Switching from breast to bottle - back to work in 4 weeks!!!

[mummy1clare]

We have used a bottle with DD since she was 3 weeks - she took to it well (now 5m1week). However we have not been using it as often as we should - we gave it to her for a whole day about 6 weeks ago as I went to a hen day - she was fine. Last Sunday we tried formula for the first time and she went mad. We put it down to the formula.

On the Monday I had to go to work and she was to have some expressed milk - unfortunately she would not take it ( I had to rush home 6 hours between a feed - she wasn't happy!!).

We have tried on and off since trying to get her to drink out of the bottle and have now started trying different teats. Just wondered if anyone had any advice they could give us.

Cx

Maybe she'll take it out of a beaker with a soft spout (not the ones she has to suck on but they're fairly free flowing)

Or from an open cup?

or a spoon

tomme tippee makes a beaker for 4+ months with one hole in the spout and no valve. it may be the simplest beaker to go straight from breast to cup.

Thanks everyone - all good stuff. Will try all these ideas - nursery insists on a bottle but maybe they will have to try something new.

They insist on a bottle!!! Thats not their call to be honest. Lots of babies go straight to cups from 4-6 months.

My bf dd2 who is 6 months this week wuld never take a bottle. I have tried her on those new Tommy Tippee closer to nature ones - they have a reallllly wide teat. Dd2 took it straight away- result - so I can now have a social life!

Are you going to provide expressed milk or give formula? If your lo won't take formula - mix it with bm and increase the quantities of formula - sneaky but works - I did this with formula and cows milk when dd1 was 12 months.

HTH

We've got the "close to nature" bottle as well but ds scream to death when we try it (he is now 12 weeks). We about to give up trying bottles now... Just to say the bottle is not definitely working but I've heard positive stories of it and worth trying.

My DS refused a bottle for months until I had a cupboard full of different ones!
About a month before I went back to work we did cold turkey, where I just didn't offer him bf in the day, only a bottle - and about 4 days in, he started drinking from the bottle.
The tommee tippee back to nature one was quite good - but the best was the cheapy latex teat from Boots on a long, tall bottle. The teat is quite tall and thin and soft (it's a yellowy colour) and he took to that more easily than anything else.
Having also got a cupboard full of beakers, I'd recommend one from Superdrug that didn't have a valve or anything complicated, but had a lovely soft spout with two holes in it, the beaker has handles, it works like a treat, and was very cheap!