When to introduce a bottle to (hopefully!) EBF baby?

[BakingBunty]

Hello all
I'm 32 weeks pregnant with DC2. I found this board an absolute lifesaver when DS was small, and it's largely thanks to the advice I received here that I BF successfully to 15 months after a really bumpy start.
DS was an epic bottle and cup refuser. I ended up delaying my return to work, which wasn't all bad!? But put a strain on us financially.

I'm hoping to breastfeed again with DC2. However, this time, my husband is freelancing sporadically, and I will need to return to work when DC2 is around 6 months old as I'm the main breadwinner. I'm prepared to pump at work but obviously need to ensure (as far as it's possible to do so!) that I don't have another bottle refuser.

So, my question... when is the best stage to introduce a bottle (of expressed milk)? I've heard varying things... straight away, not before three weeks, not before six weeks.

I know that every baby is different, and that there's no guarantees that ANY baby will take a bottle, but I'd be really grateful for any advice.

Bump. Need same advice, so watching with interest.

DD took a bottle at 5 days old, I had trouble getting her to breastfeed, so had to pump & she greedily took it. I am starting to get out & about on my own a bit more now (8 weeks old) & she has continued to take the bottle for the past 2 times I've been out.

I have tommy tippee bottles, Ds also took from a bottle about 10 days old & we had no problems, so the sooner the better worked for us.

Once you've both got the hang of breast feeding, then introduce a bottle, but definitely within the first 2 weeks. Do NOT listen to anyone who say that a bottle will "confuse" a newborn, it won't. You need to get in there with a bottle before they realise that they can have a battle of wits about it!

Mmmm sorry to disagree but we were pushed to give bottle top-ups from 12 days. It caused us real problems and after about five days DD started to reject the breast. It took a lot if hardwork and was incredibly stressful to get her back on the breast. But I know that isn't everyone's experience.

Really interesting and helpful, thank you. Good to hear both sides as well. With DS, I think we just left it too late as so many people told us to wait at least 4 weeks. I think we will try in first fortnight but back off at first sign of breast rejection. Would love to hear any other experiences.

My DS had a bottle at 4/5 days as I couldn't get him to latch on the breast once my milk came in. Once we got back to breastfeeding (after brilliant help from a drop-in group near me) I didn't want to do anything to disrupt it so ended up leaving it until about 8 weeks to give him a bottle again. He took it the first time but then we had a few weeks of periodic refusal with major tantrums. He's now 14 weeks and we've been practicing lots as I am going to a wedding this weekend and he's been fine all week and gulping it down. If I could go back in time I'd have kept using a bottle from birth - say once or twice a week - or definitely try it by week 4. I also switched from medela calma to nuk bottles and he seems to prefer these.

We did it once DD had been BFing for about 4 weeks I think - when milk supply was well and truly in and she'd really got the hang of BFing. We kept it to one bottle a day (of EBM so as not to reduce demand/supply).

Kept up one bottle a day till about 6 months, then did about 1 or 2 a week till about 10 months. She switched to bottles at 10 months with no problems.

Having said that I think it does depend on what your child is like - sorry! Some seem to get really emotionally attached to the boob. Some don't really care as long as they get the milk and cuddles.

I've always introduced v early once my milk is in and bf is established. Can't remember ages but I didn't go by any rules. I did one bottle of ebm per day. It also got DH and the older siblings involved.

I'm not convinced the timing makes much of a difference tbh - DS1 we followed advice re waiting until established (I think about 6 weeks or so) - no issues at all until sudden and complete refusal at 4 months. DTs did exactly the same, except they had a nightly bottle of EBM with preemie vitamins within days. None of them ever went back buggers.

I was told (by a lactation consultant who turned out to be brilliant) that 4 weeks is about right. Much less likely to get breast refusal as BFing is pripey established but bottle refusal is also unlikely. Then keep it up at least once every few days.

I introduced a bottle at about 8 weeks, when everything had settled down. I had good advice and gave it once a week regardless of circumstances, that way she wouldn't refuse when it counted. Sorry, but if you introduce a bottle at two weeks you are impacting on the supply and demand element and can cause problems with weight gain in the baby and engorgement and mastitis in you; the issue is not just about nipple confusion.
Check this out kellymom has some good links about this

Sorry, hit post too soon.
I was going to say, that's probably not what you want to hear - but don't best yourself up about last time, it may not have made any difference.
Any thought on how long you'll be taking off? If you do end up with another bottle/cup refuser it might just be worth going with the flow - there are work-around a with solids, even ebm + the evil baby rice from a spoon if it comes to it (sadly that was best option for DS1 as I had to return PT at 5m). With the twins we accepted defeat much more easily and have been glad of it - all BF longish term.
Good luck!

I kind of think it's luck as well. I introduced a bottle at 4 weeks with one baby and 8 weeks with another, both with no problems though.

I had to give ebm in a bottle every feed from 1wk to 3wks when we got his tongue tie fixed. We kept up one per day but he stopped accepting it at 3-3.5mo.

I was super stressed as going back to work p/t at 6mo so tried really hard but he wouldn't take it. In the end we introduced baby porridge made up with ebm at 5.5mo then mixed foods at 6mo and he's been a brilliant eater. He doesn't drink enough milk but drinks water and eats dairy.

The only real downsides are that I have to do bedtimes as that's one if his few bfs and I don't feel I can night wean him so am still doing 1-2 feeds overnight (he's now 9.5mo).

So.... In my experience giving the bottle early did not put him off bf but also didn't help him accept bottles in the long run.

If you're worried about supply, pump at the same time as your dh/dp is feeding the baby with the bottle.

Great advice, thank you. Not worried about impacting on supply as would pump alongside bottle being given... It would be give DC the bottle experience rather than to get a break (though a break would be great too!?).

Foodie workarounds are interesting as an idea - I would be going back to work at around six months, so around weaning time and not super early, just earlier than last time! As well as refusing bottles and cups, DS also hated being spoon fed so we did baby led weaning by default... This meant that baby rice etc wasn't really an option - but could well be this time.

I'm making DS sound soooo awkward here! I know there are much harder scenarios to deal with, though it all felt like such hard work at the time. He's turned into the loveliest, easiest toddler (thank goodness...). Still doesn't drink much milk though!

Early on. First two weeks. Everyone will tell you not to, but pumping for an occasional bottle isn't going to destroy your supply, nor will your baby get confused.

You can't really guarantee her baby won't get confused

Sounds perfect then - don't over-think it and you might be pleasantly surprised

Hope so swan!

So good to see that this board is as helpful and supportive as it was three years ago. Sure I'll be hanging out here a lot in a couple of months, even as a second timer

We tried first at 3-4 weeks. He has a few bottles of expressed mol a week at nearly 7 weeks. I would really recommend the Medela Calma bottle as it works in a similar way to how they have to suck to bf

From my own personal experience and from talking to friends, it seems to be a lot more random/dependent on the individual baby than people talking about "vital windows to avoid bottle refusal" suggest.

Personally, DS1 refused bottles until 12 weeks (at which point I was in a new mum panic about having missed The Window, created a bottle refuser, aieeeee, etc.), after which I think he would have drunk milk out of an old boot, did not need a daily/weekly bottle to "remind him" etc. DS2 took a bottle much earlier on then refused point blank from 3 months: he did, however, get the hang of a Doidy cup at 4 months and was pretty good with a sippy cup not long after.