Adding formula to breast milk for preemie

[sunshine873]

I have a preemie who has been getting breast milk from the start. I've been pumping from the beginning and continue to do so. She breast feeds really well, but in order for her to get enough calories I have to add Similac Neosure formula to the breast milk and bottle feed at least 4 times a day. Has anyone else done this sort of thing?

I'm looking for advice on whether I should mix up a day's worth and keep it in the fridge, or if I should add the formula to the thawed breast milk at each feeding time.

[LMPC]

We had to do this type of supplementing with DD...she was born at 38 weeks but only weighed 4.5 pounds. I just added the formula to the breast milk at each feeding. That worked for us. I can't imagine that it would make a difference within the span of one day. So I say do what works best for you and has the least amount of waste.

[DebbieJ]

Have you considered supplementing at the breast with a Medela SNS? That would be ideal.

[CocoaSashimi]

We had to do the same thing to give our premature son the extra calories he needed. I always added it to the thawed breast milk at each feeding instead of mixing up an entire day's worth of milk.

[sunshine873]

DebbieJ,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't really feel like I need to supplement at the breast. She doesn't have a problem going back and forth between bottle and breast, so I'm not concerned about that. I'm more just looking for suggestions on mixing - when, how, etc.

[tarahsolazy]

In our NICU we recommend mixing for each feeding separately. That's how the nurses do it.

[sunshine873]

Thanks Tarah for the NICU viewpoint. That's what we've been doing so far, so that's probably what I'll just continue to do.