help want to bf but dd screaming for bottle?

[zar1]

hi, dd did not latch on so used teat for 3 months and expressed. for the first 3 and a bit months had mainly bm but then had to start ff. she is now 4 months and latched on about 3 weeks ago. frist was for 5 min at a time but now she keeps screaming for the bottle. anyone been in a similar situation? got any advice? do not want to stop trying.

It's easier for her to suck from bottle than breast. I had this trouble when had to top dd1 up with bottle at 12 weeks, but that was a whole different thing.
She may get used to the different sucking technique if you persevere, if you can bear the crying.

dh would like me to give up. after 5 min of listening to her cry i have to give her the bottle. some times it is after she has latched on and sucked for 5 mins then she will start crying and the only solution is the bottle.

zar - you need help and support. There are ways of fixing this that don't mean letting your baby cry, or fighting her to 'make' her breastfeed. Do give one of the helplines a ring - they will give you good info.

Helplines:

NCT Breastfeeding line 0870 444 8708

Breastfeeding Network 0870 900 8787

La Leche 0845 120 2918

Association of Breastfeeding Mothers 0870 401 7711

First of all, well done for persevering so long and getting your DD to latch on. You have done brilliantly. I went through the same with DS but he just would not latch on after about 3.5m.

I would strongly advise you to contact one of the helplines. I had a woman from the LLL help me and she was fantastic. There were loads of ideas to try and we really gave it our best shot. None of it involved DS screaming, or I wouldn't have continued.

One thing I tried that helped us a lot was to try and feed DS from the bottle if we had to, but in a similar position to BF and with my top off and really close to me. That seemed to help him associate feeding with my breasts, which made him keener to try.

Good luck, I really admire what you are doing

my dd2 was 11 weeks early and it took her a long time to learn how to bf. i ended up getting her out of hosptal and used the dr brown bottles. about 6 weeks later i finally made the switch, she would have been about 8 weeks old if she'd arrived on time. she took to it like a duck to water although i panicked that she wasn't getting enough even though i could express about 900ml before switching.

anyways, maybe switch the bottles over to the dr brown ones as i think this helped her get a better suck for when i did switch her, also try skin to skin contact whilst you bf and get your hv to come around and offer some more advice, mine was brilliant.