Best way/time to introduce a bottle

[ASmidgeofMidge]

DS is 9w and exclusively breastfed. It feels fairly well established now, and he seems content and is gaining weight. I am hoping to acclimatise DS to occasional bottles of ebm, and DH has given 3-4 bottles (successfully) over the last month. Have been a bit worried about making this a more regular event because of the dreaded nipple confusion, but otoh I'm hoping to avoid bottle refusal in anticipation of going back to work/someone else being able to look after DS.
Have recently come across the suggestion that once we're at this stage, and by 8 weeks, if I want baby to accept an occasional bottle, a bottle should be offered consistently/regularly, eg once a day, as less frequently than this means baby won't 'remember' having a bottle from one bottle feed to the next so the acclimatisation becomes a bit meaningless iykwim.
Could I have people's thoughts?

I would say get on to a Regulat bottle straight away. I had a bottle refuser who took a bottle for 1st two weeks of life but at 3 months completely completely refused. I'm trying again now at 9 months to get her back on, but in all honesty I don't know if its going to work.

I'd say straight away too. My DS is 3 mo and is very temperamental with taking a bottle. Like yours he's been ebf, but did take the occasional bottle ok. I'm now trying to make this a more regular thing but with little success and it seems to be getting worse I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for any advice!

From the age of 6 weeks, I used to express with a manual pump every morning. It was when I had the most milk and, with practice, I could feed baby on one side while I pumped the other. The milk went in the fridge and DH would give it as the 10pm dreamfeed that night. It worked very well for us as I could go to bed at 7pm!! and DH loved doing dreamfeeds and having that involvement. Because DD had a bottle every night she also took to them well if I needed to leave her during the day.

I would do my best to offer a daily bottle from now on. Dd1 was a bottle refused, despite taking an occaisional one when she was little. She also had health problems and was very late weaning, so the whole thing was a bit of a nightmare.
DC2 and 3 were given daily ebm from about 6 weeks. The extra sterilizing was a bit of a faff, but it was absolutely worth it for the freedom it gave me (which was also essential due to dd1's frequent hospital stays).

Varies wildly from baby to baby, as far as I can tell - I don't think, despite all the "musts" and dire warnings about the need for daily bottles etc. going around, that there's anything you can do that will absolutely guarantee a bottle-taker (or a bottle resister).

DS1 wouldn't take a bottle until about 13 weeks (before which I got myself into knots thinking that I had missed the legendary "window of opportunity" that people talk about), after which I think he would have drunk milk out of an old sock, didn't have a regular bottle at all but would drink one any time it was offered. DS2 took a bottle earlier but then started refusing completely around 4 months - however, got the hang of a cup almost straight away and would take EBM from a Doidy at 4.5 months.

Thank you all. Definitely won't be treating DS taking bottles now as any guarantee of what's around the corner! Friend of mine has a dd who is a bottle refuser now after some weeks of accepting it. I think my main fear was that I would be starting 'too soon' and would end up with a DS with nipple confusion, but it sounds from the replies as if now is an ok time