do i really have to offer a bottle from time to time?

[Tutter]

people keep nagging me to

ds2 is 10 weeks old

I am sure there are many people on here will say you dont have too. But I would worry how DB wold be fed if you were able to BF i.e if you got sick, hospitalised,had an emergency to deal with.

no, why ?

a bottle to whom?

Sherbert, that's the kind of thing you worry about if it happens! Do bottle fed mothers worry how they'll feed their baby should formula milk disappear?

Tutter - you don't

just feed and relax and ignore.

No you don't, Tutter. Ignore the naggers.

Nah, he'll be fine.

If something terrible happened they would get fluid in him some how.

How's it going now?

I think, sadly, that advice shows that many people don't properly understand that b/f is normal. It's as if bottle feeding is the baseline, b/f is something a bit odd and you have to be prepared in case something goes wrong and you have to revert.

Ignore, ignore, ignore. If you do want to go to bottles at any stage, you'll work it out.

It's up to you. Dd1 never took a bottle, even when I left her at nursery all day aged 9 months. I was more stressed than she was, though and found it really hard that she'd only have milk from me.

Dd2 I used to give a regular bottle to, but eventually it became obvious that she preferred the bottle to me. Really didn't want that to have happened but didn't want to go through all that stress again.

So I gave my dd3 at least 1 bottle of ebm a week from about 8 weeks just to keep her used to it and I can now happily leave her for a whole day leaving me much more relaxed!

And I am an unlucky person, was hospitalised for 24 hours when dd2 was 4 weeks old (a couple of days after trying her with a bottle for the 1st time). Was also hospitalised when dd3 was 7 months old for 2 nights and made it so much easier for us - glad I'd done it before it was a problem.

Make whatever decision is best for you and your baby - nobody else's business but yours. If you don't want to don't let them bully you!

yep the only reason i can think of doing it is to cover off the emergency me-going-into-hospital situation

i'm not planning on doing so

and am not planning to be away from ds2 while i'm bfing

and i hate expressing with a passion (that's the hating bit that's with a passion)

good, am reassured that i can continue to ignore

tra-laaa

canmummy - i'm hoping i have better luck than you, poor thing

all good thanks flamesparrow

ds2 gorgeous and feeds well - very well in fact - has gone from 25th to 98th centile

tutter I didn't with ds1 and he took a cup at 4mths and never had a bottle am planning to do the same with ds2 but leaving the cup till 6mths as that is now the recommended time for weaning
going from breast to cup certainly meant we didn't have to wean them off a bottle and ds1 self weaned from bf at 11mths

I had 3 babies and have never used a bottle or an ounce of formula. And yes, I did go back to work, but not very soon after birth.
Also yes, I did have a social life too - much sooner than I went back to work.

I've never heard of such a thing! No point in trying to 'prepare' for a hypothetical situation as you can't recreate the actual circumstances. My dd hated bottles etc. but when I had to go back to work when she was 6 months old she happily had a beaker in the day and bf when I was there.

I think she wd have been utterly bemused as to why I wd try and feed her with a bottle when I've got a perfectly good pair of t*ts!

None of my three ever had a bottle.
I have a friend who was hospitalised suddenly and unable to bf when her ds was 8 weeks. He didn't starve.

hey, thats just my view. But as we all know alternative views are no longer accepted on MN. Ho hum.

I get this nagging a lot too mainly from my mum. DD is 22 weeks never had formula, took a bottle about twice after I gave in to the nagging. I also hate expressing and it was horribly stressful getting her to have that bottle and for what? Shopping- just feed whilst out, evenings out- she's slept 7-4 since about 3/4 months so we've been for dinner out, cinema while she's asleep. I've even been into work just fed her before and after. Not going back til 9 months so I figure she can go straight to a cup. I'm afraid the nagging people are probably thinking of themselves. Why do people feel you need to feed a baby to bond with it? Dh doesn't feel that way at all. He didn't find the one bottle especially magical much prefers playing and cuddling.

Nope, you don't.
dd1 had one bottle of EBM once when I was distracting her with a tree I kept stressing I should give her a bottle and she didn't want to and it was just a PITA because in about half an hour she was big enough to drink from a cup and then she could have solids and she has never had a bottle!
dd2 I ditched the whole idea, much less stress.
even if you give a baby a bottle today, there is nothing to say she will take it next week. babies are like that. capricious little creatures

Oh for goodness sake, sherbert....your view is here, isn't it? In what sense is it not 'allowed"?

This is a talk board. People talk and discuss. They put different views, they debate, they put the opposite view to each other. To post your view, and then take the huff when people disagree with it, and explain why, is just daft.

If you don't want people to discuss and debate, and you don't want to hear their reaction to your views, then, um.....don't post! ?!

Sorry, 'not accepted' , not 'not allowed'.

My point remains, though.

Personally I agree with sherbert, only as I had that very situation and DD refused a bottle altogether until 7 months. I had to live with a retained placenta for 7 months as couldn't go into hospital and have a general anaesthetic whilst breastfeeding and had no alternative way to feed DD for 24hrs. BUT do whatever YOU feel is right for you and ignore whatever anyone else says (including me if you want to ) There is no 'correct' way, just what is right for you and your child.

Never given a bottle to my DD and still BFing at 11months. From other mothers experience, giving a bottle of express milk càn be a slippery slope. You get sick of expressing so go onto formula. Expressing is a complete waste of time unless you have too, you might as well feed. Just think of all that extra time you have by not having to sterlise and clean bottles.