I'm glad I found this thread as I've been desperately trying to get my 6.5 month old dd to take milk from anything but my boob for the last couple of weeks, as i go back to work in a week and a half. But from what I've read there is no clear cut answer that applies to everyone.
I want to keep morning and evening breast feeds and have her on formula in the day - at first it seemed that she hated the formula, then it seemed it was the bottles, now it seems that it's down to a battle of wills!
I have had a number of successes but what's most frustrating is that they haven't stuck! And what's sad is that this preoccupation and failing battle is ruining my last couple of weeks of leave with my baby
dd took bottles of EBM (avent bottles that came with the pump) in the early weeks and months, but after no bottles for a while she refused one day when left with my godmother and preferred to go hungry. She also refused from daddy so I hunted out some new teats - I got the Boots medium flow teats with nipple like texture and gave her fresh EBM one morning for her first feed, heated to a bit warmer than body temperature - SUCCESS.
Then no bottles again for a while by the time she was around 5 months (as we'd been too happy with the ease and convenience of breastfeeding) so I thought I'd try going straight to a cup, as recommended by the HV at 6 months (without no-spill valve). She's happy sipping water and a bit of cartoned formula from it but otherwise I didn't have that much luck for a full milk feed.
So I decided to go back to the bottle and Boots teats. Not much luck at first but then I got her to take about half a feed of (coldish) formula after a swim last week (she was sat in her carseat, I was outside the car) - moderate success.
Next morning I gave her a small bottle of fresh EBM from the bottle and she took it, though not over-enthusiastically. Then that afternoon I tried her on a bottle of formula. I sat in a different place in the lounge, where she could see the trees blowing (me perched uncomfortably on the arm of the chair) and it took several minutes of tears, screaming and squirming just putting the teat in her mouth when on an open cry. Her crying finally paused here and there and suddenly she just started sucking and downed the whole thing. SUCCESS.
The next day I did the same thing - EBM in the morning and a bottle of formula at my boss's house (don't know if the change in environment made a difference again) and after some initial protests she took the whole bottle again.
But on the next couple of days I (perhaps over-optimistically) dropped the morning EBM and gave her the bottle of formula once late morning and once in the afternoon. Though she seemed quite eager for the bottle and kept reaching for it and putting it in her mouth, she seemed to have forgotten what to do and kept biting the teat in the corner of her mouth and looking round the room. She eventually took about half the bottle by which time it had gone cold but she must not have been that hungry as she was OK without a breast feed her until quite a bit later.
However the real bummer was the next day when daddy was to give her a bottle of EBM. Much to my bemusement he wasn't receptive to the pointers I wanted to give him (i.e. don't give in to her first protest against it, which I think he did) and I think he let her learn that if she protests and cries enough she won't have to take it. Now we have gone back to step -1. She absolutely won't take the bottle at all and protests to the point that I think I'm scarring her against the bottle forever. She'll still sip at a cup of milk but I can't see her taking a whole milk feed from it.
So I left it for a couple of days, hoping that her little memory would be erased of bad lessons and associations. This morning I went to give her a bottle of EBM and she opened her mouth to take it but dammit, I think it was too warm and by the time we'd cooled it she'd got into a tizz.
We're in Scotland this weekend and she's always better behaved with other people around, so I'll try properly with right temperatures, timing etc and have my fingers crossed.
FWIW, the HV told me yesterday that a lot of her breast-bottle mums have most luck with the simple 99p narrow NUK bottles that you'd find in a chemist. Haven't seen them myself (going to look today) but she said the teat is brown and looks a bit weird). If no luck, I might also look at those Mothercare bottles mentioned here.
It's sad having to go through this, as if I didn't have to go back to work I'd happily breastfeed for a few more months. But yes it is a good idea to get your LO used to the bottle from an early age, then you won't have to go through this panicked process further down the line.