Moving from breast feeding to combination

[jhb2013]

My 6 week old feeds well at the breast but we have just started to introduce bottles (expressed breast milk) as I will be going back to work in a few weeks time. However, she takes the first 30ml/1 oz fine and then screams. It takes ages for her to go back onto the bottle and then she will only take another 30ml/1oz before stopping completely. It’s my husband who is feeding her the bottles, so I can express. What are we doing wrong?!

What bottles/teats are you using?

Tommee Tippee size one teats. We tried size two yesterday but she couldn’t cope with it!

This may sound obvious but do you have the milk warmed enough? This was my problem at first. We were using expressed milk straight from the freezer and standing it in a mug of boiled water to defrost. But that only defrosts it, doesn't warm it. i found we had to replace the water in the mug after a few mins to keep it warm. Once we had the temperature right my DS started guzzling it down. We use TT teats as well although I know a lot of people don't rate them highly.

One of my babies easily switched to a bottle and another completely refused a bottle for months no matter what we did.

Sometimes trying a different type of bottle helps. For us MAM bottles worked in the end.

I'm using mam bottles and teats size 1 and she is having no issues. I think the flat teats definitely help as it makes her latch on similar to breast.

How often was she bf? She may not have been getting that much milk from you in one go. Could she be swallowing air from the bottle and getting wind? Is the flow of the teet too fast or to slow?

It might be worth exprimenting with different teets. It took some time for my DD to get get use to bottles but I think she was just very attached to the breast and used more for comfort so never properly settled with a bottle. It did help when we introduced a dummy so whoever was feeding her had a way to settle and comfort her when the breast wasn't available

We combination feed my almost 6 month old and have been for a couple of months now. We struggled with tommee tippee bottles and medela calma bottles but found mam works for us and Ive heard a few other people say mam works for them. We now have about 3/4 feeds a day bottle (formula or expressed if I have some but no worry if not) And 3/4 feeds a day breast. Baby switches no problem currently. Ds will also take milk warm or just room temperature. Will not take straight from the fridge. Try a different type of bottle. Lots of people don't rate tommee tippee.

We have been unsuccessfully trying to combi feed for 4 months, if she takes anything it will be 2oz, but more often than not she point blank refuses until i give her breast. She has never taken more than 4oz of a bottle. Her weight gain is perfect, so she must be taking exactly what she needs from me. I wish combi feeding could work for us, but it’s not.
Our moat successful bottle is Avent though