Weaning + return to work when ds won't take a bottle

[runnervt]

Hi

My DS is 4 months old and has been exclusively breastfed. I've tried many times and with many different bottles/teats and cups to give him ebm with very no real success. I'm planning on going back to work part-tiime in another couple of months and I was thinking of starting to wean him in a month or so. Now to get to the question! - Do I really need to get him to take a bottle for when he's in nursery all day or is there a way round this? At work I see patients in a clinic so it would be difficult to get out to feed him during the day. Any advice appreciated! Thanks

[aitch71]

this is not my area of expertise but i know that friends of mine have fed in the morning and at night and their supply has been fine, but it's somethign to be approached slowly with expressing, i think. in the daytime they gave their babies food into the nursery and the babies used cups to drink from.

have a look here and you'll see a picture of a rather delighful baby (not mine, sadly) drinking water beautifully from a glass. not sure what age she is, but her proud mama inhabits these boards so she may come along and tell us. or there is always the standard 'sippy' cup to try, i've found the tommee tippee ones are good.

weaning-wise, you don't have to take it at all quickly, so around six months is great.

[Margi]

My little girl is at exactly the same stage. She has also been exclusively breastfed and is 16 weeks old today!I have to return to work full time at the end of october. I'm planning to start weaning when she reaches 20 weeks old. I have also tried bottles and cups galore! I have been getting better results with a cup(a free flow variety). I started by giving her water to get her used to the cup, then breast milk and then formula(as I plan to combine feed when I go back to work). I can get her to take 50ml but how much of that she actually drinks is another matter. All I can offer is keep trying to introduce a bottle/cup with some water throughout the day.I use bottled still water(must have no added minerals)as my little girl hates boiled water.I was also advised to go straight to a cup as bottles are often refused!(my daughter screams the house down when I try to use a bottle!)

[peeriemoot]

have you tried the tommy tippee bottle that is marketed to be most like breastfeeding (easiest to latch on to for a baby who is otherwise exclusively breast fed)? we had huge problems with getting our LO to take a bottle of expressed milk, eventually tried this bottle and it was like a miracle cure! it was quite pricey but well worth it for us as after 4 months I am now finally able to go out and leave DP in charge, great for me and great for him too.

[alison222]

At six months my children were still having 4 -5 milk feeds a day plus any solid food too. Last year I looked after a 6 mth old who was the same she needed 2 milk feeds during the day as well as whatever she got at home.

I guess this will be depend on your DS but my experience is that you may need to persuade him to take a bottle one way or another.

My DS would take a bottle of expressed milk when he was tiny - but then he refused a bottle from about 2 mths up to about 6 and began to take them again.
DD laughted at me and spat out a teat/cup whatever if it had milk in it. ANYTHING but milk came in cups - water/juice , whatever just NOT milk. I was lucky not to have to force the issue and so was able just to continue to feed her. I guess if it had come to it she would have just had to learn after repeatedly being offered it in a cup that it was that or nothing - knowing her she wuold have taken water instead.

GOOD Luck and I hope someone with more positive advice can come along to help soon.

[runnervt]

Peeriemoot - The Tommee Tippee bottle is my latest purchase but it wasn't particularly more successful.

As I've got a wee while before I start back at work I think I might persevere with a bottle for another few weeks. Then if there's no success with that I'll just try a cup and water. He's got to take something sometime!

Thanks for the replies.

[Margi]

today iv'e tried using a cup for the first time with milk,she cried at first but with alot of reasurance she did start to slurp!! yesterday it was starting to get me down after a particular bad time trying with a bottle, but I feel alot more positive about things now after a tiny step forward. Hope things improve for you and your little one.