when to start expressing

[lazycat]

bf going well with six-week old dd; would like to start expressing so that dh can feed her, but worried about her refusing the breast after being given a bottle. anyone know what i should do?

Breast feeding sounds pretty well established now so I would start expressing right away if you want to.

In fact, if you leave it too much longer, it may get harder to get her to take a bottle as she is so used to the breast.

I started expressing in the first week and my ds always happily took the breast or bottle.

I think so called 'nipple confusion' is a lot rarer than they make out.

Hi Lazycat, I gave DD bottle of EBM at about 2 weeks and she never batted an eyelied, she has one or two bottles a week and switches between the breast and bottle without any problems at all. I use the Tommy Tippee closer to nature bottles which I think are meant to mimic the shape of a breast, don't know if that has helped.

Hey Midgetgem is completely right. i tried my ds on expressed milk at 2 wks, he looked a bit confused when he realised he didnt hav to suck as much to get milk but it took all of 10 mins to get him used to it! i use tommy tippee too. the expresser is tommy tippee. they are deffinatly the best. reduce colic too. good luck hun! the quicker you start the less time they get to be fussy i say!

My DD is nearly 3 weeks old and I was thinking of expressing too... would the best thing be to express in the morning and have DH offer the bottle in the late evening? and would it be best to do this say once or twice a week?

I ask these questions because I have a lot of friends who are or have bf, but all of them have given formula for the late evening feed. I'd rather use expressed breast milk - I expressed twice before DD was a week old because we were worried she wasn't getting enough milk (she was!!) and she took the bottle fine then and came back to the breast no problem so I'm not so worried about confusion, more about the logistics of supply and demand. Thanks for the help!

My LO took a bottle at three weeks and is fine with both.

Hi there - just butting in as have been wondering about starting to express... Would you express from the boob you just fed on, or the other one?

And if you express from the other one, would your supply then be low for the next breastfeed?

ie. I worried that if I express the boob not used for the last feed, there won't be anything left in it for the next breast feed?

Is that stupid?

DB
xx

Oooh - and hi there Choc... your LO looks adorable...

And BTW we seem to have the same bouncy chair - excpet I can't get mine to sit in it for love nor money...

DB
xx

OK... so I'm a dumb-ass...
DB
xx

I'm a dumb ass too Db!!! I love your pics of your DD by the way. She's so cute! How is she doing??

And have you expressed yet? I haven't - I'm scared of the whole sterilising thing...!

I started expressing at 3 weeks and dd had no problem. I expressed first thing in the morning, and expressed from one boob whilst I fed dd from the other. Dh gave that bottle to dd at 6 30/7 every evening to give me time off, and then my supply was built up for the 10/1030pm feed. Sometimes I would have to 'top up' the bottle later in the day to make sure there was plenty there, as she was a hungry so and so!

I think expressing is brilliant if you can get the hang of it. It gave dh extra quality time with dd, and I definitely benefited from feeling that I could spend a short amount of time away from her if I wanted. I started going back to the gym for an hour at that three week point because dh was armed with bottle!