From breast to bottle - any tips?

[CheshireEditor]

My children are now older, so need some up to date advice for a friend whoose having a tough time getting her 4 month old baby to take a bottle. I think she's used every sort of nipple and brand under the sun, got others to try giving it to her, used breast milk and formula etc etc.

Just wondered if you had any ideas I could suggest to her?

I was in your friend's position recently. Needed my baby to take a bottle as I returned to work at 6 months and she point blank refused it for weeks in the run up to my return.... she even went a full day without feeding when I did a KIT day and left her with my mum. Very stressful for all concerned.... In the end I succeeded by breast feeding for a couple of days using medela nipple shields at every feed. Then I managed to sneak a bottle in and she was used to the silicone so it worked! I too had tried every teat going. Once we'd won that battle she didn't seem to care/be able to differentiate between ebm and formula (I used Hipp Organic on recommendation that its taste is the closest to breast milk) as long as the milk was body temperature. At first she still really hankered after breast feeds, which meant mix feeding wasn't an option, as she would start refusing the bottle again if she thought a BF was a possibility. So I had I go cold turkey and finish BFing all together.

Hope this helps your friend, I remember the desperation all too well!