Introducing bottle to breastfed newborn

[Somethingvague]

Hi there,

I am looking for advice on when/how to introduce a bottle to my baby, who is currently 3.5 weeks old. With my older child, I never really managed it until he randomly decided he would happily drink from a bottle at about 6 months (at which point we started doing a bottle of formula every night before bed), but I remember sometimes feeling quite trapped when he wouldn't take one.

My main concern is that I'm already prone to oversupply, fast let down and a resulting gassy baby (which was the same with my son) - if I start pumping for a bottle will this make it worse? Would I be better off just using formula when I give a bottle?

Also, how much should I give per bottle? And how often if I don't want baby to decide against bottles? Any other tips?

Thanks.

I would wait till 6-8 weeks- give your supply a chance to stabilise. If you can pump comfortably then baby will probably take that more willingly than formula.

Thank you. I don't think my supply really stabilised last time until around 12 weeks (or else by then my son was able to handle it better at least). I'm concerned about leaving it too late and having another bottle refuser.

I'm sure someone will tell me that I'm wrong but I would do it now. I left it about 5 or 6 weeks with my daughter and she never took a bottle. Anecdotally, I know scores of bottle-refusers and not a single "nipple confused" baby. Like I said though, I'm sure someone will be along to tell me that this is bad advice! Good luck though, whatever you decide!

Thank you! Yes I'm worried about leaving it too late. Just not sure about how much to express or when to do it - maybe overthinking? But definitely worried about oversupply as it was really tricky in the first few months with my son, so still wondering if maybe just a bottle of formula a day?