Earliest people have expressed using a bottle (not spoon Doidy etc).

[mylittlepuds]

Being induced for DC2 tomorrow (arrrgghhh!).

Anyhow - fed DS1 for 10 months until he lost interest. However I really put myself through the mill in terms of lack of sleep etc to bf. I don't feel I can do it again lack of sleep wise as will have a toddler and baby to deal with and struggle with anxiety made worse through little sleep.

We tried to express feed DS from 6 weeks as recommended (any earlier we were told there was risk of nipple confusion). However he never took to it, despite so many attempts with so many different bottles. He'd maybe have a bit and then refuse the rest at best. Never a full feed.

So...what's the earliest people have achieved expressing with a bottle with no nipple confusion? I'm not interested in spoon feeding/Doidy etc - we need full proper no faff feeds to allow me to get some sleep in the night!

Any advice appreciated.

I started DD3 on a bottle a day of expressed when she was 3 weeks old. I was going back to work, although from home and I needed to be sure she could have the odd bottle when I had a tight deadline.

So she had a bottle every day in the early evening of milk expressed in the morning when I had tons. Never had any nipple confusion even though she was in nicu very sick for her first week, fed through a nasogastric tube, and she really only started to feed from me efficiently at around 2 weeks old, and I introduced a bottle a week after that.

I was expressing from the time she was born to feed to her through the NG tube so that wasn't a problem at all by then. And she was fine with the bottle teat.

And good luck for tomorrow! Congratulations. Lovely time of year for a birthday.

Ds was hospitalised due to failure to thrive on day 5 - he basically hated bf. anyway we fed him expressed milk down a tube for a few days and then from a bottle from then onwards. He got back on the boob a bit so he didn't get nipple confusion. I think that is the worry about bottles to early but the hospital basically said it was a myth.
Good luck with induction :-)

I introduced a bottle at around 2 weeks when sleep deprivation kicked in. DD switched back and forth between breast and bottle without any problems. Good luck

I introduced a bottle of expressed milk in the first few days and also a bottle of formula by DH. That way you can do as you need. This baby may be more settled?
Good luck!! New born snuggles...sigh.

I introduced a daily bedtime bottle of either expressed milk or formula from 2-3 weeks with each of mine - basically once they'd regained birthweight and I felt that BF was well enough established. For DS1 and 2 this was at 2 weeks, DS3 took slightly longer to regain birthweight so I waited till 3 weeks with him.

We never had any problems with nipple confusion at all. DS3 is nearly 10 weeks and will often expertly drain his bedtime bottle and then latch straight onto the breast for a quick comfort suck to finish off . I think they get used to whatever you get them used to, IYKWIM.

I think somewhere between 2 and 4 weeks is probably the best time to get them taking a bottle happily, I have several friends who waited a dutiful 6 weeks only to find that the baby refused the bottle by that point.

I introduced a bottle with no issues at 3 weeks. 2 different MWs told me that, in their experience, the recommended 6 weeks was often too long to wait.

Fabulous! Thanks guys. Three weeks I reckon then if I'm not dead through sleep deprivation by then.

Right off for some kip - looong day ahead of me.