J.W.
any breastmilk you can feed your baby is better than none!! so keep up the great work! that being said - why do you think it wasn't enough? breastmilk digests much more quickly in a baby's body - so it is completely normal that a breatdfed baby will be hungrier more often than a formula fed baby. if you have to supplement - then you have to. i personally never did - and my baby nursed on demand and grew like a weed! :-) we didn't ever start cereal - just veggies @ 6-7 months and then fruit. please feel free to ask me any questions - i have done lots of research on breastfeeding and its benefits and would be more than happy to share them or answer questions!
you should check out www.kellymom.com for some great breastfeeeding info! and check out www.superbabyfood.com - here's a piece from the site about when to start solids...
The answer is: when your pediatrician tells you that it's OK to start solid foods. She will probably agree with the American Academy of Pediatrics, whose guidelines state that the best time to begin feeding your baby solid foods is between 4 and 6 months of age. And the closer to 6 months the better, especially if you are breastfeeding. Your baby's body in its first few months was designed to digest breast milk, or something similar to it. And, calorie for calorie, no solid food has the nutritional quality of breast milk or formula for your young baby. If you feed your baby solid foods too early, her milk intake may decrease. You'd be replacing milk, the best food for your baby, with foods that are nutritionally inferior and not as digestible. Solid foods should not replace breast milk, they should complement it.
and here's some info from www.drjaygordon.com
Use of bottles affects mom's breastmilk supply.
If mom is using formula to supplement breastfeeding, she is telling her body, with every ounce of formula, to make less milk. Her body is not receiving all the signals it needs to make the perfect quantity for her baby, if she is interfering with those signals.
If mom is using EBM, she is still giving her body mixed signals, in that the pump does not provide the stimulation that the baby does at the breast. Mothers who have chosen to work and continue breastfeeding, do so with a serious mission to provide breastmilk for their babies. It takes a lot of stimulation from baby in the hours that mom is home to make up for the hours that a pump takes over. It is very possible to do, and I encourage any mom that is returning to work to do it.
Breastfeeding works optimally with feeding at the breast only.
The bottom line is that the supply and demand system that provides the perfect amount of breastmilk for your baby works optimally with baby at the breast. The use of a bottle compromises that perfect system. Some moms find a way to make it work. Some don't and the breastfeeding relationship has slipped away from them before they even realized the source of the problem.
If you are returning to work, seek out some help from experienced working breastfeeding moms, La Leche League and/or an IBCLC to find some alternative feeding methods and special "tricks" that will help you make breastfeeding a success.
