To ask for your tips on getting a BF baby to accept a bottle?

[Monkeynuts18]

Hi everyone

I’m sorry that this isn’t an AIBU but I’m a bit desperate and posting for traffic.

I’ve done plenty of Googling on this topic but have found with other things that often personal experience of others is often really helpful!

I’ve found out I need to have surgery next week so I need my 16 week old EBF baby to accept a bottle of EBM or formula.

We have tried a couple of different types of bottles (Medela and Tommee Tippee) but he just howls and howls!

Has anyone else been in a similar position and managed to persuade them to accept a bottle? Any advice/suggestions gratefully received. Thank you!

Some options ;
I minded my niece in a similar situation and used a lidded beaker, ordinary cup and milk on a spoon. Admittedly she had started solids and I could water down her porridge a bit.
A colleague of mine breast fed her friends baby in tandem when the baby's mother needed emergency surgery.
When I started work DS1 had never had a bottle , he was 12 weeks. He didn't guzzle milk down but did take enough, he wouldn't at home.

With mine, it was all down to the flow. I added a couple of holes to my avent teats and bingo, they were happy.

@applesandpears33

Interesting! I had a CT scan a couple of weeks PP (I had kidney stones during pregnancy which was nice) and I specifically asked about BF and they told me it was fine to feed him straight after if I needed to.

BeanTownNancy - sorry, only just seen your post. I was told it was the contrast they used during the CT scan that meant I couldn't breast feed, rather than the CT scan itself. They were checking to see if I had a pulmonary embolism.

would it help if your (breastless) DH is giving the bottle when DD is hungry and you are not nearby?

I tried with both of mine but failed.

I tried about 6 different bottles with various shapes and sizes of teats but my son never took a bottle. Some don't.

I never managed either I'm afraid, one day early on my ebf baby decided no more bottles and that was it. I spent countless hours researching online, too much money to contemplate on bottles. Nothing worked. He would go an incredibly long time without any milk (I didn't test this until after he started weaning, maybe around 9 months and could get sustenance from pouches etc... I had a wedding to go to. Didn't leave him again after that!)

I felt, at times, trapped and incredibly frustrated. But one day, after weaning eas well established, he stated drinking from a cup, and one day after that I realised I had forgotten the whole sorry saga until a cupboard of bottles nearly fell on my head.

It's tough, but it really is a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. I think if I had accepted it earlier on, it wound have been easier for me. Now have a dc2 and interested to see what will happen here, but the acceptance of everything (lack of sleep etc) is already helping me manage better!!