Earliest to give EBM without causing nipple confusion? Exhausted from cluster feeds!

[sh77]

Hi
Apologies if this has been asked before. DS is 2.5 weeks old I am struggling physically with cluster feeding as he feeds for an hour after every other hour. Just wondered at what age it would be ok to give him expressed breast milk in a bottle without casuing too much nipple confusion and how often? I am finding that I get so exhausted at night that I feel like quitting BFing.

Also, if I store BM in the fridge, can I feed him straight away or does it need to be heated or at room temp?

Any advice would be most welcome!

I started a small daily bottle of EBM at about 2 weeks, no problems with nipple confusion at all. I think provided you stick to one bottle per day (but make sure you do offer one ideally every day or at least every other day to make sure he'll continue to take it!) then you should be OK. I used to get DH to offer a small bottle of EBM at the dreamfeed, and would then top up with a breastfeed afterwards.

Re storing in the fridge - personally I would warm the milk from fridge-cold by just putting the bottle into some hot water for a few moments so that it gets to body temperature i.e. a similar temperature to what he's used to.

Be warned though - a bottle of EBM may not do much to stop the cluster feeding. I only really introduced the bottle because I wanted to make sure they'd take one - never managed to express enough for an entire feed.

Do you feel your milk supply is well established now? I would wait until it is, most people find between 4-6 weeks is a good time to introduce a bottle. With my ds the hour long feeds every 2 hours only lasted for the first month anyway, then he started getting a bit more efficient.

Is there anything you can do to make the night feeds a bit easier for yourself - lying down and feeding in bed was a lifesaver for me. Meant I only needed to wake up enough to latch ds on then I could go back to sleep while he fed. By 3 months I had no idea how often he fed in the night as I couldn't remember waking up

Well I started at 10 days. (Yes, I couldn't cope with the sleepless nights that early on, and started passing her off on DH at 2am!) And had no problems.

I'm sure I read from around 2 weeks was okay. But don't quote me.

As a peer supporter, I've been told to recommend waiting six weeks - because of both nipple confusion, and disruption of your body's/baby's 'routine'. But we do also say if you really feel you have a feeding pattern established, do it earlier.

Remember though that not everyone finds expressing easy, and for some it's just not worth the hassle. It's no reflection on your milk supply either (ie just because a breast pump doesn't get loads out, it doesn't mean your baby isn't getting enough IYSWIM!)

Could you/somebody else take baby out in the buggy/sling/car sometimes to give you and your boobs a break? :)

I found expressing not worth the hassle. When they are feeding all the time it is really hard to fit in the expressing - or it was for me anyway but I could never get loads in 10 minutes like some people can.

If you do decide to give it a go, you could always cup feed the EBM rather than put it in a bottle to reduce the risk of nipple confusion.

Feeding lying down may help more TBH as expressing is an extra hassle.

You want to wait until you feel your LO has got the hang of bfing and there are no issues - but it may still cause issues, especially if you're not careful about insisting on a good latch with a bottle as well.

But yes, you can give ebm straight from the fridge - if they'll take it. My DD had all bottles fridge cold until 14 weeks - now she point blank refuses the bottle unless it's warm.

I waited until about 6 weeks - having followed the advice to ensure bf was well established. Looking back I'm sure I could have started much earlier - once home he never had any problems feeding so I think he was well eastablished by 2 weeks.

As someone else said - lying down side by side for night feeds was good for us (or should that be 'good for me'!)

I usually warmed any bottles stored in fridge (stood them in bowl of hot water) but I think he had some pretty much fridge temp - if they'll take it I wouldn't worry too much - its like when you start weaning they say babies don't need hot food like us so no need to heat. I think half of what we do is because we think it must be more pleasant for them but in reality they're probably not that
sophisticated!