when can you start mixing feeding straight from breast with feeding expressed breast milk from a bottle?

[yuletopian99]

The title says it all really. We have a one week old who has got into the swing of bfing really well,.and while I have no ulterior motive to add bottle feeding in faster than recommended, DH has asked when can we start mixing feeding straight from breast with feeding expressed breast milk from a bottle.
Think this is two-fold: he's concerned about us being so tied to DSs need to feed in terms of it preventing me doing anything else/making me excessively tired, and also he'd like a chance to bond a bit more himself.

I know it's recommended to wait a bit before using a bottle in tandem with breast direct to feed, but no idea how long?

I'm interested in replies to his too. My baby is two weeks old and I'm thinking ahead to wanting an evening out each week (regular activity) in 6 weeks or so. I've heard that if you leave it too late then they could end up a bottle refuser but too early and they could end up refusing the breast because feeding from a bottle is much easier. I was planning to try a bottle in about four weeks, when mine will be six weeks old, but am interested in others' opinions/ experiences.

What do YOU think about this issue? We've heard about your DH being concerned that you are going to be too tied down by your one week old son's needs and that you might get tired. Also he would like to bond with his son. How do YOU feel about it, seeing as you're the one who will be getting tired (expressing is at least as much hassle as BF direct by the way, in fact more because you have to sterilise containers and bottles)?

Your husband can bond with his son in many other ways than just feeding - how about bathing, playing, cuddling, taking for a walk, changing nappies? It's fine to want to express feeds but I'm just concerned from the tone of your post that your husband hasn't grasped the fact that his one week old son IS very needy of you and will be for some considerable time to come, and that making you express so he can have a go at feeding is going to make more work for you not less.

If you want to express and bottle feed you can do it any time but nipple confusion/bottle preference is an issue for some babies, especially if you do it frequently. Some people advise waiting for 6 weeks but I don't know if there is any particular evidence for that.

Mine ds2 is 2 weeks yesterday and he had his first bottle this morning. He has breast fed since no problems. I think its a bit of a myth to be honest, especially if they have had no problems feeding at all. I would def agree with not leaving it too long

It's definitely NOT a myth that some babies come to prefer a bottle rather than breast feeding direct, but obviously some babies switch between the two with no difficulties. With respect pmgkt, you can't really tell after one feed. If you search through threads on MN you will also find that lots of babies who previously happily took bottles suddenly decide to refuse them after all - there are no guarantees with babies

I think we tried a bottle around 4 wks and it was fine. Agree there are others ways to bond so don't do it just for that.

I occasionally express/freeze so I can leave DD for a few hours which is great but will say part of the attraction of BFeeding is the lack of sterilizing/heating bottles so I wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis as its double the work.

GL :)

I agree with provincial that expressing is far harder than feeding as you do have all the extra work that goes along with it. I thought it would be a nice idea with ds1 but I didn't get on with expressing at all. This time I have just gone straight to formula for his bottles. Also means that he is used to formula too if ever he needs it.

My dd2 is 4 weeks and we have been giving her 1 bottle of expressed milk last feed before bed (10-11pm usually) since she was 1 week old. Dh does the feed ad I get to bed a bit earlier. We've had no nipple confusion problems so far. We did the same with dd1 from 2 weeks old and it worked well for us - means I can usually get 4 hours unbroken sleep from 9.30 until 1.30, which definitely helps me feel almost human. Down side is I have to express twice a day to get enough milk, but only for about 10 mins a time, and the washing and sterilising not too much hassle really.

Hope you find something that works for you.

We did it from 1 week so dh could do one night feed as I was recovering from a c-section and massive haemmoraghe (sp?) No nipple confusion problems at all!

We also did it from week one with our DC2, also no nipple confusion.

Provincial I was making the observation based on ds1's experience, I am well aware that one feed is not enough to make any firm judgements on, I was purely pointing out that they don't go from one bottle to non feeding. My comments about it being a myth (by which I mean that it WILL confuse babies) seem to be borne out by others posting on here, but as you say babies don't come with any guarantees of anything and they each have their quirks, in feeding as with everything else.

If you want to be sure your baby will take a bottle I think you need to start about 2-3 weeks. And then you need to be consistent and give one every day. I used to express in the morning and feed whatever I got at the bedtime feed. It didn't really matter if I got 50mls or 150mls as I would normally bf after anyway, it just got them used to eating from a bottle. That was the reason for doing it. I used to express off the other side while i was feeding each morning so it wasn't that much of a faff. I think if you feed on demand and offer only one bottle a day, then nipple confusion is very unlikely to happen.

Just as an alternative bit of anecdata, my DS1 didn't take a bottle until 12 weeks (completely refused until then), didn't need to have one consistently every day (he maybe got one once a week), and would happily have drunk breastmilk out of an old sock. Your baby may vary. :)

I didn't express/give a bottle regularly until I went back to work - until then I really only used it for the odd night out, found it far too much faff and much more hassle than just feeding him myself.

Thanks for the responses! provinciallady I'd like the freedom of having a bottle option, although realise there's extra faff involved too in terms of prep. My mother's around to give dh and me a break, even if not for long (say an hour of an evening,) and i know it sounds selfish but it would be really nice to have that opportunity which is dependant on there being a way for him to feed without me being attached.

I definitely don't intend bottle to replace boob, and ideally want to avoid formula, but there just seem to be a lot of benefits in terms of flexibility if I can introduce an occasional bottle, without causing confusion. It sounds like when he's a month old we should be safe enough trying?

Do remember that especially when baby's a bit older, you don't need to be able to give a bottle to go out for an hour or two (though it's easier to do it in the evening once they've stopped doing that mammoth cluster feeding thing) - I've already gone out for a quick local drink with DP when DS2 was 5 weeks, leaving him napping with my aunt, and I regularly went out for a couple of hours for an early bird dinner or a swim or a coffee between feeds/during naps when DS1 was little. The worst that can happen is they'll wake up early and squawk for you, but to be honest that can happen even if they do get a bottle.

It is very handy for longer periods away from baby, I agree.