Bottle fear - am I being silly ?

[laural87]

Hi all

My daughter is 14 weeks old. I'm lucky enough to say that breastfeeding is going well and because of knowing just how lucky I am with that, I'm frightened to give a bottle incase it ruins the breastfeeding.

I wouldnt need give expressed milk often - we have a wedding in November and by that point she will be 6 months and weaning. I guess it's also the case of date nights with hubby etc too - that freedom to leave her with someone else if we needed to.

What should I do?

My HV said i might never have to give a bottle because by the wedding we could try her with one of these 360 cups.

Why do you all think? Anyone else felt like this? Or can I reassurance a bottle wouldn't put her off breastfeeding.

Thank you xx

At 6 months I'd be tempted to have both a bottle and a cup available as they are all different and some will refuse bottles at that age. It's not going to ruin breastfeeding by that time.

I had a similar worry with a much, much smaller baby (not yet 1 month) - I was desperate to try him on a bottle as I need him to take bottles in a couple of months time and don’t want to leave it long enough for him to refuse, but was absolutely petrified in case he then refused the breast. I had a good conversation with the midwife who talked some sense into me by basically saying that one bottle once is not going to ruin breastfeeding forever. So we tried it, baby took it perfectly, and went back to breast no problem. We are now doing a bottle every couple of days to keep baby familiar but without letting him get too used to bottle... I guess there is never a guarantee but would imagine by 6 months, it’s fairly unlikely that a very occasional bottle is going to do anything to disrupt breastfeeding.

My daughter has had one bottle a day since she was about 3 days old. She’s 9 months now and still breastfeeding. I think the risk of it ruining breastfeeding is when you’re ‘topping up’ with a bottle after each breastfeed, I know lots of people who have successfully combination fed. Keeps your options open if you do want to go out or have a nap or a full night sleep, and when you do want to stop breastfeeding your baby will be happy taking a bottle

My DC had one bottle a day (before bed, of expressed milk) from 5 weeks and breastfed happily for all other feeds, and still has one bf a day at 16 months.

I would fully recommend trying out a bottle (and/or cup) because if they do take it, with formula or ebm then you know you have that option and it can easily slot into a mainly bf diet, and if they're a bottle/cup refuser you'll know that too and can plan ahead accordingly.