Advice and tips on offering my 6 week old a bottle of expressed breast milk

[Fionamcmahon79]

Hi All,

I am Breastfeeding my 6 week old DD but have also been introducing an expressed milk bottle in the evening since 2 weeks. Mostly she takes it and manages the teat no problem but never drinks more than 30-60 mls. I'm not so worried about the amount she's taking from the bottle each time, I'm just hoping to get her used to the bottle for later on down the line. I breastfed my other DD for 18 months and she never took a bottle because I left it too late. Basically, I don't want to go down the same route again. I'd like this baby to take a bottle. I'd love to any advice, tips, stories you can share with me. I'm using dr. Browns bottles btw.

Thanks in advance,
Fiona

No expert advice but I'd keep giving the bottle fairly regularly. A friend of mine gave one once a week most weeks then had a three week gap after which the baby totally refused them.

Try different temperatures and start almost as an activity - then allow her to learn iyswim. Mine started licking the bottle then after several sessions got drinking. She prefers her expressed milk quite warm - 2 oz, then warm another 1-2oz and give that after a break. Fuss pot lol.

Also try a wide flat Tommy Tippee style bottle and a narrower/softer Lansinoh style ... or even quite a basic small/squishy one. They don't know they're meant to prefer the "breast" bottles!

Oh and re the small amounts ... BF babies only take 24-28 fl oz PER DAY. Less than formula babies. They also feed more.
So if for example she feeds 10 times a day, a bottle might only be 2.4 fl oz!
Though they drink for a bottle they take bf quantities so smaller more frequent feeds.

Kelly Mom and LLL websites both have calculators.