Best time of day introduce bottle?

[eeanne]

Introducing bottles of expressed BM to exclusively breastfed 4 week old shortly as I live in a country with short mat leave. With DC1 I waited too long and it was a struggle.

Is there an ideal time of day to offer the bottle? I’ve gotten advice to give at night as a “dream feed” but I express best in the morning so would be easier to give a bottle
of “fresh” milk late morning or early afternoon.

And should I offer one daily until I’m back at work so baby is fully used to it?

I started my LO on a bottle at 4 or 5 weeks as I was also going back to work.

I also gave expressed milk. If you're planning to express and immediate give your LO that milk, I wouldn't worry about it being "fresh" as you'll have to warm it anyway as it cools pretty quick. If you're thinking in terms of volume of milk available in your boobs, maybe you could build up a bit of a supply so you have the boobs in reserve?

I expressed on each boob after a feed, pumping dry the feeding boob and for 5 minutes on the other side. That way it increased my supply, allowing me to build up a store in the freezer. Depending on whether you will continue to express, it's good to have natural oversupply.

As for time of day, I'm not sure how much it matters. I did mine in the afternoon. I gave it slightly earlier than the feeding time so there wouldn't be any distress. I also made sure the milk was exactly 37 degrees (I used a thermometer!).

You might have to try a few different teats. I started with Tomie Tippie one, but moved to Mam.

Anecdotally I've heard girls can be fussier about teat types.

I started mine on one bottle a day at 6 weeks and had no problem with the teat etc; we were told to offer it when she isn’t at peak hunger as it can be stressful so we have it to her about 2 hours after a breastfeed at some point during the day. If she’s going to need to take the bottle during the day when you’re at work I would say give it to her during the day and I’d do it consistently until you go back to work; maybe every other day if not every day.