Breast to Bottle - Help!

[Sammyg81]

I have 2 sons, Jacob 20 mths who breastfed until 6mths, then no real problem swopping to bottle.

However, Oliver 4 mths, is still feeding evry 2hrs (sometimes less!), 24/7 and it's killing me . I'm trying to get him onto bottles, hoping it might make him go longer between feeds, but he won't have any of it. I've tried bottles with different teats, different formulas, even breast milk in them. He just won't take a bottle.

Please, does anyone have any suggestions on how to get him to take a bottle??

The way I did it with DS was to express breastmilk and have it just slightly warmer than room temperature.

I use the tomee tippee closer to nature bottles and start off feeding him by the breast, then without moving him, or I slip the bottle into his mouth half way through a feed, so he's not starving, he's quite tired and relaxed and is almost fooled into taking it.

I did that three or four times then started offering him it about a hour or so after a breastfeed, he won't take it if hungry you see, he needs to be relaxed and calm and once he has got used to it (ds pretty much is now but if I'm there he'd much prefer the breast).

The best way, IME&IMO is to keep it as similar to a feed from you as possible, same milk, same temp, same shape teat as the breast, same position, then gradually you can change on that.

It's not surprising some breastfed babies won't take to formula immediately, have you tasted it? Formula and BM taste very different.

Latex teats worked for me and for loads of other people I know who had problems getting a bf baby onto bottles (of ebm or formula).

Try something like Nuk First Choice Latex Teats. They're quite wide and very, very soft, almost like skin. I still had to try a couple of times, but DD2 didn't scream her head off when I introduced them. Also EBM needs to be a bit warmer than we think. If you feel it as you express, it comes out quite toasty!

Another tip is not to use the slow flow teats. Breast fed babies are used to a faster flow.

If you manage to get a couple of bottle feeds of EBM in, or are able to get your partner to give the last feed or something, you might find you're happy to carry on breastfeeding the rest of the time.

Hope that helps.