Cannot get breastfed baby to take a bottle - help!

[Huishnish]

Ds2 is 6 months and I'm going back to work in 3 weeks. He is a total boob addict and I just cannot get him to take a bottle. MIL is looking after him when I work and she is freaking out about it. There's part of me that thinks he'll be fine when I'm not here and has no option but the bottle but I feel so emotional about leaving him anyway, plus I feel bad for MIL. She was here today and he cried every time I gave him to her. Ds1 was exactly the same and I ended up bringing him to work for 8 months until I finished feeding him at 1. I would so appreciate some advice- have tried different bottles and I've made myself relatively scarce while mil or DH is giving him the bottle. At the moment we're just trying 1 bottle a day and hoping he gets the hang of it.... totally panicking about the whole thing, wiuld be great to hear people's experiences.
TIA!

My DD1 eventually accepted a MAM bottle after I had tried her with just about every other bottle on the market (I must have spent hundreds of pounds, much to DHs despair!). The MAM bottles have got very flat teats which obviously appealed to her, they might be worth a try if you haven't already

How long have you been trying him on bottles? I've spent two weeks getting my ebf baby onto bottles, she had been reluctantly having bottles of expressed milk if I ever went out but begrudgingly! She is now on formula bottles and still being breast fed at night but it's taken a hell of a lot of persistence. Also she wil only drink from the avent natural ones, I think they seem most like a boob! Good luck with it, it's hard work!!

Thanks, I have tried mam bottles, they're certainly the most successful. He had 3 mouthfuls yesterday Did you try different formulas too? Have only tried altamil or expressed milk. I'm struggling to find time/energy to express with my toddler running around too

Having had two bottle refusers (both of whom eventually gave in), tricks that worked here were:

Breastflow bottles

And warming the milk AND teat to just above body temp.

With DS2, we also found that he's totally absorbed by CBeebies (DS1 watches, I haven't parked him in front of the tv intentionally just yet, honest!) during which time a warm bottle can be snuck in!

After about 4 weeks of these tactics he moved onto the cheaper and more abundant tommee tippee bottles at a reasonably achievable temperature!

Now we are onto the BM vs formula suspicion!

Good luck!

My DD1 has a cows milk allergy so she was on a prescription formula - no chance of anything different, having said that I got her to take the bottle with expressed milk happily first before I even attempted the formula.

A friend really struggled but found Dr Brown anti colic bottle worked ( ours are about to turn 4 so might not still be around!) worth a try x

I was told not to try and give a bottle when they are hungry, but to wait until they have had a bit of a feed. Because when very hungry they will get very upset at something they do not yet associate with food . But when calm they will play, explore and experiment and discover that the bottle does dispense nice tummy filling stuff.

(Didn't work with my bottle refuser though . Had to resort to leaving foods like mashed carrots mixed up with EBM and all the milk intake was from evening to morning.

Neither DC would accept a bottle from me as I smelt of boob milk. I had to leave and let DH tackle it. Very hard but it worked.

I wouldn't bother with a bottle at 6 months. Get a doidy open cup. He can drink from an open cup at 6+ months with help, and can eat food now during the day. Get her to give him milky porridge at breakfast, and some Greek yogurt in the afternoon. He can drink water and milk in open doidy cup, or a basic beaker rather than bottle.
He will presumably be breastfed still in the morning and evenings so can still get 3 breastfeeds in