Mixing Formula with Breastmilk to Make Baby More Content?

Yes I tried it with my son and it did work. I wouldn't produce enough milk to feed him so I would add formula but still give him all the breast milk I had. :) I see no harm in trying

Plan B: IF you start giving Formula, your milk supply WILL, dwindle.
This typically happens. It may.

Plan C: Maybe, your baby is gassy? Did you try burping her or giving her Mylicon Infant Gas Drops???

Plan D: Maybe, you just have a communicative baby. And maybe she is going through "Cluster Feeding?" Because.... 6-weeks IS a growth-spurt period in a baby... THUS, they do get lots hungrier and need to feed more frequently.
A baby, when "Cluster Feeding" means a baby will need to feed and get hungry even every single hour. And this is normal. So feed her.

Both my kids as babies, had GINORMOUS appetites. I nursed them using both breasts each session and they'd drink it dry. I had a lot of milk. They had huge appetites and grew like weeds.

INSTEAD of combining Formula w/breastmilk, maybe just feed her more frequently?
Babies gotta feed on-demand 24/7 day and night.

Plan E: maybe, baby just wants to cuddle. Maybe she just needs to bond. She is very young. Babies instinctively want Mommy, and to have her close by or close.

formula will not 'fill up' or make a breastfed baby 'more content'... it is more likely to make her refuse the bottle outright, get constipation or diarrhea from the sudden introduction of foreign proteins and bacterias and would probably cause her gas issues that would make her MORE fussy and cranky.

Simply speaking - your 6 week old needs her Mommy more, but if you are having to return to work in order to stay fed and in a house (I was faced with being forced back to work right away also - I was a single Mom exclusively breastfeeding and pumping), then you have no choice. I'd try to look into a Nanny for the first 6 months if at all possible, so your newborn can get the holding and constant attention they need to develop.

They go throw a growth spurt at 6 weeks, thats probably why shes really hungry. Shes probably needing to eat more frequently now. If your ok with it, its not going to hurt her. Or you could just pump more.

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Babies that little have tiny tummies, and breastmilk is easily digestible...therefore they need to eat frequently. Formula is harder to digest, so it may seem more "satisfying"- that is really the old school perspective. Your sitter is probably very experienced, or taught by someone who is very experienced, so she is applying a bit of an out-of-date philosophy. She has likely seen bigger gaps between feedings on formula fed babies. However, this is often due to formula feedings having more volume than breastmilk feedings and being less digestible. The food value ends up similar.
If she is gaining weight properly, wetting diapers, etc, why spend money when breastmilk is free??
If you want to do it, do it for you and not your daycare provider.
I TOTALLY respect you for all that pumping effort!!! I just had to stockpile milk for a two day trip that DH and I took, it was so stressful!! You are amazing for putting forth all of that effort every day!!

I wouldn't. If you are producing enough milk then all you are doing is introducing synthetic nutrition that can interfere with the absorption of the perfect nutrition that breast milk provides. For example, when you compare the amount of iron in breast milk to the iron in formula, there is much MORE iron in formula. This is because the iron in breast milk is the perfect size and shape to be absorbed by your baby's digestive tract. Synthetic iron has a different structure so much less of it gets absorbed - and once you introduce synthetic iron, it can interfere with the absorption of natural iron. That's just one example of how introducing synthetic nutrition can interfere with the natural nutrition you are already giving to your baby. Kellymom.com has a lot of good info on this.

If she's been whiny for 6 weeks, you might want to get in touch with a lactation consultant to see if she has any ideas that could help (maybe she's sensitive to something you eat, etc.). If the fussiness is something new, then it might just be a growth spurt and I would try to just tough it out for a few weeks more.

If it seems to be digestive fussiness, I had good luck with Gripe Water with my 2nd and 3rd babies. My oldest was a colicky nightmare so they definitely were NOT colicky but when they went through fussy periods I used Gripe Water and colic ease and it seemed to help.

Good luck!

Like Molly already said, 6 weeks is a growth spurt. Breast feeding is supply and demand. The more a baby nurses(demand) the more milk your body will make(supply). If you take away any of that demand (giving formula to fill up with) your body thinks it needs to make less and will thus beginning a cycle baby is hungry so more formula is offered and less milk is made until it's gone.
Nurse as much as you can as baby is better at getting milk out then a pump. Don't switch breasts at feedings. Offer one breast per feeding, changing sides at the next feeding. The longer they nurse at a breast the more of the fatty hind milk they get which is what fills them up. You can pump the other side at the same time you're nursing to get more milk stored up for bottles when you are at work to help satisfy the increased demand during the growth spurt. Make sure to be drinking plenty of water to keep supply up and take any opportunity you can to take it easy (I know..easier said than done LOL)
You can meet her demands without adding forumla.
Best of luck!

I think you said earlier you can't nurse, so you are pumping? (Sorry, if I'm wrong.) If you can only pump, and you're not pumping enough, I don't see what choice you have! Unless you can afford (and trust) donor milk, then your baby has to eat! Breastmilk mixed with formula is better then your baby being hungry. I have known many people with a weak supply who have done this. Their baby's were fine.

Go ahead and try it. You'll know soon enough if her stomach can't handle it.

I had my son on formula at daycare and I nursed at home until he was a year old. I pumped at work and stockpiled it for when I had to travel for work. It worked well for us.

It won't hurt her to try, but it will more than likely not make her more content either. My boys got both breast and formula from birth. They both slept through the night very earlier, by 2 months old, but they still ate a lot during the day whether they go breast or formula, I did not see a real difference. I did find it convenient that they did both though, since I could bring formula with me places much easier than breast milk that had been pumped, and I never felt comfortable breast feeding in public. (I have never had an issue with other moms doing it, I just did not feel comfortable doing it myself)

At six weeks old your daughter is likely having a growth spurt. She may need more breastmilk so you may want to pack her an extra bottle or put an additional ounce or two in each bottle. It's better to have some extra left in the bottle than for her to drain the bottles dry.

Formula won't leave your daughter more satisfied or "full" but here's the difference between formula and breastmilk with the "fullness." Breastmilk is digested much more easily than formula, so it's digested more quickly. Formula is "heavier" and doesn't digest quite as efficiently in an immature digestive system.

It won't harm your daughter to add formula to her bottles, but I would try adding additional breastmilk first to make sure she's getting enough to eat first.

I've mixed the two. I can't say whether it helped or not. Both of my kids eat A LOT when they were that little, so I just went the formula route full time by 6 weeks with both of them.

Try the formula, but beware that different formulas have different effects on the little ones, so you might have to try a few. Ex: Similac made both of my kids horribly gassy. Enfamil was just fine.
Target brand constipated my daughter, and my son had no issues with it.
So you might have to play around for a bit before you find the right combo.

My first child was textbook and nursed until he was 6 months with no issues (slept through the night at 2 months). My second...different story. Started off nursing great but he was sooo gassy. I was trying to modify my diet thinking it could be me and trying to lose baby weight at the same time. I was driving my self crazy. I thought I was the one making him fussy and gassy. We gave him bottles and got Dr. Browns for gassiness that helped. That's when I decided to try formula and see if it was truly me or just him. I started off mixing then tried a few days of just formula. After all said and done...I ended up giving up on nursing and going with Similac Sensitive. I think it was just him but I was tired of figuring it out. He did absolutley fine when we mixed the 2 but it didn't make him sleep through the night any longer. Like I said, the bottles did help and we also used gripe water. Good luck...whatever you decide will be fine because she's is still getting the breastmilk but it probably won't make her go longer between feedings. She's just going to be different....and that could change tomorrow :)