When to introduce a bottle...?

[AnnaK]

I am expecting in 3 weeks and plan to b/f if I can but have been given conflicting advice as to when to introduce a bottle of expressed milk. My breastfeeding teacher said to leave it for upto 6 weeks before offering a bottle but my sister was told to introduce one as soon as possible so the baby would get used to the different methods of sucking and not refuse a bottle when given one later. (Her baby is now 2 and 1/2.)
Any thoughts...

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We introduced DS1 to a bottle of ebm when he was six weeks and that seemed to be fine.

Didn't stop him going off bottles by the time I returned to work though. Very unpredictable things, babies.

Personally I hated the whole performance of expressing so much that I just never bothered doing it with DS2, just offered him a bottle when he was about six months and he took it quite happily!

I introduced a bottle the week before I went back to work at 14 weeks. I did it by starting to breast feed the pulled him off and stuck bottle teat in - no problem

I think as soon as possible in case they do refuse later, but definitely not until breast-feeding is well-established.

Good luck!

I left it to 6 weeks as recommended by the midwife. I think Gina Ford says earlier - not sure as never read her! DD took the bottle no problem at this stage and for about 2 months but then I left it about a week, for various unplanned reasons and she screamed blue murder when she was given her next one (which was at 2 in the morning !). We then had to go through quite a difficult stage of reintroducing a bottle a day and expressing this was not difficult, just very boring! If we'd kept her at 1 every other day I'm sure she would have been fine.

We gave dd1 a bottle of expressed milk every day from 3 weeks and dd2 from one week. The rest of the time they were totally breastfed.

This was one of the best bits of advice I had from friends before my first baby. Loads of babies get fussy at around 6 weeks, I'd say it is really worth bothering with a daily expressed bottle from the first few weeks. Just one a day won't hurt breastfeeding and so many people have huge problems getting older babies to take a bottle. Also if you have a dh/dp around it means they can look after the baby more often - good news all round!

I'd be tempted to leave it until 6 weeks - I started giving one bottle of formula a day from around 2 weeks and it messed up my milk supply.

it seems to depend on whether you are giving expressed or forumla in the bottle, which will depend how easy you find expressing. that seems to depend on whether you have naturally leaky boobs. I found it easier than breastfeeding with dd1. some people can't do it at all.

It is better to make sure that the baby is good at breastfeeding before introducing a bottle which can cause confusion. Babies are all individuals and take varying lengths of time to get feeding established. I would say that it is probably best not to introduce a bottle before 3 weeks to let allow your own supply to be established. Breatmilk does not need to be given by bottle - you can use a spoon or a cup for very young babies too.
I never introduced a routine bottle and didn't have a problem when I finally did for going back to work. I think it is something you shouldn't stress too much about. I think many a baby has been put off taking a bottle because of too many early attempts when everyone gets wound up about it.

Fennel,

You are probably right there. I found expressing a real nightmare though - it seemed to take so darn long, hence the one bottle of formula per day

I wish i had someone to tell me. Basically you know when yourself. My dd was a great feeder from the word go, she latched on easy and her weigh piled on therefore i should have listened to myself and known she had established feeding. I wish I had introduced a bottle from about 4 weeks and given her one a day... it would of made my life so much easier!!! I had planned to go back to work two days a week when she was 6 months and my hv said wait until she was 5 months. At 5 months I tried and she would just not take it, i tried everything they recommend, getting others to try, bought all different bottles/teats, starved her.... in the end after putting back my start date, i finally had to take a months leave to get her off the breast. after many tears from both sides and me lying awake worring at night i finally managed when she was 7 1/2 months and weaned her totally off onto formula at 8 mths. Im glad i bfed for that time but i had originally planned 5mths. Once you know your baby is feeding well do it, people give you so much conflicting advice, id like to strangle that hv who gave me her crao advice, she caused me alot of problems and a months wages!!!! wheni look back i had weeks if tears and stress which could of been avoided if i had gone by my own instinct. you will know your baby and when you do get him/her to take an expressed bottle then make sure you give them on a day, this way when you do decide to wean you will asave yourself a lot of hassle. im not being mean to hv's but sometimes they seem to go by the book and not by the baby! which as well know are so completely different.

I found bfeeding absolute agony to begin with. latch was fine but it still hurt. Came off antibiotics and discovered the new hell of breast thrush. I dreaded every feed, but my HV told me using a bottle would be a HUGE mistake, give him "nipple confusion" completely freak him out etc etc....

I was hospitalised when ds was 3weeks and had to have a scan that meant I couldnt bfeed for 12 hours. I couldnt express enough in time so had no choice but to feed him formula from a bottle - I wouldn't have considered it otherwise - but blimey I'm really glad I did. He took to it no problems at all and returned to me no problems too.

A week later during my second bout of antibiotic indused breast thrush I was so close to giving up. But it made such a difference knowing I could bottle feed too. Ever since I've been able to mix feed with no problems to supply (a small bottle of formula every 2 days or so so he wouldn't forget for about 5 months and gradually shifted balance to bottle).

I swear introducing a bottle so early helped me to breast feed for longer - he's 7 and a half months now and I still bfeed morning and evening and really enjoy it too.

Ds has never had problems with bottles - he can even drink from a cup himself now too. My bestfriend had a nightmare introducing a bottle at 3 months

I was like you treacletart - agony with feeding for first 6 weeks, so expressing early it was less painful and did help me stick to breastfeeding through the grim beginnings, til dd1 was 10 months old.
I think the breastfeeding teachers (my NCT ones) are more concerned about people giving up than they are about what mothers really want (ie some want to go back to work, use the occasional bottle etc).

I tried to give my baby expressed milk every fortnight so he would be OK when I went back to work. He was fine for about 10 weeks then refused. It just wasn't worth the stress of expressing, wondering if I had enough milk for the next feed, and then having him spit it out and scream. In the end I just didn't worry about it. My Gran always told me healthy babies wont starve and it was true. When I am not around, he slugs down expressed milk from a bottle, cup or spout! I went back to work at 10 months.

I have seen newborns take a bottle everyday and the refuse,.... there are NO guarantees but will recommend Mears' trick!

Our baby was born with a heart problem and spent his first 3 weeks in intensive care which meant from day one he had a mix of breastfeeding in the day and bottlefeeding expressed milk at night by the nurses. He took to both breast and bottle immediately and four months on we still mix between the two. I have friends who found it difficult to switch to a bottle after waiting for six weeks so from my very limited experience with my own baby I would say introduce them both as quickly as possible. The freedom of being able to let someone else do a feed (hubbie, mum, nurse etc) is well worth the effort of getting them used to both.

Hello
slight hi-jack rather than starting new thread s there is so much good advice here already

My DS2 is 5.5 months, eating solids happily and BF. I would like to introduce the odd bottle of EBM, just so I can have a break every now and then. I do not intend it to regularly replace a BF I would just like it as a now and then thing (so I can go out and have a life occasionally).

So the question is how do we do it? He was happy waving a little bottle with handles around today, giving it a quick chew on the teat and exploring it with his mouth. He wasn't hungry and didn' t suck but that wasn't the point, we just wanted to get him used to the feel of it.
So will he get the hang of sucking if we give it to him when he is expecting a BF and is hungry or do we have to teach him how to suck a teat?

Thanks