasting combination feeding. If you are worried or have any questions, you can find our IBCLC lactation consultants answering in the LactApp consultation channel. The app is free to download for Android and iPhone.