Did anyone else have no problem giving EBM via a bottle?

[mears]

I have 4 children and they all took a bottle with no problem at all.

I never gave a bottle on a regular basis to make sure they took it. I gave EBM when i went back to work. The youngest was 13 weeks when i went back to work part-time and I had a practise the day before.

I started a breastfeed then once DS was sucking I slipped the nipple out and a bottle in. He took it no bother. Same with the rest of them.

I used a Maws teat that had a slit in it instead of a hole so that they could regulate the flow. I also used ordinary sized teats.

I some times think that anxiety is raised trying to get a baby to take a bottle before they need to, thus causing the baby to reject it. I am pretty laid back about it because I do believe a baby will not starve and will take it in the end.

Anyone else out there managed it easily? Any tips?

[Jojay]

My DS was a rubbish BFer to start with , no had bottles of EBM so he didn't starve. He got the hang of breast feeding after 2 weeks of persevering and has happily taken both since.

I think 'nipple confusion' is a myth invented to keep you breast feeding.

[fennel]

We didn't have problems but all of mine had a daily "practice" bottle of EBM from about 3 weeks. This worked for us and it meant that when we did really want them to take a bottle they didn't make a fuss. We did notice that if we didn't give a more or less daily bottle they started being less keen - so a different experience to Mears.

We followed the advice on this of a friend who had a slightly older baby and it was perhaps the single most useful pieces of advice I had about having a baby - especially if you know you are going to go back to work fairly soon and want to keep breastfeeding.

[Tommy]

am having similar problems with Ds3 (16 weeks) although I think because he rejected it, and Dh was feeding him, it is DH who has lost the confidence to try!

I was thinking of trying again with a beaker rather than a bottle next time

[DebsCee]

Squillams - this may not help you right now, but I could have written your post 3 days ago. My DS2 is now 21 weeks and we first went through a similar phase when he was 10 weeks old, which lasted 2 weeks - took less and less EBM until he got to the point of absolutely refusing it. He had taken a bottle of EBM from 4 weeks old, no problem. DH just persisted every night and I would BF him after the bottle to make sure he was still getting fed. It stopped as suddenly as it started and things went back to normal.

At 19 weeks, we have just been through another 2 weeks bottle refusal - went from taking 7oz each night to outright screaming and refusal and 3 days ago he started taking it again.

We changed nothing either time - like you we use the TT closer to nature bottles and number 1 teats - the number 2's just drowned him.

Can't suggest anything but patience and persistence I'm afraid, I think it must be one of those stages that they go through - very frustrating and bewildering all the same though.

[squilliams]

I've bf my 9 week ds from birth, but from 5 weeks he has had a bottle of ebm before bed-time, which he usually gulps down in record time. We managed to introduce a bottle quite easily (using the tommee tippee closer to nature bottles, with dh giving him the bottle with me out of the room). However, in the past week, he's been taking much less of the milk, gagging on the teat and chewing on the end of it. We've tried going up a teat size to size 2, but it hasn't helped. I don't think that it's because he's not hungry, as a couple of times he's had to be bf as well before he goes to sleep. Any ideas what could be causing this, or how to solve it?

[alex8]

I had no problems with 2 babies and they never had bottles regularly just 2-3 times a week. I never tried starting it off with a bf though. But baby number 2 didn't like the avent variflow 3 months+ teats my dh tried him with yesterday which ironically I think have a slit not a hole.

[kreamkrackers]

i know this is for people that have had no problems but we tried really hard to get dd2 to have a bottle and we struggled.

dd2 was 11 weeks early. tried to bf but she came home on ebm using a dr brown bottle. a few weeks later i switched to full bf.

a few months later i was starting to struggle with having a sn child and a bf baby. i needed a break and my mum offered to take her for a few hours if i could get her to have a drink. when we tried her with a bottle again she never took to it. screamed the house down. we had our hv coming out and trying her but she just wouldn't take to it. tried solidly one time for two days with me expressing the whole time. in the end i gave in.

i'm glad i've stuck with bf. she now takes about 4oz from a beaker once a week so i get a few hours of one to one time with dd1. my dp minds her for this my mum has still never babysat for us. it was hard to get her to do this but she just started to have a go in the end.

i've said with my next baby i'm deffo going to make sure he/she takes a bottle once a week just incase i ever need a break again.

[Coolmama]

I mixed-fed from when DS was very young due to a number of problems starting breast-feeding - so he would get a top-up from a bottle almost from newborn. Once the breastfeeding was settled at around 6 weeks he happily switched between the two with no difficulties at all.
I do think it did help that I wasn't stressed about the bottle thing - I just wanted to make sure that DS got fed. Also, ( and I know this goes against all popular advice) because he got a "taste for teat" from very young, there was no problem.