Breast and Bottle

[Bonifacio]

Hi all, Quick question. I plan to exclusively breastfeed, however I would also like my dp to be able to feed newborn expressed breast milk from a bottle sometimes. So should I imediately give both bottle and breast or should I just bf for a while to establish it in case newborn gets fussy about taking breast after having the bottle? Does that make any sense at all? Hope someone can help. Thanks

the general advice is to let bf get established before trying a bottle - give it 6wks or so.
Remember that someone else giving a bottle of EBM means you have to pump beforehand in between feeds, and to safeguard your supply you should ideaaly pump while they're giving the bottle too... so it can end up being a lot more effort than just feeding the baby yourself.

There are lots of other things dads can do to bond with the baby that don't involve making extra work for you!

Thank you for your advice, it really was just for the bonding part, but I know that bath and bed could be an ideal substitute which he could do, and your right that does sound like a lot of work!! Thanks again

Hi Bonifacio. I started expressing at 4 wks and my DS took to the bottle no problems at this age (should add here that I use nipple covers). He only had the odd EBM. However, at 10 wks he refused the bottle, getting quite upset when me or my DP tried. I wish now that I had expressed more earlier and gave him more EBMs so he would've been more used it. I also remember seeming to have more milk at this stage to express. My boobs were always leaking early on so I wished I would've expressed it and frozen it, to start giving it at 4 wks. The more you express and feed the higher the supply should be so when you hit a growth spurt it should be easier to meet your baby's demand. I wouldn't give the baby an EBM until he is 4 wks but I would express some milk early on (if you have time) and freeze it to give at 4wks. You can keep expressed milk in the freezer for a month (so get some freezer bags that you can record date on). I would probably start expressing at about 2 wks when feeding is a bit more established. It's usually best, in my experience, to express after the first morning feed, when the milk supply is usually at its highest. Hope this helps.

I hope

Sorry, didn't finish, was going to say, I hope this post isn't confusing and Good Luck!

From when my milk came in I expressed and my partner gave the baby one bottle each evening (so I could get a longer bit of sleep)

But I was lucky to produce huge quantities of milk so expressing was quick and easy , but not all of my friends found that they could express enough milk, quickly enough and so found expressing rather painful.

My DS didn't have a problem switching from bottle to breast and back again, as this was all he had known. And was such a hungry little thing that he didn't really care how the milk came as long as there was lots of it.

it's not recommended to give a bottle before 6 weeks as it can lead to nipple confusion. if you want a break maybe your dh could cup feed some EBM to your lo?

I wanted the same for my DP so he could be part of the joy of feeding his little son. I expressed at around 6weeks or maybe a bit earlier. There was no problem with him taking the bottle and then the breast again. From about 2 months I expressed regularly every night as I was feeding my ds with a bottle each evening. Reason being that I found sometimes he was overtired and would cry at a breast. And with a bottle it's easier to suck and he even taken more milk. However, it was a bit of a pain express every evening, sterilise the equipment every day so I gave up a couple of days ago and Im giving only breast again. My ds is 5 months now.

nipple confusion, my ARSE! My DS has had mixed feeding since day 1 as he was prem and not latching on at all. He certainly had no confusion once bf got going. is gradually upping breast and taking less bottle. Honestly, there is so much crap talked about bfing vs bottle.

don't worry about bonding. DH can bath, wind, change him.

Be aware you won't necessarily be able to express a full feed at first, even if you have milk.

Thanks for everyones help, I think I might give it a try, will talk to DP first see how important it is to him. Thanks

I wuld give it a go Bonifacio because aswell as it being a lovely experience for your DP it means you can have a break from time to time if you want one.

Nipple Confusion