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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

Fully breast fed & now trying to introduce formula...help!

16 replies

Hopeful2 · 17/03/2010 20:30

My 18 week old DS has been fully breast fed since birth, with the occassional bottle of expressed milk. There have never been any problems with him taking the bottle.
He has never gone through the night (longest he would sleep would be 5 hrs), but lately he is now waking every 2 hrs throughout the night. I have been advised to try formula for the last feed before bed, but he won't touch it. I've tried different brands also & still no joy. I have tried a bottle of expressed again just to heck it is not due to being fed from a bottle & he took that.
I have even tried spooning the formula & it ends up all down his front.
I need advice & if anyone else has had this problem as it is really starting to get me down, & the lack of sleep doesn't help.
Tonight I tried to give him a bottle of expressed & now he won't even take that, I think that's due to me trying the formula earlier though....
DS never use to have more than 10 mins during the day of sleep but now I manage to get him down from anything between 30 mins & an 1hr 30, which is still no-where near what they advise babies should have during the day. You'd think he'd make up for it during the night!!
I try & do activities also .ie. swimming, massage etc
Can anyone offer me some advice???

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cilitbang · 17/03/2010 20:44

I went for 10 months with my DS who wouldn't take a drop from a bottle despite me trying everything. This worked for me. Try feeding him from the bottle infront of a mirror and LOADs of verbal encouragement from you. If he takes only half an ounce then fab...just one step at a time. I would say don't limit the breast yet, introduce the bottle in this way gradually when he's taking enough from the bottle then I'd start to limit breast. Good luck.

tutu100 · 17/03/2010 20:49

I found with ds1 that giving formula made no difference to him sleeping through the night. Although I didn't start giving him formula until he was 7 months.

I would say not to bother with formula, but can someone give him the bottle of expressed milk so you can go to bed earlier and then you'll have had a good block of sleep before he wakes again?

Also having tried formula and my own EBM I can say formula tastes absolutely vile compared to bm so I'm not surprised now when bf babies refuse it.

cilitbang · 17/03/2010 20:49

Sorry, should have been more clear - by infront of the mirror I meant have him supported under his arms by you with one arm, your other arm is feeding him, holding the bottle. His back is on your chest, you are both looking at the mirror. Up close face to face, so he can see your face and his face in the mirror. hope it works for you, did for me. But don't expect too much too soon....one ounce at a time. (my boy took two suckles first time and I was ecstatic!)he now still loves his nighttime bottle....aged 3!

thisisyesterday · 17/03/2010 20:52

he is probably having a growth spurt. 18 weeks is prime time for it

and to make your body provide your milk he needs to feed more frequently. the quickest and easiest way to boost your supply to meet his demands is to breastfeed him as often as he asks.

sleep deprivation is hell (trust me, i know!), but it doesn;t last forever and tbh, it's sometimes easier to just offer the breast than to have a big fight over getting a bottle down him, which may not have any effect on his sleep anyway

cilitbang · 17/03/2010 20:54

I agree tutu, I would use expressed only for now...formula really tastes completely different to breastmilk, and if hes not used to it, its no wonder he doesn't like the taste.

omnishambles · 17/03/2010 20:56

hopeful - I dont think the formula will help either - my bf dd did this and it was because she was going through a developmental stage at that age - there was a lot going on and it made her wake up more - after a few weeks she started sleeping better again with only 1 waking.

I would try and get his daytime naps to be a bit more regular as well - the less they sleep in the day then weirdly sometimes the less they can sleep at night - just go out for along walk or drive at lunchtime so that he has a good solid sleep..

StarlightMcKenzie · 17/03/2010 20:56

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minxofmancunia · 17/03/2010 21:01

Breast fed babies do grow and thrive but I think due to the storage capacity of breats and things like babies being "snacky" and falling asleep feeding, they can end up feeding all the time and you can become a slave to bf.

Certainly for me I wasn't too bothered in the first 12 weeks but after this I don't think it's unusual to start wanting the odd hour to yourself or a bit of time away from your baby. I'm sure someone will come along to say they bf until their dc was 3 or whatever for the good of their child but the truth is the majority of women need and should have a break and some time to themselves away from a baby being clamped to them.

I had 2 bottle refusers, the slowly but surely method worked with dd ie trying her every single day until eventually she took it. We did it at teatime, I would go out, for the first few times she would hold out until bedtime (so would go from 2ish until 7ish without milk, a long time for her). It took 6 weeks to get her to accept a bottle but once she did she was fine and I gradually reduced bf to just the bedtime feed until 7 months.

DS was a different story, had to do cold turkey with him, went out for the afternoon and eventually he took it from dh, he was 4 months. But he screamed and kicked off every single time I went out and he needed a bottle for weeks and weeks and weeks. he wouldn't take a bottle from me. The only way round it was to stop bf which i do regret a bit, but January and feb of this year he fed hourly night and day and it made me ill. So did complete cold turkey and switched to exclusive ff, took about 2 weeks to get established.

I think if you want him to take a bottle try it at a different feed time when you can actually leave the house, he will take it eventually. I know how you're feeling, it really did my head in !

Original poster

Hopeful2 · 17/03/2010 21:04

Thanks for quick responses.
cilitbang I will try that, but I will give DS a little while before I attempt it.
thisisyesterday u may be right, but I just feel so tired & I get so frustrated which isn't fair on DS.
tutu100 I think it's when different people keep saying do this / try this & oh my son/daughter slept through from X amount of weeks etc etc...It just makes me feel that I must be doing something wrong.
The only thing I worry about is that I am meant to be going into work for a few hrs next week to sort out my part-time return to work request & I am now worried that my DP won't be able to feed DS a bottle of expressed if he gets hungry.
I think it's just the lack of sleep that is making everything feel like getting over a mountain when really it is just a molehill

OP posts:

SJisontheway · 18/03/2010 09:59

Not sure if this has been suggested already, but if the problem is mainly formula refusal rather than the bottle, try mixing, maybe one third formula to two thirds breast milk and gradually increase the amount of formula. This worked for my DD although she may have been a bit older. May not solve the sleep issues, but might be worth a try.

mrsflux · 18/03/2010 10:37

have you tried someone else giving formula?

maybe mummy smells like milk so why have weird formula when there's lovely milk nearby? (I FF ds but agree BF tastes better!)

that's what ds was like to start with.

try leaving him with someone else and let them have a crack while you stay out the way?

Octaviapink · 18/03/2010 14:32

Agree with those who've said that the formula won't make any difference to the amount of sleep. What worked for us was me going to bed about 8 so DH could give DD her bottle of expressed milk at about 10. Then I would do the small-hours feeds. That way I got a block of about four hours which got me through this stretch.

And ignore all the people who say their dc slept through from X weeks - they're probably 'misremembering'!

mrsflux · 18/03/2010 15:02

Should have said ff made no difference to ds- he dropped night feed at 9mo and is still not reliably sleeping through.

becs4444 · 18/03/2010 15:06

Hello, when I moved from bf to formula I expressed then but added 30mls of forumula. Over a oeriod of a week I gradualy added 60mls then 90mls and so on until it was a ful feed. This way my son slowly got used to the taste. I had tried a straight switch and he didn't ike it but I found he converted fine when I made it very gradual.

HTH
B x

mrsflux · 18/03/2010 15:12

Just remembered that ds didn't take to ff straight away or bottles as we didn't remember to get the temp as close to body temp as we could. He wasn't a fan of cold milk back then.

Original poster

Hopeful2 · 23/03/2010 19:30

Thanks for all the advise. Latest is DS now won't even take bottle of expressed milk!! Gave him a rest & tried again today which didn't go well at all. Even made DP give him the bottle in case he could smell milk from me (even though the bottle contained my milk). Tried making it warmer also...
Haven't got a clue what I'm going to do.
Can't even go to a wedding as they don't want children & obviously I can't leave DS with anyone as he now won't even take my milk from a bottle.
DP is going to the wedding though, so although I love being a mum & love my little DS with all my heart, I am a little frustrated.
Not sure what to try next...

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