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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Breast onto Bottle Issues

3 replies

Siobs · 20/06/2018 09:15

So we've been trying to get our 14 week old onto the bottle for almost 6 weeks now with no joy. He won't seem to drink more than 50ml (some of which is sputtered up) and doesn't take the bottle seriously as a feed. My question is, do we persevere and if so, what techniques/times are best or do we give up and try the sippy cups as I'm supposed to go back to work in September but I'm worried he won't be 100% off the breast. Any advice or recommendations would be much appreciated!

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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JiltedJohnsJulie · 20/06/2018 15:15

Taking 50 ml is really good. Bf babies on average take 1floz per hour. He’s taking 1.69 floz at a time, which is fine at first a he’s currently only taking 25floz through the day from you.

The best way to do it is to drop one feed every 2 weeks to reduce your risk of Mastitis. I’d pick which feed you want to drop first and stick with giving him the bottle at that time. Two weeks later do the same again with another feed until you’re fully ffing.

You might find that you won’t have enough time to drop all feeds before going back to work. Sone Bfing Mums prefer to keep the feed going first thing and before bed as a way of reconnecting with their baby, it’s entirely up to you

Gradually as he takes less BM he will increase the amount of formula he takes but you need to give him time to get used to the new quantities of milk he will have to consume.

If you give one of the Bfing Helplines a call, a BFC will be able to help you to come up with a return to work plan and if you look in the MN archive, there will be a huge number of threads about bottle refusal [smile[

Original poster

Siobs · 21/06/2018 08:48

Hey, thanks for your advice. I guess it's just perseverance + we're going on holiday next week so will take a breather + try again when we get home. We've been trying every day + then getting stressed when it doesn't improve which isn't helping - will try to put less pressure on it + see how we go. Thanks again!

OP posts:

JiltedJohnsJulie · 21/06/2018 18:21

It sounds like a break might do you both good. Alternatively, you could tell DH he is doing one of the feeds, maybe the first one and let him get on with it

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