Breast fed baby - one bottle feed a day

[123456kent]

My 4 month old baby is breast fed, but since very early on I’ve been really keen to give one bottle a day. Initially this was to give me a break at night but I soon realised that bfeeding at night made her sleep better and was a whole lot easier. So now I attempt to give her a bottle during the day. I want to so this so one day I can give up breastfeeding, I don’t want to be doing it when I go back to work when she is a year old. She weighs 14lb, and is on the 50th centile.
My issue is she has never taken more than 4oz in her life, and mostly she takes 1-1.5oz. She then stops. I wind her, get a good burp, put the bottle back, and she’s done, she won’t take a sip more. It’s SO frustrating. I can’t tell you how much milk I have chucked away! Clearly she takes me of this when breastfeeding or she wouldn’t be thriving, so why can’t she from a bottle? I use Mam bottles, teat 1.
Does anyone have any ideas why this may be? I ensure it’s always been 3 hours since the last breastfeed. Other ff babies of this age I meet are having 8oz every feed?!
Sometimes she refuses it completely, but 8/10 times she does what I have described above.

Are you using breast milk in the bottle?

She's very young to be thinking about what you'll do when she's one, bf at that age is totally different to how it is now.

No, it’s formula. I haven’t expressed in a while 1) because I just don’t have the time or milk to spare 2) because chucking away oz’s of wasted breast milk is even more soul destroying than formula
I was hoping to give up bfeeding around 8 months, so I obviously need to have her used to bottles by then

I believe breastfed babies take a much lower volume of milk at the breast. My friend has recently weaned her baby onto formula and had the same issue. She got round it by waiting until her baby was really hungry (rather than at first hunger cues) so less inclined to graze. She also would offer formula again at the next feed e.g. if baby only had 1.5oz the first time, the next feed she would perhaps take 4oz for example. She ultimately was weaning fully onto bottles though so not sure if you would want to give up 2 breastfeeds at this stage.

At 8 months she can have milk from a beaker like she'll have water so you don't need her to take bottles if you don't want to.

Breastfed babies are used to only taking maybe 3oz breast milk per feed. I would make up smaller amounts, 2oz at a time - maybe offer another 2oz an hour later.
None of my babies have ever taken 8oz! Even when fully on formula.

As your baby grows, I think the breastmilk adapts to suit their age, so the amount she drinks doesn’t necessarily increase. My DD is exactly the same as yours (10 days off 4 months and weighs just under a stone) and had a bottle every night for her first couple of months and was breastfed the rest of the time (we’ve dropped the FF now because my supply has caught up now so she doesn’t need it.) She got up to 5-6oz and no more.
Don’t panic, you’ll be giving her food by then so it will be different, and she will have some teeth and have changed so much by the time she’s one.

Teat 1 might be too small for her. I seem to remember my breastfed baby needing teat 2 when we introduced a bottle around 4 months. Worth a try?

Mam size 1 teats are tiny. We went onto size 2 after a few weeks.

Thanks.
The annoying Tommee Tippee machine only makes 4 oz and upwards bottles. I feel like it’s saying ‘as if any baby would ever take any less’ - mine has never taken 4oz! (Maybe once or twice).
I tried teat 2 twice and within seconds she had to stop feeding, I lifted her up and a huge burp came out - its like it filled her up with air.
Good to know about the beaker. Perhaps we just will bypass bottles altogether.
I just dont understand how she can be thriving if she is only having 3oz breast milk each time she feeds.
I’ve also tried different brands of formula but nothing changed.
She did perhaps take a bit more with Avent bottles, but I love the self sterilising facility with Maam so did want her on these if possible.

Breastfed babies just don't have to take increasingly large amounts of breastmilk as they get older as the composition changes - formula isn't more calorific as babies get older so they have to take larger amounts.

You can always just make two oz straight into the bottle instead of with a machine?

Just made her a 4oz bottle fully prepared I’d have to throw a few oz’s away.
She wouldn’t take one mouthful and hysterically screamed until I gave in and breastfed her.
Feel like crying! Breast feeding is so lovely but also so stifling. I would like to just be away from her for a few hours without worrying about her melting down or starving

Is there a dad around who can give the bottle while you're out? Not all babies will accept a second rate alternative when they know breastfeeding is an option!
Try not to fret too much, in a month or two it will be much easier to be apart as she can have solids.
I'm going to be away from my 5.5 month old for 5 hours tomorrow and only anticipate her needing 3oz formula and a mashed banana in that time.

DS had a bottle at bedtime so his Dad could feed. Usually expressed bm but sometimes formula. It also meant he could have s bottle if I left him with someone else and when he went to nursery he was already used to it. He wouldn't take a bottle in the night without a lot if persuasion

I’m still breastfeeding my son who is nearly 1. I have never given him a bottle. What’s the point? My DH (his dad) has given him bottles. But he associates me with breastfeeding so why would he take a bottle from me?

Get your partner to give the bottle. And don’t sweat it too much. Don’t let it stop you taking a break if you need one. If she’s hungry enough she’ll take the bottle.

Don’t fret OP. This is really normal at this age IME (three breastfed babies). All of it - taking much less from the bottle than I expected, refusing it completely and demanding the breast instead etc.

If you want to go out, go out. Your DD will almost certainly take a bottle from your partner when she gets hungry and she can’t smell your milk.

Thank you.
I think it’s all just getting to me a bit because we’ve hit regression this week, so I’m tired, and stressed about how long/how bad this is going to be. Plus she has developed an aversion to anyone not me or OH. And we have a night out we can’t miss next week (and don’t want to miss) which means grandparents are doing bedtime and overnight and I’m very worked up about my non feeding, non sleeping clingy baby and how badly it’s going to go.
I do the bottle in the day because we tried bedtime bottle for a month so and it just didn’t work - trying to make her hungry enough to accept a bottle completely wound her up at a cranky time anyway. So we stopped that and the idea is I give her one in the afternoon... or don’t, as the case may be!
Thanks

A baby at a year old is an entirely different than at 4 months, give it time! You'll definitely be able to leave baby at a year old all day and feed around work or whatever even if she never takes formula

We have been giving ds a bottle once a day since he was 4 weeks he’s now 7 weeks.
Dh/dd1 have given the bottle never me and I’ve used expressed milk up until 2 days ago when we started doing half and half breastmilk and formula to get him used to formula so I won’t have to express.
We use mam bottles and size 1 teats. He only takes half to one oz but today he took 2oz
Breastfed babies take much smaller amounts of milk so don’t worry too much about quantity at the moment. We use hipp organic formula it seems to be the mildest tasting and apparently breastfed babies like it best (saw that on another forum and bf babies accepted hipp more than any other brand)

I'd give the larger teat another go. I use mam bottles and was on size 2 around 2 months and size 3 around 4 months.

I spent almost 6 months trying to get my Baby to take a bottle. Offering milk in different bottles, at different times, of differing temperatures.

Nothing worked until one day - voila! She decided she was happy to have it and guzzled down 5oz.

My only advice would be not to stress . You're Baby will take more milk when she wants to. It will happen, keep
Giving her the 2 Oz and if you waste 2oz, so be it.

I have been trying to introduce a bottle a day to Dd too, but she will only take expressed breast milk, she refuses to take a bottle of formula but will drink expressed milk with minimal fuss (getting better every day)
Tried tommee tippee bottles but she prefers the Nuk bottles. Also won't take a bottle from me, so maybe best getting your dp to give her the bottle if possile. I usually disappear for a while whilst dp feeds dd.

Dr Brown's bottles are good for breastfed babies and prevent wind. I struggled with dd taking a bottle but those with a level 2 teat are working for 6mo dd.

Op is the milk warm? - my two would only take warm formula - I didn't have a perfect prep so not sure how it would come out. My two liked slow teats but I tried a lot of bottles before I found one they would like (different for each) dd liked Dh to give her bottles ds liked it to be me. So you can play around with a few more things if you want to persist.

Yep it’s warm. Tt machine doesn’t really do it warm enough. But I don’t think that’s the problem, as she either glugs down 1.5oz then stops, or point blank refuses to take a sip. So I don’t think it’s really the bottle, the taste, or the temperature.
Trying to combi feed has been nothing but a source of stress for me for 18 weeks now! I would give up altogether but then I think what about when I want to go out, how can I expect her to take a bottle if she isn’t regularly given one. I don’t want to go out a lot, just a few hours away from her once a month or so. That’s not a big ask is it...

I used to go out when Baby wouldn't take a bottle. Babysitter (Mum) would offer her a bottle. LO would scream away from it, then settle to flee without a final feed. If they're hungry, they will drink!