Help, BF son will not move to bottles

[StaceyJayneH]

Help!
I have been trying to introduce my 6 month DS onto bottles for over 8 weeks in preparation for returning to work with no luck. I have tried different bottles and formula but he just isn’t interested and after a few minutes screams to be bf.
I did a return to work day this week and he didn’t feed for 6 hours while I was gone and instantly jumped on the breast when I walked in the door.
He is been weaned and will eat purée which he loves but we just can’t get him to have milk and then is is crying on and off all the time to be fed.
I did manage yesterday to get him to have a few sips out of a cup with his lunch but when he gets hungry he just refuses and only accepts breast.
I have 3 weeks left until I go back to work full time and my partner looks after DS and I am becoming more worried as each day passes, any ideas to help?
Thank you

I'd call one of the BFing Helplines, they'll be able to help you come up with a plan OP

Can you try a cup of expressed milk? Have you given him formula in food to check it isn't an intolerance?

I couldn’t get either of my bf babies to accept either a bottle or a dummy unfortunately, despite trying for ages. We fed it to them with a spoon when desperate.

I had the same problem with my daughter. I ended up using a beaker with a teat sort of half way between a bottle and a proper beaker. This worked best as she didn't have to do a sucking motion like with a bottle and the milk just poured very slowly into her mouth. She still wouldn't have as much as usual but I think she would drink enough to keep her going. Also we would give her foods with liquid to keep her hydrated. Can you perhaps try and give your DS food with your breast milk mixed in like weetabix or porridge?

It's quite normal, babies just make up the lack of feeds when you are there. As long as you can get him to have other liquids or high in liquid foods hell be fine. The chances are hell take drinks from other people but not you, if youre about hell want BM.

Neither of my EBF children ever used a bottle. I went straight to sippy cups.

Had the same issue with my DS, it was so stressful and you have my sympathies. Tried every bottle going, spent a fortune on them. We gave up in the end, he never took a bottle. He managed without me by taking food with milk in it eg porridge. I never left him for long periods though so you may find it's rough at first but once he gets hungry enough for milk he gives into the bottle.

We used a doidy cup with our DS although they did not drink a huge amount from it. We also used a tommee tippee free flow cup if we wanted slightly less mess!

Go straight to a sippy cup. Keep him well fed with offers of water and milk from the free flow cup and he'll make up for the milk when you're around.

It’s very common, my ebf dc went straight onto sippy cup with expressed breast milk or water.

And try to remember that BF babies take on average 25 floz in 24 hours, so roughly an ounce an hour. So if he's used to feeding every 2 hours in the day, he's unlikely to take more than 2 floz of ebm or formula fir a while.

My two never took a bottle either. Just point blank refused

Express and leave in a sipping cup is the best thing I can think of -

Was the same for us, he just swapped his feeds so he’d go a long time in the day (he would drink water from a sippy cup) and then do his feeds overnight. Cosleeping braless was essential so I could sleep a bit!

I never managed it either went straight to a cheap small beaker style sippy cup (they never got the hang of fancy non spill cups either).

Thank you everyone for your messages.
I spoke to the health visitor today who also put my mind at rest as she said it is so common, and I can completely understand from my DS perspective.
My HV recommended expressed milk in a cup for a couple of days, then mix half formula and expressed milk for a few days, then fully formula. I plan to do this through the day when I will be at work and BF evenings, overnights and early morning.
So far today DS has taken a little more of the milk in a cup and isn’t screaming as much, he has just fell asleep too.
I think he will just end up feeding more when I am here which I am more than happy to do and hopefully I get him more used to a cup ready for when his dad cares for him xx