Mixed feeding. Any tips on how can I get my BF baby to take a bottle?

[AnnaBBad]

We've been trying to give our 6 week old a bottle once a day for a week or so now and he simply hates it. He has taken it a couple of times but only small amounts before coming to his senses. I've read that now is the best time to introduce it as breast feeding is established. My husband wants to be able to feed him and obviously I would like that too! We've tried formula and expressed milk, warm and cold, different teats and different times of day.
What else can we do?!
Any tips gratefully received.

[HopAndSkip]

What about putting the milk in a cup and feeding him that way (may need a very steady hand!). NICU advised that for any times breastfeeding wasn't possible to avoid nipple/teet confusion at first, so maybe it would still work?

Unless you really want to be able to, it might be less stressful to just give in and accept that he won't take it if you've tried every way. I spent about a month trying to convince my DD to take a bottle to get her medicine down her easier, and gave up in the end and just syringe it and watch the majority of it get spat back at me as it clearly wasn't going to happen!

Only a few months and daddy can feed him his first real food to make up for it!

[mameulah]

I totally, totally understand. About a week ago we were in exactly the same situation. It was a nightmare. The first attempt just about broke my heart. My dh was in the bedroom with our ds (seven weeks old at the time) SCREAMING and I was supposed to be in the living room expressing. I couldn't bear it and went into the bedroom to see what was happening and saw our son furiously rooting about on my dh and then I started crying too! There were a couple of more attempts that were as awful, and then...

...my DH squeezed a tiny little bit of the milk into our sons mouth so it touched his cheek. He then seemed to realise that it was food and took the bottle easily.

A few nights later I was at home attempting to feed him with a bottle. He put it in his mouth and sucked for ages. I was delighted but then realised he wasn't taking any milk. He then screamed for ages. I then squeezed a tiny little bit of milk in his mouth and he took it no problem.

Today we gave him a Tommee Tippee bottle for the first time, instead of the Aptamil ready made stuff. He was frustrated and angry until I squeezed a tiny bit of milk into his cheek......anyway, you get the picture.

Good luck! I hope it goes well. I'd love to know how you get on.

[AnnaBBad]

Hi, thanks for the replies. He takes the bottle in his mouth and has successfully had up to 60ml on one occasion, but he seems to have cottoned on to us and now he just screams. I feel bad as it's nt essential at the moment but it soon will be so we want to persevere now. My DH is going to try to catch him as he wakes now, while I stay well clear. I'll let you know if it's a success!

[Iggly]

When do you need to leave him?

Just wondering because obviously when they're older then the bottle is less of an issue. My dd has never had one (13 months) and I was leaving her from 6 months.

[AnnaBBad]

Hi Iggly, the first time will be in April for a wedding. But if he hasn't taken it by then he'll have to come too! Not too big a problem. I won't be going back to work until he's a year. But I guess I just would like to have a bit of the freedom bottles can give. I don't want to stop breastfeeding but sharing the feeding occasionally would be nice.
DH tried again today to no avail, I'm feeding him now. We'll try again tomorrow but just can't see it working!

[Iggly]

I know it sounds trite but don't get too hung up on sharing feeding. If its a bonding thing your DH can do that in other ways.

I guess there are many babies who never take a bottle but it's such a short period of time that it shouldn't matter too much.

[AnnaBBad]

True. Thanks.