Advice about introducing bottle of EBM to exclusively BF baby, please.

[JoyceBarnaby]

DD is 4 weeks old on Tuesday and is exclusively BF. When I fed my DS, I didn't introduce a bottle until 3 months and he was having none of it. By the time he was 6mo, I gave up trying and accepted he would never have a bottle!

I only want to be able to give the occasional bottle of EBM for a bit of respite and I intend on BFing DD for a year, like I did DS. I know some mums who have successfully introduced a bottle of EBM at 4-6 weeks, so I'm guessing my window of opportunity is nigh. But would I be better off giving a bottle of EBM daily?

Any advice or experience would be much appreciated!!

I gave a bottle once or twice a week from about 4 weeks to 4 months, then one daily from 4 months to 8 months. Every baby is different though, some would happily accept a bottle for the first time at 3 months, some would have a bottle every day and then reject it suddenly. DS became a bottle refuser at 10 months

Thanks, Rita. If only DD could tell me what sort of baby she will be!! She is a much better feeder than DS (or I am better at it now!) so I'm hoping this will translate to bottles!! It's good to be optimistic, no?!!

When you started at 4 weeks, how much did you put in a bottle? Did you only express once or twice a week? I'm fairly confident with expressing (esp after expressing LOADS for DD in SCBU) but I wonder if I'd need to express every day to maintain supply?

I used formula as I'm no good at expressing, but he had an oz at a time at most. It was just to get him used to bottles rather than to replace a feed.

Yes, I suppose that's my main goal at this stage. I can express an oz now without any practice, so I guess I can start with that!

Thanks.

My DS is also 4 weeks and EBF. I gave him his first bottle last week, I managed to express 2oz and got my DH to feed him. He took it readily but the flow was a bit faster than my breasts and he struggled to keep up a bit but since then has had a couple more bottles and taken them well - I expressed 5oz yesterday in 5 mins after having a much needed lie-in and only waking because my breasts were bursting!
I have done similar with my other 2 DCs and never had a problem with them rejecting boobs or bottles. However my sister's DD did reject bottles after having had them for a while. She is now 14 months and still BF won't take a bottle or milk in a cup.

When iwe had ds we introduced a bottle about 5-6weeks of bm and then daily 9more often than not) when dh got home from work and when i wentout of an evening. Think i missed the same window of opportunity with dd who is just useless at sucking on a bottle, due back to work in a week and am just hoping that maybe she will twig this is her only option while i am away. Good luck