Need some help cos my ebf baby IS going to need to take a bottle

[herjazz]

Am v happy with how bf is going but our circumstances are such that our 4 week old baby may need to be fed by someone other than me. Have an older child with complex, life threatening health issues.

So what's the best way for introducing a bottle? I was reluctant to do this now and thought having some milk in the freezer was enough but have read a bit on here and heard from rl friends about babies refusing to take a bottle. Obv I don't want that. Nor do I want to knacker up bf, tho would say it's pretty well established now, baby gaining weight etc

So is there an optimum time for introducing bottle? And what type of bottle etc? I have a cup feeder thingie which dh tried to give him the weekend and he refused. Also mindful that it would most likely be my mum / inlaws feeding baby should me and dh dash off to hospital so the cup not the easiest of options for them

Tia for any help

Hi,

I started giving my DS a bottle of EBM once a week from about 4 weeks as I knew he'd need to when I went back to work just before he was 6 months.

I used the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles and DH gave him the feed (while I expressed in case of exploding :) )

He seemed to do ok with it and once a week was enough for him to get used to it.

He only really took 2 or 3oz at first I think.

Can't think what else to add, hope you get on ok.

DS2 took a bottle of expressed milk from about 4 weeks. At about 6 or 8 weeks I stopped as I couldn't be bothered with the faff of expressing, sterilising etc and it was easier to just feed him.

When I tried to get him to take a bottle at 5 months or so he point blank refused, nothing would persuade him. Even had to leave him for 24 hours and drank nothing the entire time I was gone .

Not sure this is helpful, except to say the you should do it sooner rather than later and keep it up so he doesn't forget

thankyou both for replying

Ooh so deffo sooner rather than later. And v good point bambino about keeping it up. I've already got a bit despondent with expressing (ie preferring to feed rather than the faff of it all)

Thanks again

I ebf exclusively after 3 weeks with ds1 for various reasons.

Make sure it is someone else rather than you who gives first bottle (so baby doesn't confuse as you smell like milk!), and just be patient:) It will come.
Good luck!! XX

Can you practise (ce?) cup feeding? It's done with newborns, but we used it successfully with ds when he was a little older (after having practiced in SCBU). It saved the need for having to worry about bottles.

DS2 had one bottle of EBM a week from 5-6 weeks as I knew I was doing to do some KIT days at work at 10 weeks, and I wanted him to accept a bottle. It varied but he did have at least one bottle of EBM a week, and at 6 months I am back at work and am mixed feeding, roughly half/half - he was happy to take bottle.

I just used avent bottles with newborn teats and actually just kept the bottles in the freezer, teat and all so it would be easy if a babysitter etc suddenly had to feed him.

With DD she took the EBM happily at 6 weeks so I though oh she will take a bottle so didn't keep it up and then had the same problem above that she rejected it later. If its essential that your baby needs to take a bottle then start at 4-6 weeks and go for 2 bottles a week.

Same as bambino. He had a bottle in the first few weeks and we thought, oh thats good he'll be fine. Dh tried him again at 13 wks and nope.

So yes its faff with the expressing but probably best to keep it up, just in case.

Maybe see if local baby cafe, NCT etc lend pumps so you can find one that suits you.

Hope for your older child's sake that no dashing off to hospital is needed.