When to express and introduce bottles when Bfeeding?

[Snakeears]

just wondered really... I know it's not advisable to introduce a bottle too soon but also have heard that if you leave it too long they won't take the bottle either... what do you think?

[stopgap]

I'm four weeks postpartum, and introduced a relief bottle last week (expressed milk) with no problems whatsoever. The official advice seems to be 6-8 weeks, but my doula, midwife and paediatrician all suggested the 2-3 week mark, and it worked great for us.

[FrumpyPumpy]

With DS did so at 3-4 weeks and he took it fine. Dd is 12 wks and is refusing after a couple of successful bottled at 6 -8 wks or so. Do it sooner rather than later imo.
Good luck!

[RitaMorgan]

I think it's quite an individual thing - if you feel breastfeeding is established and everything is going well at 4 weeks you might want to try then. However, if you've had initial issues/supply problems/difficulty with latching you may want to wait a little longer.

[Milkybrew]

I was forced to introduce a bottle at ten days old, had completely no choice due to DD having a serious medical condition. Also had to solely express for 3 days to keep my supply up at this point. Thankfully it worked out fine for us, no confusion and she is still breastfed at 4 months. I had worked hard at getting breastfeeding established and sorted out latch problems so I guess this helped. I used the closer to nature bottles as they are meant to be the most breast like.

[MrsVidic]

I would echo those who said sooner rather than later- DD is 6 weeks and we are trying to introduce a bottle of ebm

[HandMini]

We did bottle at 5 weeks due to my v sore nipples needing a rest. My baby took to the bottle fine and did not seem to suffer any "confusion".

We just used standard Avent and Medela teats (although I did spend waste a lot of money on the Medela Calma teat because it is supposed to replicate breastfeeding). My view is that a certain type of teat/bottle is going to make or break it for you.

Start slowly - perhaps just one bottle every few days, and make sure you offer the breast as much as before.

[BaaBaaHerdwickSheep]

Everyone I know who introduced a bottle successfully (including me) did so between 2 and 6 weeks. These were nearly all taking expressed milk, but one or two with formula. ALL BFd for several months beyond that point.

I know a number of people who introduced later and never got the baby to take the bottle. I think as someone above says, if you've had problems with latch etc you may want to wait, but I genuinely don't know anyone who's baby has had 'nipple confusion'.

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

I'm going to try it tomorrow (5 and a half weeks) so I'll let you know how it goes

[BaaBaaHerdwickSheep]

I should add by the way that for us (at about 4-5 weeks) it didn't cause the remotest issue with BFing, but did take at least a week for DS to comfortably take the bottle. I got DH to do this feed and he did so with a lot more patience than I could have managed. It was SLOW going and a lot of milk got dribbled (or wasted in my view, having spent lots of time expressing!!) and I was worried that this meant he wasn't taking to the bottle and I'd never be able to go out again! However, with a bit of patience and time it was all fine.