Introducing a bottle feed

[DoodleAlley]

To keep things short dd (breastfed) is 2 weeks old. After issues with bottles last time I want to introduce a bottle feed at a regular time in the next few weeks.

I know the risks of nipple confusion etc.

I was going to do the first "nighttime" feed but had forgotten its a good time for my milks supply so seems less good now.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for a good time of the day to introduce a bottle and any hints or tips.

Later in the day you won't generally have so much milk, so perhaps a teatime feed might be the best.

I'd all one of the bfing helplines and discuss it with a BFC. If you haven't got the numbers try googling national Breastfeeding helpline

And you do know don't you that hip just because they take bottles in the first few weeks doesn't mean they'll take it later on

I've introduced an evening bottle feed between 2 and 3 weeks with all three of my DC and it has worked well each time. None of them ever had nipple confusion, they never went on to refuse the bottle, and I continued to breastfeed successfully for all other feeds, so it's definitely doable!
I have always found sometime between 6 and 11pm to be the best time to introduce a regular bottle. Mainly because I always found my milk supply to be a bit low at that time of day, so a supplementary bottle helped them settle, but it was also nice for DH to be able to give a feed when he was back from work in the evening. I've always done the nighttime (i.e. post 11pm) feeds as breastfeeds only.

DS3 is 12 weeks old and is BF on demand for all feeds apart from the one daily bottle - basically he has a bath around 6:30 and is then given a bottle of formula, he settles to sleep around 7pm, I dreamfeed him around half ten and breastfeed on demand as necessary in the night. It works really well.

Absolute golden rule is - give a bottle every day, at around the same time. Make it part of the daily routine and don't skip a day if you can avoid it. Don't do what soooo many people do and give one or two bottles, go 'ooh good s/he takes a bottle', then not bother giving the bottle for another three months, only to find that the baby refuses one when offered! Obviously it does all depend on the baby to some extent but if you offer a daily bottle you are far less likely to have them refuse it further down the line.

Dd was a bottle refuser, she took one happily in the early days, but I stopped giving them when she was about 3 months old and ebf until she was about 5 months when I was going back to work and she had by that time developed an opinion that milk only came out of boobs. I had a rough week but finally managed to get her to take the bottle. This time I'm keeping on giving a bottle every couple of days and will be introducing one as the last feed before bed after her bath in the next week or so. This is purely selfish as I want dh to be able to do the bedtime routine so I can go out in the evening, and hopefully so she will be happy to take a bottle if I need to leave her during the day from time to time. No idea if this will work though! Babies generally have their own way of doing things!

I'm really keen to get my daughter to take a bottle. She's 13 weeks, has taken the bottles maybe 4 or 5 times, but generally doesn't take it. Screams blue murder. Anybody got any brilliant ideas? Same applies to both expressed milk and formula.