Urgent advice needed!

[Sunflowertall]

Offered a job but DD 8 months is ebf. Tried different bottles but she's having none of it. Job starts very soon. Need to crack bottle feeding asap! Please help, which bottles are best, should I just leave her for the day with DH?

Not aibu but I am desperate for some help

Your DH needs to be doing the bottles not you. She won't take first few from you as ita weird.

Go out for an hour while he feeds her so she knows you aren't there

I would definitely encourage DH to take over feeds. Start with water? Mix pumped milk into purées?

Yes leave with someone else.... You need to be no where near... Can have something that smells of you to try and help them feed...
Are you trying to bottle feed with your milk?
Could it be too cold?
Bottles... My midwife told me to buy ones with the teats most like me 🤣

Thank you. Tried going out for a few hours but she just screamed. Should I just stay away longer? Should I just not bf her until she bottle feeds? Feels so cruel but also I'm getting worried about starting work.

Definitely leave her with your husband. If it's you she'll only want the breast. She'll adapt quickly

Can you give her a T-shirt or a muslin that smells of you as a comfort and then have your DH take over the feeds?

Mam bottles are brilliant for this. Or a cup

It does seem harsh and a little cruel op but needs must. You will get there. Congrats on the new job by the way!

I forgot to say have you tried her with a sippy cup? Some babies who won't take a bottle are fine with a cup.

Make sure the milk is the right temperature - not cold, not hot

Thank you all! I was nervous to post as didn't want to be told off for taking a job when DD is still ebf. Feel terrible about it. Will try mam bottles and sippy cup (as in tommee tippee?) And will get DH to have her for the day

@Notimeforaname - why did you bother to post if the best you could offer was that the OP is being cruel to her baby?
Definitely try a cup but sometimes they don't drink as much from a cup.
How many feeds does she normally have from you in a day? Do you time it or feed on demand or after solids, etc? Could you start a feeding schedule (if you don't already)? You could still do the morning and evening feeds presumably, obviously depending on your hours, so is it just the day time one/s you need to crack?

How long will you be out of the house for? I went back to work when DD was 9 months old and she/we dropped the lunchtime feed but I was only unable to feed her 0800-1600. Was a bummer keeping the overnight feeds though

Otherwise I second the cup feeding.

My kids never used bottles and started using cups at 6 months. I would go straight to cups and let your husband work with it while you are out.

You are her mum but you are your own person too! Try not to feel too bad,you're getting a lot done good luck with bottles

Ohtherewearethen 😂 I didn't say op was cruel.
OP said it feels cruel to leave baby and I agreed. It can feel like that. Do read the thread properly 😂

When you all say cup, what sort of thing do you mean?

@Notimeforaname I understood the intent ☺️

My youngest wouldn't take bottles and we went straight to a Tommy tippee cup. They flow freely so easy to get the hang of.
I've heard munchkin ones are good but think they need to suck.
I was going back to work too. We carried on with a breast feed morning and night. Dd took until about 14mths before she dropped her bed time feed.

Whatever kind of cup she will take. I feed my newborn ebm from an open cup.

Is she good with solids/drinking water? At that age you can possibly get away with bf first thing, solids/water all day, bf at pick up and again before bed. She might wake for a feed too if she doesn't already. I think mine both had 4 bf per day, 3 solid meals with water to drink at that age.

My youngest never bottle fed. He would eat some solids while I was at work and make up breast feeding in the evening, over night and in the morning before work.

What’s her eating like apart from bf?

It sounds horrid but I had to go back to work when dd was 8 months old, an ebf bottle refuser who was keen on 2 hourly feeds! I had to go back so made a real effort to cut her daytime feeds to more of a manageable routine - first thing in the morning, mid-morning, early afternoon & then bedtime (& we Co-slept at night) - I didn’t go straight to that we just worked to it gradually but I had it in my head as the routine we were aiming for. Then dropped the mid-morning feed too by the time I actually went back to work - offered food instead, things like yoghurt etc. That meant there was only 1 daytime feed I couldn’t be there for. Sometimes she would take expressed milk in a sippy cup. Other times she wouldn’t but would have a bit of food instead. She was a very good eater, no weight worries etc so it was easier to do than for some babies.

I was so worried about that aspect before I went back & it was a big shift for us but it worked and we bf until I had to stop due to pregnancy sickness when she was around 18 months old.

Good luck

My DD never took a bottle, I went back to work when she was about 9 months. I just fed her before she went to nursery and then when I picked her up either at the nursery or at home. She just had food and water during the day

We used tommee tippee sippy cups whenever DS had to be left, as he would never take a bottle. He used them at nursery no problem. They do different ones, but something like this:

www.tommeetippee.com/en-gb/product/weaning/cups/cups-for-6-11-month-olds