Does Anyone JUST Pump and Bottle Feed Your Breastmilk?

Terri - posted on 04/07/2009

i nursed until i had to go back to work.  then, i nursed when with my baby and pumped when i wasn't.  when she was about 9 mos, pumping 3x a day i was not producing enough and i had to pump 4x a day.  and sometimes then i barely got enough for the next day at daycare.  and now, at almost 11mos i nurse in the morning, just before bed, and when she wakes throughout the night.  at daycare she is given formula.  i just wanted to say to all of you who pump and bottle feed all day, every day--wow!!  it takes extrememe dedication -especially if you work outside of your home and have to pump at work!  good for you and your baby! 

Amanda - posted on 04/07/2009

I soley BF my 3 month old but pump ev 3-4 hours both sides at work and feed her when I'm with her no biggie. Get a good pump though totally worth the money. I pump both sides in 10 mins or so and not engorged on off days so it works. good luck and coodose to all of you for pumping and feeding that is awesome and the best gift you can give your child.

Chona - posted on 04/07/2009

I think its great! I have been doing it for 5 months now. My preemie couldn't latch on to breastfeed. I want her to have breast milk so I pump every three hours. She can latch on now but prefers the bottle. I am going to keep doing it for as long as I can.

Teresa - posted on 04/07/2009

Ben is 4.5 months old now and is bottle fed with breastmilk exclusively. We started to give him a bottle once a day for a few weeks before I went back to work at about 3 months so that he would be used to it when he went to daycare, but even with using the smallest nipples I could find, he still came to prefer the bottle over the boob. I've tried nursing him a few times since going back to work and it's just frustrating for everyone. He wriggles too much because the milk won't come out fast enough for him. He's just too impatient now. I miss the nursing but at least I know he's still getting all the same goodness he'd be getting from me otherwise. I now pump 6 times a day for him and can still manage to get a bottleful into the freezer for later. It's also nice to be able to let other family members feed him now and have some of the closeness I alone had with him before. Don't feel bad about your decision at all!

Teresa - posted on 04/07/2009

Ben is 4.5 months old now and is bottle fed with breastmilk exclusively. We started to give him a bottle once a day for a few weeks before I went back to work at about 3 months so that he would be used to it when he went to daycare, but even with using the smallest nipples I could find, he still came to prefer the bottle over the boob. I've tried nursing him a few times since going back to work and it's just frustrating for everyone. He wriggles too much because the milk won't come out fast enough for him. He's just too impatient now. I miss the nursing but at least I know he's still getting all the same goodness he'd be getting from me otherwise. I now pump 6 times a day for him and can still manage to get a bottleful into the freezer for later. It's also nice to be able to let other family members feed him now and have some of the closeness I alone had with him before. Don't feel bad about your decision at all!

Natalie - posted on 04/07/2009

You can pump and bottle  feed your baby with your milk, I do it since my baby was 3 months old because I had to go back to work. Now she is almost five months old and we are starting with a sippy cup, since she can seat with help and loves grabbing things and putting them in her mouth. The trick to increase your milk flow is to pump more than your baby really needs to eat, that way you'll always have a lot of milk and you can pump one meal in just ten minutes. You can freeze the milk, or I even throw it away sometimes, so I wont have a freezer full of breatmilk that anyways I'll have to throw away 3 months later.

Good luck and please don't give up on breastfeeding your baby!

Cher - posted on 04/07/2009

Heh..i ,pumped for 3 months and gave my daughter my milk in bottle she was born 12 weeks to early and could not latch on, i was quite happy for her to have my milk in bottle rather than formula, i gave up on trying to put her on until one day she could smell the milk and went for the nipple by herself we are now soley breast feeding, so if pumping your milk is the only way he will take it..good on you :)

Emily - posted on 04/06/2009

I know a few moms whose babies couldn't latch. They were all able to exclusively pump anywhere from 6 months up. Two lasted til 18 months and another til 24 months!

Heidi - posted on 04/06/2009

Perhaps your baby is tongue tied.  This is when there are stringlike tissue in the underside of the tongue that restricts the baby from making the proper wavelike motion with his tongue to latch on to the breast and extract milk. 

My son was diagnosed with this and we had problems with his ability to latch on and stay on from the beginning.  The only solution is to have a frenotomy, which clips the strings.  It's an in-office procedure, but at the time that he was diagnosed with this, it sounded completely horrific and I didn't want to put his through that.  I thought we could work through his problem and he would magically outgrow this and be able to latch on as he got bigger.  Alas, no.

In the meantime, I pumped day and night and poured my milk into a bottle and gave it to him that way, topped up with formula.  I did this for one month.  He would have been happy with that solution but I really wanted to breastfeed.  I spoke with my dad, who is a doctor, and he explained a frenotomy is a minor surgery, the equivalent of having one's ears pierced.  I had the procedure done when he was a month old and I am sooo happy I did this.  It makes life so much easier.  It was hard work getting him off the bottle and learning how to breastfeed, but by the end of two months, he was breastfeeding exclusively and shunning the bottle, much to my husband's and the grandmothers' dismay (they loved feeding him).

I would consult a lactation consultant or your pediatirician who can make this diagnosis for you.  Then it is up to you. If you love pumping and bottle feeding, why not?  Do what is right for you.  I know someone exclusively pumped and bottlefed her baby and they were both perfectly happy, (her baby is the same age as mine, 5 months.)  I would also suggest renting a medical grade Medela breast pump from a lacation consultant - it gets way more milk out in a much more comfortable way than the home grade Medela breastpump I was given at my baby shower.  I also drank Weleda nursing tea (you can buy it at drugstore.com) and took Fenugreek and Blessed Thistle supplements (Vitamin Shop or GNC) to increase the amount of milk I was producing.  This really works!!!!  Unfortunately most women find their body doesn't react and create as much milk for a breast pump as it does a real baby.  I hope this helps and good luck!

Lauren - posted on 04/06/2009

I just had Carter 2 weeks ago & he latched perfectly so as of right now I'm solely breastfeeding traditionally, but when I go back to work I'm completely lost as to what the best and most effective way to do things is going to be. I'm nervous that I'm not going to be able to even continue breastfeeding because I overproduce as it is, but pumping while at work seems like it will be really difficult. Isn't it a pain in the butt to pump and feed?