Need help introducing bottle to 4 month old EBF baby! Tips and bottle recommendations please!

[NinkyNonker]

DD is 4 months and EBF, which I plan for her to be for the foreseeable hopefully.

However mid Jan I'm starting an evening course that I'm really excited about, which starts at 7pm one night a week. I can't really see a way around DH doing her night-time routine that night which is cool, but obviously I need to get her to accept a bottle before thrn. Unless I feed her earlier than normal and DH figures out how to get her to sleep without a nork...

I started expressing this morn and got 100mls...is that reasonable?

The only bottles I've got are Tommee Tippee 0+ ones, so I suspect they have a very slow flow. I just tried her with it and she had a few sucks, bites and then tears...so is now firmly attached to my right nork. Happy baby!

Soooo...any recommendations for decent bottles to get? And/or tips to help me introduce the bottle painlessly? Or would a cup be better...if, which cup and how?!

So many questions! BF is so much easier!

[TruthSweet]

100mls is fantastic don't be discouraged if you don't manage that each time!

Slow flow teats are best for bfing baby even when they are older so they don't get used to the easier method of feeding. I always used TT (nuby then CTN) or the narrow neck teats that come with most pumps which worked for DD1/DD2 but unfortunately DD3 wouldn't really take any of them (would lick the milk as it dripped but not suck) even though I was in hospital for a week at a time twice!

Having said that apparently NUK are quite good for bf babies or you could try a doidy cup or a simple unvalved sippy cup/beaker.

As to trying her on a bottle/cup/beaker it's usually best if someone other than you does it - so it's a really good opportunity for you to get DH to do a feed so you can go out for a few hours. Just for practice of course!

[NinkyNonker]

Good idea, I might get him to try with her later...

[LadyViper]

DS wouldn't take his tommee tippee so i bought a nuk, which he took, then i left him with sil and he wouldn't take the nuk so she used one of her babby's tommee tippee bottles and he took it straight away an has ever since!

I think it was practice.

From 6 months he had a sippy cup

[LadyViper]

and 100mls in one pumping session is great!

[NinkyNonker]

Thanks for that, I might get another brand to try with and experiment.

Regards the actual pumping, I did it during the first feed while DD fed on the other side...do I treat the pumping as a 'feed' and offer the other breast next time? I.e: I fed her on right side and pumped from left, which side should I feed her on next? Or am I doing it all wrong and actually should be offering both each feed anyway?!

I might try shaking up her eve routine a little, at the moment it is bath, feed and straight into bed whilst asleep from feed. Path of least resistance and all that. It has been suggested that I should try putting her down awake so she tries to settle herself... Perhaps as well as practising with bottles I should start trying to feed her, then bath then bed...so she doesn't always need a nork to sleep? Then if she struggles with a bottle one night I could feed her before I go then DH steps in and does the bedtime bit. It's so confusing! I'm looking forward to my course, but feels weird contemplating leaving her...I carry the tools of mollification! DH is amazing with her though (she is a bit of a daddy's girl already...) so I'm sure it'll be fine.

[LadyViper]

I would offer the breast you pumped from first to keep them even as babies get more out than pumps do.

I don't know about the sleep thing, most people would say things about rods and such if they saw us!

[NinkyNonker]

Ditto!