Going back to work at 5.5 months - help!

[Naomijay]

I EBF my little boy who is 12 weeks old. I'll be returning to work when he is 5.5 months and I hope to be combination feeding at that stage so I can breastfeed in the evenings and he can have expressed milk or formula during the day with his dad (we're doing shared parental leave).

With this in mind we've been trying to get him to take a bottle of expressed milk most days, however he mostly refuses it. Sometime he will take half an oz but will refuse and more. Other days he will just scream and spit it out. I have tried leaving the house and letting my partner do it but it makes no difference.
We've also tried three different bottles and several tests (tomee tippee, avent natural and nuk). From recommendation we tried a latex nipple on a nuk bottle and this is the one that he occasionally takes half an oz from.

My partner wants us to leave our baby with mum - my MIL over night while we're at a wedding so that he has to take the bottle but this makes me incredibly uncomfortable and I have refused to do so until he is happy to have bottle for a full feed. saying that - he needs to be able to take a bottle asap!

Does anyone have any tips or advice? Will appreciate anything supportive

No tips sorry but I'll be in the same situation in about 5 months so am following as suspect we'll end up in a similar situ as have two previous bottle refusers!

Have you tried a tommee tippee cup? Or a doidy cup?

I had the same problem. Tried so many bottles! In the end MAM worked. However, I had to leave her overnight and she realised if she was hungry she would have to take it. It was hard but it worked. I also found giving her a bottle when she was asleep helped. Mainly as she would take it so I knew it was just her wanting me instead. You can do it, it's just hard when you know you can stop it quickly. Good luck

I did this with DS. He mainly refused bottles! Our childminder & DH spooned milk in, moved onto an open cup, and within a few weeks he accepted the bottle (though expensive Breastflow bottles!).

It was ok. He BF'd a lot in the evenings and overnight. But I expected that, and it was worth it.

Good luck!

Have you tested your milk? Sounds weird, but DD refused ebm and turned out I had an issue where my milk turns 'bad' quickly, even if frozen. It's due to excess lipase and is easily resolved.

To test you milk express some into a cup and taste it straight away and then put in fridge and taste again once an hour. For most people your bm should last several days in fridge...

I would try the nuk with latex teet still.

However also try a doidy cup. It's open but slanted so you can see what your tipping. Mine could use with help from about 4 months so your son might be a bit young next.

Also bare in mind he can have solids from 6 months which is pretty much when you go back. So if he really won't take in bottle he can be fed morning by you, and early evening and later in evening. In the day he can be given formula slowly in doidy cup, and given baby porridge with milk from spoon and any other food from 6 months as with any baby. So can have solid breakfast, lunch and dinner also

What Artandco said, but it IS useful when they will take a bottle, and for that, persistence is key.
(I'm a month ahead of you on the same mission!)
What worked for us was for DH to give a bottle when I wasn't at home hovering to grab him back and whip out a boob and to do so at a time when he would be both good-humoured and hungry, and time would not be an issue. For us that was 11am, so on a weekend morning. DH to be chilled out about it and not worry one bit about mess, dribbles etc.
I went to work for a week last week - DS is 4 months and stilll ebf - and they did very well. There was a bit of crying DH and a lot of messy feeding and a few bottles rejected and re-submitted, but it was fine.