How old should baby be when you start expressing?

[FeelLikeTweedleDee]

How old should baby be when you start expressing?

There's no set age. The usual advice is wait until bfing is well established, usually around 6-8 weeks, but for some people earlier is fine, for others they need to wait longer.

You can express from as soon as your milk comes in, but it could cause nipple confusion if you want bf as well.

Are those "Closer to Nature" bottles any good?

I had to express from Birth as DD was tube fed. We introuduced bottles about 10days of age as she had to have top ups and giving them in a cup/syringe/atbreast supplementer was too much faff and were lucky with no nipple confusion at all. But then I used nipple shields as she wouldn't latch any other way- so prob was one bit of plastic to another!

I didn't like closer to nature bottles in early days- but from about 4/5 months they got better. IMHO the NUK teats are the best (and the ones the hospitals use) for the little ones. Also try breastflow bottles (less wind with them but feeds take longer but since bub has to work harder for food maybe less liklihood of nipple confusion.

Thandeka - why didn't you like the Closer to Nature bottles? The ones I have just bought have a slow flow and a teat the shape of a human breast.

My DD has always been BF but has taken closer to nature bottles with no problem at all since she was tiny. She used to struggle with the flow from the size 2 teats which came with the bottles so I bought her some variflow teats which work fine. She now has a bottle at her dream feed every night and this has never caused any problems with BF - although how much this is to do with the bottles, and how much is to do with her being a good feeder, I don't know!

We expressed at 3 weeks, with about a bottle a day with the tommee ones.

tbh every mothers experience will be different, and I'm afraid you'll have to find your own way. Just do what will help you and don't feel guilty about it. There will always be someone on here telling you you shouldn't be doing what ever it is.

I like them now but in early days DD would always manage to dribble most of the feed down her chin. Never worked out how to stop it but she is fine with them now but occasionally dribbles everywhere.

I started when DD was 2 weeks old. I had mastitis and could not bear to feed from the affected side so expressed instead. I wasn't about to waste the milk so DD had a mixture of breast, bottle and dummies from 2 weeks !! It hasn't done her any harm, she willingly takes a bottle and it enabled me to get some much needed "time off" in those first few weeks

I started at 3 days as I was leaking milk everywhere. Figured I might as well capture it.

But it was a lot of faff for just 1floz or so, I didn't pump much as baby needed it. I just took the pressure off and stashed it in the freezer.

I had to express when DS was 5 days old so that they could cup feed him in hospital as he was jaundiced and had lost too much weight. After that I did express for the odd bottle if I went out when he was sub-6 months, but no major expressing regime - just to put the other side, it's not something that you have to do if bf, just soemthing that can be handy.