Advice on how to get bt baby to take bottle pls

[Minnie24]

13 week old bf baby, I am now desperate to get her on bottles for various reasons but she isnt having any of it. T
Husband offers the bottle, we have tried diff bottles & formula but are getting no where. Any one have any suggestions?

When your husband offers the bottle, are you out of the room? My 7 month old has the occasional bottle of expressed milk and we started this a little earlier than you. The first time we tried I was in the room and she screamed the house down! Eventually she took a little from the bottle (with me feeding her) then she had a breastfeed. The next time my husband took her into another room with the bottle and she took it OK - we did this at a time where she was definitely hungry. I stayed out of sight/smell/earshot. Don't know if that helps as you may have already tried that. Daughter still prefers the breast but will take a bottle if I'm not there and it's her only option

Are you offering ebm? Even if you want to switch to FF, I'd try offering warm ebm in a bottle first so its only 1 new thing at a time. And make sure the teat is a bit milky so your LO might realise it's milk.

Have you tried ebm in the bottle? Might be easier to get her used to a different method without changing the taste too.

No advice, sorry, but in same position so can appreciate how frustrating this is.

DD is 8 weeks old and on Sat I went to my friends house for dinner and left her with DH to give 10pm expressed feed from bottle. She screamed the place down for half an hour and DH rang me to come home. Rushed back & she was sat happily with him playing!! So maybe she wasn't that hungry?
I managed to get her to take 30ml from bottle before screaming started again then she fell asleep. Fed as normal at about 3am.

Tried her again with a bottle yesterday after a breast feed and she took a similar amount but cried lots again.

Would appreciate any suggestions to get her to take bottle happliy and also wondering how much BF babies should be taking at a full feed?

Is it the same amount as formula? (so DD should be taking 150 - 180ml!!! Are nowhere near this amount)

Did a simliar thing with DS and he was totally fine and took expressed and formula no problem from about 6 weeks old. Wondering if I have left it too late?

We're still struggling with this, however some things that have helped us:

1. STICK WITH ONE BOTTLE AND TEAT - choose whichever has been most successful / least screamed at so far. My DD just got confused with all the different bottles and teats. Now she's 23 weeks she gets on better with the standard Medela breastfeeding bottle and teat so we've stck to that for past week (after I'd convinved DH to stop switching them) When she was younger she was better with the Medela Calma teat as it makes baby use same sucking as they do when BF.

1. REMEMBER THAT EVENING BF IS AS MUCH ABOUT COMFORT AS HUNGER. Cuddle up in dimly lit room, do skin-to-skin and try the bottle.

1. DON'T FORCE IT remove bottle if baby gets distressed. Try again when calm otherwise they begin to associate bottles with stress.

1. DISTRACT, DISTRACT, DISTRACT! One of the most successful EBM from bottle feeds with DD was in motorway services cafe - she was so bewildered by the new surroundings she took 4oz from bottle whilst looking around. At night DH has started to try feeding DD with bottle in one hand, mini multi-coloured glitter lamp (Christmas present for DD from my DM as DD loves lights) in the other. Room is dimly lit so the glitter light really sparkles and DD stares at sparkly lights and will take a couple of ounces.

1. AIM TEAT TO ROOF OF MOUTH - doesn't always work with DD but has never taken any milk from bottle when not aimed at roof of mouth.

1. CHECK YOUR EBM Taste your EBM before trying to feed it in a bottle (whether frozen or expressed earlier that day) as my BM seems to have shorter shelf-life than books / websites led to me to expect.

1. TAKE THE CHILL OFF by putting container of EBM in bowl of warm water before trying to feed. Unless DD is teething, she'll only tolerate luke-warm EBM in a bottle. If teething she'll take some cold EBM but more to feel the cool teat on her sore gums.

1. FEED AFTER A FEED - DD will take some EBM from bottle only if she's a little hungry but not really hungry. We've had most success with bottle 20 - 40 mins after a BF.

1. KEEP TRYING - try a bottle every day. We were making progress so stopped trying every day, then back to square one after 4 days of no bottle. Now making progress again so I make expressing milk every morning a priority and have bought a double pump to make this easier.

Good luck

QueenOfProcrastination - when do you find the best time to express is? Im concerned that if I pump there will then be no milk for her to breastfeed. Also do I need to wash and sterlise the pump each time I use it if I am using it several times a day. Im in a right old tiz about this. Thanks so much for the tips above.

Caesar, breastfed babies tend to take less than formula fed, and the amounts don't increase with age. The average daily intake is about 750ml, so if you divide that by the number of feeds in the day you'll get an idea of a full feed. So if she has 8 feeds a day then each one would be around 90ml.

Fwiw I pump at night as DD often has a bottle of ebm when I leave her with her Dad to settle her for the night. But it means my sleep is disturbed so I'm trying to get it down to before bed and in the morning only!

Alot of people seem to do best pumping during or after the first feed of the day.

Babies can get far more out than a pump so I wouldn't worry about there being no milk. DD can get some even straight after I express and if there's half an hours gap I've never noticed any difference in her feeding.

I express with double pump first thing in morning, usually before DD wakes. I only pump for 10 minutes though (have powerful pump) so I still have milk for DD's first feed. If DD wakes early / I oversleep then I feed DD then express with double pump, expressing after a feed just means I get approx 4oz rather than 6 - 8oz.

I wash out the bottles and pump when I make breakfast, then sterilise (in pan of boiling water for five minutes) while I make lunch. If I go out during the day I just sterilise the bottles and pump when I / DH make evening meal.

As DD is still going through the dreaded sleep regression, I don't usually get chance to express in the evening any more, but I will introduce a pre-bedtime(my bedtime that is) pumping session (in order to increase freezer stock of EBM) when she starts to settle to sleep properly before midnight again!

IME expressing in the morning is far more productive as I can get more from one ten min session first thing in morning than I can from 20 min pumping later in day. As DD still not always taking EBM from bottle I only aim to express 4 oz per day as the feed from a bottle doesn't need to be her before bed feed as I still BF after a bottle. We're just trying to get her to take a bottle without screaming so we can have the odd night out.

Hope this helps.

Brilliant, thanks for all the tips

DH off work Weds so we are going to give it another go then.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Minnie24!! Good luck x

Think I've just found some tips - had posted re expressing but Queen has answered lots of my questions. Good luck OP - my DS went from boobaholic to bottle maniac in a week or so; eve the most hardcore breastfeeder can get there!

Minnie - just saw your query below - don't worry about there being no milk if you pump, there is always some there and and your body will make more to meet the increased demand.
Hope you are getting on ok.