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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

How do I return to work with breaastfeeding baby who won’t take a bottle?

9 replies

Onedropbeat · 13/11/2020 08:29

I am due to return to work when baby is 9 month old

I am so worried as she won’t take a bottle at all.

How do people manage it?

I returned to work after DC1 but he loved a bottle and I never felt guilty.

I can’t imagine the feeling of leaving DC2 knowing they won’t have a bottle

OP posts:
choirmumoftwo · 13/11/2020 08:38

My DS was like this and was never happy with a bottle. However, at 9 months he was able to use a cup (were they called sippy cups?) and was on solid foods so that's what he had while I was at work. I continued to breastfeed around my work hours.
Would that be an option for you?

YesILikeItToo · 13/11/2020 08:42

Like choirmum, I left dd at nursery with expressed milk and a cup. She might have been a little older than 9 months, but certainly not a year, because I stopped expressing at that point.

Onedropbeat · 13/11/2020 08:44

Yes i really hope she is at that stage by then.
She’s 6 months now and we’ve attempted to start weaning but she’s not at all ready yet so still milk around the clock and it’s hard to imagine her doing ok without it during the day in just 3 short months Sad

OP posts:
ChestnutSquash · 13/11/2020 08:46

None of mine would take a bottle, but were happy to use a sippy cup around the 8 month mark.
By 9 months they were having 3 feeds a day and eating solids. So an early morning feed, evening and sometimes around 10 pm.
My 2nd stopped breast feeding at 11 months because he preferred his solid food. The others went on longer, but only once or twice a day.

Onedropbeat · 13/11/2020 08:50

Thank you this makes me feel less anxious about it all

OP posts:
MumOfOneAndAHalf · 13/11/2020 08:51

I was exactly like you three months ago, and this week I went back to work and my DS 9months did fine with his sippy cup (sometimes with expressed milk and sometimes with water).
He has fed a bit more overnight making up for it.
My DS has also been a spoon refuser and slow to wean, but he is now taking enough food to be fine without me there.

HavelockVetinari · 13/11/2020 08:54

There's a big difference between a 6 month old and a 9 month old, don't worry! At 9 months baby will be eating solids (rather than smearing them into hair, clothes etc.) and won't need so much milk. A big feed first thing, one when you get home, then one at bedtime should be enough. And milk from a sippy cup will be ok (although you might find he takes a bottle when you're away all day).

CountFosco · 13/11/2020 08:56

I never gave any of my 3DC a bottle, they would drink from one of those fancy angled cups at home by 9 months. First one happily had a bottle of EBM at nursery despite never having had one before, second one refused EBM in a bottle or a sippy cup and would only drink water at nursery and started reverse cycling and waking more in the night for milk. They both started nursery at 9 months. Third one was a year when he started nursery, he had CMPA and only ever drank water at nursery (he hated soya milk).

They change so quickly in their first year, for us 3 months is nothing, to a 6 month old it's half a lifetime away.

NothingIsWrong · 13/11/2020 09:00

I went back to work when DS was 5 months and he wouldn't take a bottle. The childminder said just leave him - and when he wasn't near me he would take a bottle just fine. He never ever would take one for me, but was find with her.

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