when did you start expressing milk and feeding from a bottle?

[prada]

hi, just wondering at what age did people start expressing milk and feed from a bottle?

i would be interested in your experiences please.

i read that starting too soon on bottle baby can reject your breast?

[lovelymama]

aahh, a subject close to my heart! all the girls in my NCT class (me included) started expressing and giving bottle in the first couple of weeks - not for every feed, but once a day just to get them used to the bottle. none of them got confused between breast and bottle. i made the stupid mistake of thinking that my baby took a bottle and therefore didn't need to keep going with it and by week 4 he refused the bottle completely and did so until about week 22, much to my distress! i would go for it and judge how your baby reacts but i'm sure all will go well.

good luck!

[HeadFairy]

Well I was 37 and ds was four weeks old.

Sorry, being cheeky. My bfc advised me to wait to four weeks before introducing ebm in a bottle or dummies.

[Pennies]

DD1 - after about 3 weeks.

DD1 - Week 1 - when my milk came in - I expressed to ease engorgement and intended to freeze it for later use but was re-admitted to hospital with post natal complications so DH fed DD with the frozen milk from a bottle then.

Neither ever had a problem with nipple confusion.

[pickie]

With DS within 7-10 days and he was fine. With DD they HV recommended to wait till six weeks, did she take the bottle? NO not till she was 8 months!

[Supercherry]

I tried my DS with a bottle of expressed at 4 weeks at which point he was fine with it. Then I left a bit of a gap and when I tried again at 10wks he would not have it! It took a few weeks of perseverence to get him to take a bottle again so whatever you do, if you want your LO to be happy with expressed then I would advise to do it regularly! Good Luck

[Jun]

I waited until 6 weeks on HV's advice. Initially DD refused bottle but perservered and DP can give her a bottle if it is quiet, she can't hear my voice and milk has to be quite warm.

Next time I would probably be tempted to start after 2-3 weeks, if bfing was going well.

[jujumaman]

around 3 weeks

I think all the nipple confusion stuff is bollocks, just only one bottle a day to start if you give them more they do tend to get a bit lazy about the breast.

[notcitrus]

3 weeks 4 days, after getting hallucinations from lack of sleep. Got pump together, expressed 80ml, realised we hadn't sterilised the bottle cap for storing in the fridge. Then I realised I had MrNC, a bottle and teat, and a hungry baby, and put the 3 together.

Baby blinked a few times and then knocked it all back. Since then he's been getting an average of 1 bottle a day (EBM, or formula from 7 weeks). So far it's helped my sanity loads.

[Plonker]

At around 4 weeks. Baby took the bottle no problems and no nipple confusion.

Personally i was never very good at expressing and could only get around 2 oz MAX at a time (and usually only about 1 oz!) which was a real PITA. It took me at least 3 goes to express enough to leave dd with grandma for 2 hours!!

[prada]

thanks ladies! v interesting!

[star6]

I've been doing this since day 4... when we left hospital. because so sore and needed dh to give1 bottle per day (a night feed). MWs advised against but he takes bottle well.. now 6 weeks and is a life saver!

[Gemzooks]

4 months, when I went back to work.

I tried it soon after birth and found it so distressing and impossible, bf was so much easier.

[jeanjeannie]

I started at around 4 weeks and there were no problems but I was assured it would interfere with my supply. I dropped it and tried again after 3 months - and not a hope

DD2 is now 5 mths old and I've not been able to give her a bottle or a beaker. No break for me - which isn't great as she rarely sleeps for more than 2 hours at a time (if I'm lucky)

Personally I feel I shouldn't have left it so late.

[sweetkitty]

DD1 straight away as she was too jaundiced to latch so had EBM from the off, worked very hard to get her to take the bresat first before bottle but she did, she still ahd a bottle or two a week though so keep her in the know so to speak

DD2 about 3 weeks but she would have drank milk from an old sock given half the chance

DD3 about 4 weeks but last week I tried to give her a bottle and she point blank refused, must persevere more.

I agree you have to keep giving bottles although once they are 6-7 months and taking water from a cup I would give EBM in a cup too.

[prada]

my ds1 is 29 months old and still has his milk from an avent bottle!! i guess i should have weaned him off that ages ago?? he does drink water and juice from cups!