From breast to bottle at 2 weeks. Any tips?

[nearlymumofone]

For various reasons I am intending to introduce formula to my 2 week old. Anyone any tips on how best to do this? I am currently breast feeding him every 3 or so hours.

Thanks

To be honest, there are many opinions (and no doubt websites with advice) on how to do this, but what worked really well for us was to start by substituting one of the feeds with formula and then transition from there depending on how your baby takes to it. My personal opinion is that the choice of baby bottle is important as our family are very concerned about using plastic bottles (because of the potential toxins that are released by the plastic), so we have switched to stainless steel.

We had to do this at two weeks as I was admitted to hospital onto a ward where she couldn't visit. We had no choice but to switch her over completely. I gave her the first bottle and then various family members took over and she was fine. She was feeding virtually constantly on the breast before, but quite quickly went to three hourly bottles. We used mam bottles and she took them straight away, and we had no issues with colic or wind. I, on the other hand, was in serious pain due to stopping feeding suddenly, and had to take pain relief and express small amounts to make it bearable. So for that reason, taxicats approach will probably work better, but you can go cold turkey if you need to.

nearly, when you say 'introduce formula' do you mean you want to switch totally or to include formula alongside bf? Sorry - not clear.