Moms who formula fed - how does this work?

[zoemurr]

I love those ready serve bottles they have in the hospital! However, I switch over to a less expensive powder when we get home (I have tried every method of preparing formula, and by far the easiest method is add powder and tap water in the bottle - faster than nuking bottles from the fridge).

My DD wouldn't latch on at all.. and the hospital refused to give her formula 'cause "breast feeding is best". I was very upset and asked for it repeatedly. We were both a wreck for about a month until I gave her a bottle full time. But, they made me feel guilty and defeated. For my DS I brought my own bottles/formula and no one said anything. I was never offered any formula.

 

[LWatson]

My DD wouldn't latch on at all.. and the hospital refused to give her formula 'cause "breast feeding is best". I was very upset and asked for it repeatedly. We were both a wreck for about a month until I gave her a bottle full time. But, they made me feel guilty and defeated. For my DS I brought my own bottles/formula and no one said anything. I was never offered any formula.

When we had the problem w/ breastfeeding ours I had people go as far as to tell me ....
1. I was killing my son
2. I should have my kids taken from me because I'm poisoning them.
3. I should pay for Breast Milk from someone else
4. My kids were better off with a monkey because they bf.

etc

 

[waltskids]

Our hospital gave Similac but you could request Enfamil. With DS, I used Similac in the hospital but he kept spitting it up, so when we got home we changed to Enfamil and he did great. Now that DD is here, I asked for the Enfamil at the hospital and continue to use it with her as well.

And to the PP who mentioned her hospital not offering her formula at all b/c breast is best, that is so sad. No mother should have to go through that. If you ever have another child, maybe a different hospital would give you a better experience.

 

[connorlevismom]

My DD wouldn't latch on at all.. and the hospital refused to give her formula 'cause "breast feeding is best". I was very upset and asked for it repeatedly. We were both a wreck for about a month until I gave her a bottle full time. But, they made me feel guilty and defeated. For my DS I brought my own bottles/formula and no one said anything. I was never offered any formula.

OMG - I would flip out something fierce if this happened to me. They have no right to refuse formula. That is just horrible.

Kristine

 

[npmommie]

My DD wouldn't latch on at all.. and the hospital refused to give her formula 'cause "breast feeding is best". I was very upset and asked for it repeatedly. We were both a wreck for about a month until I gave her a bottle full time. But, they made me feel guilty and defeated. For my DS I brought my own bottles/formula and no one said anything. I was never offered any formula.

wow, i would definitely have complained to the ceo of that hospital. Was it hospital policy or just the overzealous nurse trying to get you to BF?
Did the baby room in with you 24 hours a day while you were there? what if the baby was in the nursery for the night? what did they feed or did they bring the baby in to you to nurse? Did you mention it to the doctor when he came doing rounds? Just crazy and horrible for them to do that to you.
this just boggles my mind because they have to have had some formula, I think letter writing complaints would definitely be in order here.

 

[momma_mouse]

Similac is the WIC formula here.

Good Start is the contract formula here. It differes from state to state. It's just whoever gives them the best price.

I know the hospitals here have Enfamil, Similac and Good Start. They will ask you if you're going to be going on WIC. If you are you automatically get Good Start. Otherwise normally it's Enfamil. However, my niece's doctor wanted her on Similac.

My mom is the dietician at a hospital. Central supply usually has any formula you can imagine. Not only do they keep them for the newborns, they also have to have them for the babies that come in sick. If it is something like Nutramigen, you might not get a whole case brought to your room, just a few at a time, but they gernally have anything you can think of.

All 3 of my kids were put on Enfamil Lactose Free because of DD #1 being lactose intolerant. They had it in the hospital, we just didn't get a lot of it.

 

[PaddingtonBear]

my one little formula trick that I will share: my kids were a lot less gassy and spit up less when I put two drops of mylacon in each bottle before I shook it to dissolve the powder. I bought the generic stuff at Costco for about 2.50/bottle and it really helped.

We did room temp bottles too and it worked very well. Good Start worked well for us when DD didn't do well with Similac. So a bit of advice, if the kid doesn't do great with one brand, try another first before moving to soy. DS ended up doing grat on Kirkland brand formula from Costco.

 

[Zeebs]

My DD wouldn't latch on at all.. and the hospital refused to give her formula 'cause "breast feeding is best". I was very upset and asked for it repeatedly. We were both a wreck for about a month until I gave her a bottle full time. But, they made me feel guilty and defeated. For my DS I brought my own bottles/formula and no one said anything. I was never offered any formula.

When we had the problem w/ breastfeeding ours I had people go as far as to tell me ....
1. I was killing my son
2. I should have my kids taken from me because I'm poisoning them.
3. I should pay for Breast Milk from someone else
4. My kids were better off with a monkey because they bf.

etc

Seriously that is terrible. I have no problem with them giving you the facts once and then letting you make the decision but that is awful, you shouldn't have to go through that, your child, your decision.

It does work both ways though, I am very pro breastfeeding especially for my children (I am not posting this to make ANYONE feel bad or to get at anyone for their choice)

My second son was stuck being born and I was pressured to put him on formula straight away pretty much. They barely let me get him to the breast. They wouldn't let up about how he needed feeding and the amount they were making me push down him was stupid, he just didn't want it. I had the support of the midwifes but the docs wouldn't let it up. 6 hours.....is all it took for my milk to come in and he was away feeding yet they still wanted me to give him more formula and monitor me. The doctor essentially said they weren't going to let me go home as they needed to make sure I was feeding him properly. I breastfed my first until he was 14 months old so I knew what I was doing. I understand the seriousness of jaundice but the massive bruise on his head from getting stuck was contributing to it as apposed to me not feeding him. Seth gave up his breastfeds at 15 months and from the moment I left the hospital was exclusively breastfed.

Anyway what I wanted to say is try not to let them get you down with any comments should they make them. Just remember, your child your choice. And it would appear we are all in the same boat. Maybe they have a pact to make mothers feel like rubbish what ever their decision.

Kirsten

 

[zoemurr]

wow, i would definitely have complained to the ceo of that hospital. Was it hospital policy or just the overzealous nurse trying to get you to BF?
Did the baby room in with you 24 hours a day while you were there? what if the baby was in the nursery for the night? what did they feed or did they bring the baby in to you to nurse? Did you mention it to the doctor when he came doing rounds? Just crazy and horrible for them to do that to you.
this just boggles my mind because they have to have had some formula, I think letter writing complaints would definitely be in order here.

and my first baby. I never thought to complain.. just figured it was how it was. I assume I asked more than one nurse, as I know I was pretty upset. They finally gave her about a dropper full out of a medicine cup, they said she could not have a nipple. I would have given her more tylenol than they had in that cup of formula. She roomed with me, but at one point I sent her to the nursery to sleep. A few hours later they woke me up and said I had to nurse her. I kept asking if she had woken up, or if they woke us both up. They never answered me.

She never really did nurse, and wasn't gaining weight, so by the time we went to the bottle we were both miserable. She is 10 now, 5'1", has no allergies and has skipped a grade, so I guess we're ok. I brought the bottles to the hospital for DS, and nothing was ever said, although I'm sure I didn't advertise it. This is at a major hospital in Rochester NY.

I'm sorry for the PP who had all those people say horrible things. It turns out for me that I had very little milk to offer. I didn't have that from my friends. Acutally, my two biggest BFing friends had kids who had tons of allergies.

We always used room temp water and formula. One of those containers that you can premeasure 3 bottles worth and keep with you was great for us. Then I just kept bottles of water measured in the diaper bag, and one upstairs at night (just throw the formula in and mix.. no need to go downstairs and heat it). If you start warming it then you might be in trouble when you aren't near a microwave. It also gets the milk to their mouth much faster.

Best of luck!

 

[2binak]

Thanks so much for all the replies. I would like to use Good Start since that is what we used with DS but I do know that we may have to change anyway if it does not work. I will just go with what the hospital uses for the first couple of days and see how it goes.

For those who used air temp. water for your bottles, did your baby like that? I would love to do that as opposed to heating the bottles but don't know if it will work.

Kristine

Our hospital asked me what I wanted to use and provided the formula we chose, Enfamil, even though they contract with Similac. Like others said, call the maternity ward and ask just to be sure. We switched DD's formula to Similac a few days after we got home on the advice of the visiting nurse and poor DD threw up every bottle of it! We stopped after 3 bottles and went back to Enfamil and she was fine. Just a word of caution if you are thinking about switching formulas.

We used nothing but room temp water. The bottles aren’t warmed in the hospital, so babies are used to it. Unless your little one turns out to be particularly fussy about the temp of their bottle, you should be fine with room temp. We used formula dispensers to measure out the correct amount of formula every day and night and then prepared bottles with the correct amount of water. When DD needed to eat, we poured the pre-measured formula into the pre-measured bottle, shook it up and fed her.

Wow - such great, supportive advice from everyone! I fully expected to be eaten alive for admitting I was FF from the start. It is so nice to not have to deal with that and just get good sound advice about what I am asking about.

Thanks so much for the advice about the room temp water. I am FOR SURE going to give that a whirl, it seems like it works great for lots of moms!

Kristine

I also FF from the start and had no plans to BF. I had no guilt whatsoever for doing so and would not let anyone else try to make me feel guilty. I know a NICU nurse who is also a visiting nurse for new moms. She FF her babies and she will be the first to tell new moms that as long as your baby is being fed, you’re being a great mom!

 

[foltzy]

I FF both my children. We used room temperature water, I kept some in my bedroom (Each of my children slept with us for the first 3 months in a basinet beside the bed) along with the powdered formula. So easy to make in the middle of the night. My husband would get the baby and I'd make the bottle and then feed the baby. We also used the drop in bottles. I loved those things. Less spit up, less gas, and again very easy to use.
When we went on trips we'd just toss liners, a few bottles, and water and powder into the diaper bag and off we went.

I know FF was the best choice for me. I never felt guilty about it, never let anyone make me feel guilty and I think because of how sure I was about it, no one ever tried to pressure me to BF.

The hospital had formula for us to use. They had Similac Advance and that's what we used for our kids.

 

[MissNurse]

Your baby will be fed the formula that your doctor orders for him/her. Ask your doctor to order the formula you want. Hospitals have all kinds of formula!

 

[TiggerStac]

My hospital asked which formula I preferred, as well. When I was in L&D being checked in they asked me if I had a specific brand.

With my oldest we ended up using soy, after regular was projectile. With my 2nd we went right to soy. With my 3rd told them I wanted to try regular. He had so many issues was tube feed at first, then he ended up on premie formula..again they asked if I had brand name preference, which I didn't for that one. Once off premie, went to regular similac and has been fine since. Thank goodness...I couldn't stand the soy burps!

 

[tlh0726]

Similac was the formula supplied in our area.
The hospital sent a supply of ready to feed home.
As other poster said, changing a baby's formula can be upsetting to them.
This is what I did to try to avoid an abrupt change.
I bought a can of similac powder and a can of the walmart brand comparible powder. The first week I used 3/4 amount of similac and 1/4 amount of the walmart brand. Second week used 1/2 and 1/2. Third week 1/4 similac 3/4 walmart. Fourth week totally walmart brand.

Saved $$ using the walmart brand.

Also used the off brand diapers from walmart. No prolems with leaking with either DD or DS.

One other tip. Make sure that the bibs you are using have a rubber or vinyl backing. The all cloth ones get totally soak as well as the baby and baby's clothes.