Which bottles??

[PrincessChick]

I have been efb my 3mo since birth. She has, so far, only had the boob and no bottles. Shes a 98th centile baby and feeds every 1.30 to 2 hours during the day and outside of naps. She's growing well and very happy. She has been really well behaved and a pretty good sleeper (11 til 5.30 most nights ) until the last couple of nights. She's had a cold and had her second lot of jabs yesterday. Last night was horrific. I've had 2 nights of very little sleep now (about 2 hours each night) and I could feel myself getting really cross with her last night. I feel horrible because she's just a little baby who's feeling poorly and needed a nice comforting mum rather than a crying sleep deprived mess. DH really isn't keen on bottles but, well, this morning I feel like we don't have a choice. I couldn't help thinking if he could have taken her downstairs to feed earlier in the evening and let me have some rest I wouldn't have been so grumpy and would have coped better. I really feel I have to make the case for introducing a possible bottle of expressed milk so that I can get more rest or go and do something for myself. Am I being selfish? Should I just keep to breastfeeding? I guess on the one hand it's just a few more months until she starts solids and needs me less / can start to drink from a cup. Can anyone recommend bottles which won't lead to her not wanting the boob anymore? DH is also worried about toxins in the bottles passing through to her. Plus his main comcern is the hassle factor. There's a part of me that really doesn't want to introduce bottles and I feel reallt guilty for wanting to do this but I can't see any other way and surely a happy, well rested, coping mum is important??

Medela Haberman teats are great for breast/bottle fed babies. The baby actually has to suck to get any milk, so it prevents laziness. Even the slowest flowing teat still dribbles some milk out. You can buy Haberman at larger Mothercares, or get them online. I believe the bottles are paraben free too.

In my opinion you should feel no guilt whatsoever in introducing a bottle of expressed milk (or formula for that matter but that's another discussion).

My DTs and DS before had no problems swapping between either Tommee Tippee or Dr Brown and the breast (introduced at about 6 weeks) and I'm sure there are lots of others that are good as well. I think Dr Brown bottles gave them less wind, but it might be my imagination (that's their claim/reason for being expensive).

The important thing is to make sure you get the teat for the youngest months so it's as slow as breast feeding and they still have to work at it.

At 3 months you might have some issues with your baby accepting a bottle, however. And for that matter, you may be able to get her to accept it from a cup or syringe anyway if you're really worried about bottles.

If my OH didn't give her the occasional bottle of expressed milk at night I would have gone crazy by now!

Bottles aren't much of a hassle, you just make sure they're sterilised and when you need it you take it out the fridge and warm it if you want to, seemples

My DD is 7 weeks and has had the occasional bottle since she was born, when I need a break or if I've gone out for a few hours by myself, it's done her no harm. As for the toxins passing to her from the bottle, I doubt so many people would use bottles if there really was a chance they could be harmful.

We give occasional bottles- it's very useful! It means that DP can give her feeds (a couple of times a week) and she still gets the goodness of breastmilk. We used advent as we got them free with our steriliser but I've heard tommer tippee are supposed to be really good x

Another note - if you are giving breastmilk, you don't need to sterilise the bottles, just give bottles and teats a good wash in hot soapy water and rinse to remove fat build up and deposits. Breastmilk has natural antiviral and antibacterial properties.

Breastmilk will also keep up to 8 hours at room temperature, a week in the fridge, or a year in a deep freeze. Your baby will not drink the milk if it is "off" so that's another thing less to worry about.

If you do go out of an evening, you may have to disappear to the toilets to express by hand, just to relieve any discomfort.

Blimey don't feel guilty! We started giving a bottle of EBM at 3 weeks! I had a very hungry baby and it meant that I could leave her for an hour here and there say to exercise or get my hair done. I'm not sure I'd have been able to keep BF without it.

We used Tommee tippee closer to nature bottles without any consequences of nipple confusion (despite the early start) but moved to avent bottles because the c2n teats kept blocking. What toxins does your DH think will be passed through bottles?! I've never heard of that.

Hi all, thanks for all the support and help. It's made me feel much better. Just driving back from town. Had a nice conversation with DH over lunch. He's totally on board and I may have misread his previous comments on this matter . I also told him how I am feeling like a failure for being so grumpy last night and he told me not to feel silly and we'll just see how we go with a bottle for acoiple weeks, just to give me a break. I feel massively relieved. Anyway, Mothercare had a sale on today so I've got a Dr Brown bottle kit to try and an Avent pump. I've got healthy snacks (plus a big bar of G&B chocolate) and Heat and I'll be getting on the pump shortly. Thanks again