EBF baby - ok to to practise bottle with water?

[nearlytherenow]

DS2 is EBF but I'd like him to take a bottle of expressed milk (have a couple of things coming up that I need to leave him for, for up to 4 hour stretches) . Is it ok to practise with water? I'd thought about just giving him a couple of ounces of water a couple of times a day to get him used to taking a bottle. I find expressing quite difficult, and will struggle to get enough for the bottles he'll need to have when I'm away from him, without factoring in practise bottles too. He's 4 months.

[lilham]

I

[lilham]

At this age I'd use formula. Water can fill their little stomach up without the needed calories. And even if he drinks water from a bottle, it's no guarantee he'll take milk.

[SarahScot]

Yep, use formula as the water will fill up his tummy. Or you could mix formula and expressed milk so you don;t have to use so much.

[thisisyesterday]

personally i wouldn't, but that was because i wanted to exclusively breastfeed until mine were weaned.

i think like lilham says, taking one thing from a bottle doesn't necessarily mean he'd take another.

in terms of filling him up i don't think water would be a big issue tbh, as long as you weren't giving him huge amounts