Should I persist with a bottle for EBF baby?

[Dildals]

Hi - My DD is 6m old now. She is EBF but used to take the bottle in the first couple of months. Then I fell out of the habit of giving it to her and now she has realised that she LOVES boob! I have now gotten her back on to the bottle but it is a daily battle of wills.

I find it really hard to give her a bottle daily because she doesn't want it and I don't want it. We spend an hr+ of me coaxing her to have some milk and generally having a mediocre feed, time that we could spend playing and having fun. Then on top I need to sterilise and express. SUCH A FAFF!

I am telling myself I need to persist though because a) although I am generally happy to be with her for feeds it would be nice to have the flexibility of someone else (dad, grandparents) to give her a bottle (on an evening away I had to rush back home because Missy had decided a dream feed was in order!) b) when I go back to work in 4 months time I want her to be able to take a bottle because I may have to travel for work c) >1yo still take a bottle after their lunchtime nap (they do, don't they?) and I won't be there to give it to her.

Some people tell me to skip the bottle stage and go straight to cup, but that will still mean I will have to be around for every bed time feed, every morning feed and night feeds. Which means I will never be able to work late, go out to dinner with friends straight from work etc. Don't get me wrong I frikkin love breastfeeding and am happy to carry on till she self weans (although my friends looked at me horrified when I told them that) but I do need to be able to have the flexibility, especially when I am back at work.

It's my first baby so I just wanted to check whether my reasoning is right, like babies still take a fair amount of milk after 1yo, right, either from boob or bottle? Also during the daytime. I know some babies just drink water during the day with the childminder/nursery but then have a massive boob in the evening, it would be easier if she would be able to take a bottle with the childminder.

Any miracle solutions for EBF'ing now and getting her asap on the bottle the day I return to work is cool too. Or, just tell me I am doing the right thing persisting with this bottle, it's making my life miserable!

Ok, it sounds like the daily bottle is currently making both of you miserable. Some thoughts:

1)Definitely try a cup for milk! DS2 had no truck with bottles but took to a cup straight away. Breastfed babies often just have milk from boob and cup, no bottle.
2) FWIW, neither of mine had a daily bottle/cup and did just fine with EBM when I went back to work.
3) Older babies do still drink milk but they're a lot more flexible about it and their milk intake drops a fair bit when they really ramp up on solids. Both of mine only had/have one small cup of milk while I'm in work, and DS1 eventually got to a stage where someone else could put him to bed without milk no problem.

Thank you for your reply. We are also working on getting her to take a cup, with water at the minute. We still have a way to go re coordination!

There are just so many threads on here about babies reverse cycling or not wanting to wean off the boob that, although this bottle is making us miserable now, I don't want to end up being one of those threads in x months time!

Well, she'll be 10 months when you go back to work, yes? Whole different beast from feeding a 6 month old, in my experience. Solids intake tends to go way up at around 8/9 months, and with both of mine (went back to work at 10 and 12 months respectively) by the time I went back they were only missing one feed while I was at work. Even if she's hardcore cup and bottle refusing, that's not going to make a massive difference to her milk intake. Also keep going with the cup! DS2 got the hang of one of those slanty Doidy cups when he was quite teeny, as long as someone tipped it into his mouth and didn't mind some spillage. Nuk soft spout sippy (think they're branded something like "trainer cup" or "learner cup") also v popular. Generally "they" recommend even bottle fed babies transition to a cup at around a year, so for an older baby I think it makes more sense to focus on the cup.

It just sounds like you're putting yourself through an enormous amount of stress doing something neither of you like for something that may not make a huge difference in the long run. She'll get the hang of drinking milk from something that's not you eventually, promise! And good luck!