How to Dadda
How to Dadda
Log in / Sign up

Explainer

What is the difference between breastfeeding, expressing and formula feeding?

Three feeding words Dadda hears on day one, and a fourth — "bottle" — that is a container rather than a feeding type, and gets used as if it were one.

Dadda hear all three of these words on day one. Usually in one sentence, usually from someone who is already walking away. Then at 2am the log ask him which one it was.

The short answer

  • Breastfeeding is bub feeding at the breast. Nothing in between, no equipment.
  • Expressing is taking breast milk out, by hand or with a pump, so it can be stored and given later. The milk is breast milk. Anyone can give it.
  • Formula feeding is giving infant formula, a manufactured milk made for babies, mixed up from powder or bought ready-made.
  • "Bottle" is not a fourth type. A bottle is a container. It can hold expressed breast milk or it can hold formula, and it looks identical either way.

So when the log asks "breast or bottle", it is asking about the shape of the feed. The question underneath it is what was in the bottle.

Most families use more than one of the three, and the mix changes over a year. Combining breastfeeding with formula has its own name: mixed feeding.

What Dadda actually needs

He needs to know which of the three is happening in his house this week, because each one asks something different of him.

  • Breastfeeding asks him for everything except the feed.
  • Expressing asks him to run the gear and the fridge.
  • Formula feeding asks him to make it up correctly, in the dark, every time.

Which one it is, is not his call to make on his own. It belongs to the person feeding, bub, and their midwife or child health nurse. This page is the words, not the decision.

One line the site states plainly, because it is the Australian recommendation. Breast milk is recommended. Where that is not possible, infant formula is the safest alternative for a baby under 12 months.

Breast milk only until around 6 months is the advice Dadda will hear. Then breastfeeding continues alongside solids, to 12 months and beyond, for as long as mother and child want.

That is a recommendation, not a verdict on anybody's household. Reading the rest of this page as a ranking gets it wrong.

One at a time

Breastfeeding

  • What it is. Bub feeds directly at the breast. There is no bottle, no teat and nothing to wash.
  • What it is for. Feeding, and a good deal more than feeding. Babies are fed on demand, because breast capacity and milk production vary from person to person. A young baby may feed 8 to 12 times in 24 hours, including several times a night.
  • What it asks of Dadda. Everything around the feed, and not the feed itself.

That sounds like the small job. It is not.

In the early weeks, frequent feeding at the breast is how the milk supply gets built and protected. Offering bottles, even of expressed breast milk, can interrupt that. So taking a feed off his partner is usually not the most useful thing Dadda can do.

What does help:

  • Bring bub to his partner for feeds, especially at night.
  • Make sure she has a drink, something to eat, and is comfortable before the feed starts.
  • Take the meals, the laundry and the rest of the jobs.
  • Look after the older kids and the animals.

And everything in caring for a baby that is not feeding is his on equal terms. Cuddling, carrying, settling after a feed, bathing, nappies, talking and singing.

Two things sit behind all of that. Early use of bottles and dummies can interfere with breastfeeding getting established. So a first dummy waits until no earlier than 4 weeks, and until breastfeeding is established.

Not every family has someone breastfeeding. Where that is the case, formula is the type in the house, and the whole of the formula section below is Dadda's.

Expressing

  • What it is. Expressing means taking breast milk out by hand or with a pump. The milk can be stored and given to bub later, by anyone.
  • What it is for. Separation, mostly. The common reasons are short ones. Bub is sick or premature. The two of them are apart, or about to be. A return to paid work, building supply, or uncomfortably full breasts.
  • What it asks of Dadda. The gear, the labels and the fridge. This is the one where he can take the whole administrative half off her hands.
  • Which pump, and whether to hire. That is her decision. A hospital grade pump is the one to hire where bub cannot breastfeed yet, where every feed is expressed, and for returning to work, increasing supply or relactating. A personal electric or hand pump is enough for less frequent expressing. Hospital grade pumps can be hired from the Australian Breastfeeding Association, from hospitals and from chemists.
  • Wash and sterilise everything, and know where the spare parts come from. Same rule as bottles: cleaned with a brush first, then sterilised, until bub is 12 months old.
  • Label and date every container at the time of collection, and use the oldest milk first. Refrigerate or freeze it after expressing, use fresh milk where possible, and freeze anything that will not be used within 2 days. Fresh milk goes into a new container, not on top of milk already in the fridge or freezer.
  • Expressed milk does not have to go in a bottle. It can be given by bottle, cup or spoon, and the same sterilising and storage steps apply to all three.

Expressed breast milk looks different from formula or cow's milk and separates into layers while it sits. That is normal — swirl it gently to mix it again.

Formula feeding

  • What it is. Infant formula is a manufactured milk made to feed a baby. "Infant formula" is suitable from birth. "Follow-on formula" is only for babies over 6 months.
  • What it is for. Feeding bub where breast milk is not being used, or not for every feed.
  • What it asks of Dadda. Getting it right, every time, including the 3am one. Of the three types this is the one where the whole job can be his.
  • Read that tin. The amount of water and powder varies between brands, so the instructions on the tin he bought are the only instructions that count.
  • Use only the scoop that came with the tin. Scoop sizes vary between formulas. When the tin is finished, the scoop goes in the bin with it.
  • Never improvise. Not stronger, not weaker, not a bit extra to help bub sleep. Formula is made to sit at one constant strength. As bub grows it is the amount that changes, never the strength.
  • Sterilised bottle, every time. Bottles, teats and dummies are sterilised until bub is 12 months old. Boiling is the preferred method.
  • Any tin on the shelf will do. All infant formula sold in Australia is regulated under the same standard. There is little evidence one formula is better than another for a healthy full-term baby. Buy what he can afford.

The full method is on the bottles and sterilising item, with its sources. The shopping decision is on the formula item.

The bit that causes the trouble

"Bottle" gets used as a feeding type and it is not one. It is the container. Expressed breast milk and formula both come out of an identical bottle, and the word tells a dad nothing about what is in it. So "I gave him a bottle" is not an answer to "what did he have".

That is the trap, and it is why the log's feed tile makes Dadda hold it down to say which.

Three more worth naming:

  • Nearly nobody is exactly one of the three. Mixed feeding is the word for combining breastfeeding and formula, and it works well for plenty of families. It has one mechanism worth knowing: the more formula bub takes, the less milk the breasts make. So offer the breast before a formula top-up, not after.
  • A bottle of expressed milk is not a neutral favour. This is the one most dads get wrong, because the offer is kind. In the early weeks, bottles — of anything — can get in the way of breastfeeding becoming established.
  • Expressed breast milk and formula do not go in the same bottle. If bub is having both, offer the breast milk first, then formula if it is needed.

And one skill applies no matter what is in the bottle: paced bottle-feeding.

A baby at the breast controls how fast the milk comes. A bottle takes that control away, so bub can end up taking more, faster, than they wanted.

Pacing hands it back. Bub upright, slow-flow teat, bottle close to horizontal, and a pause every few minutes. The feed finishes when bub is finished, not when the bottle is empty.

Two more that apply to every bottle, whatever is in it. Never prop the bottle up and leave bub to drink alone. Never put bub down to sleep still drinking from one.

What this does not decide

  • It does not say which type is right for his family. It says what the three words mean. The general recommendation is above. A recommendation written for everybody is not a decision about one household.
  • It does not rank the two things that come out of a bottle. Expressed breast milk and formula are different, and this page says how. It does not grade them, and a dad who reads "different" as "one of these makes me a worse father" has read it wrong.
  • It does not tell him how much, how often, or whether it is going well. Those are numbers measured off his own baby and we do not publish them. Feeding is on demand, following bub's hunger cues, not by the clock. Anything past that is a conversation with his midwife or child health nurse.
  • It is not the how-to. Making up a bottle, giving one and sterilising the gear each have their own page.

Also look at