Decided to give up BF - advice needed

[DonDons]

DD is almost 6 months and for various reasons I have decided to stop breast feeding; but primarily because I have to go to work next month for 3 days and I have no desire to express (I did express for the frist 12 weeks until the pump broke).

DD has no interest in a bottle at all and cries when I try to give it to her. I have also tried using a sippy cup (hard spout) but she refuses that too.

Can anybody help? Are there any alternatives?
TIA

Have you tried an open cup? A doidy cup is a good starting one. Also, it may be that she just doesn't want a bottle from you (and why would she when she can see those lovely warm boobs!) so it may be that she'd be fine with someone else giving it to her. Have you tried that? It may also be worth trying a different formula (sorry I know nothing about different brands) as I know they taste different - could be the milk rather than the container it's in?

If it's completely the right time for you to stop, please ignore the following, but had you considered keeping just one or two bfs a day? It works for a lot of people. No expressing required...

I have tried an open cup but nothing much goes down - will try again this afternoon with some water. I haven't seen a doidy cup before but will get myself to mothercare this afternoon for one - thanks for the tip.

Yes - I intend to keep the early morning feed for a while longer as the likelihood of me not being around for this feed is miniscule.

I will try getting DH to give her a bottle tomorrow. Am using SMA at the moment which she has had on occasions in the past with no problems but can try something else.

Oh, just thought of another thing (which your DH could try too) - do you let her hold the bottle? My DD was much happier with a bottle of expressed milk when she could hold it herself! Bit messy, but it worked.

Yes - she holds the bottle herself and puts the teat in her mouth but then just chews on it rather than sucking. I think DH might be the answer to being with.

Thanks!

hi dondons...can't believe she is 6 months already

I found with DD that she would take drinks of water from sippy cups or her doidy cup but not milk to begin with. She did get used to it eventually thoug so it was a case or perseverance.

She was odd in that she was happy to take a bottle, but would only take expressed milk from DH or formula from me, not the other way around.

You've done really well to get to this stage with her but as Mij said, mix feeding is an option, with her getting formula through the day when you're not there and you giving her a feed morning and night. she may be happy to take a bottle from her daytime carers.

Re formula, I found that Hipp organic was the one that was least horrible tasting and one that has the least amount of unknowns added to it. I would also stick with the first milk, not the follow on stuff as it will be easier to digest after getting BM. Also have you tried different bottles and teats? there might be one out there that she prefers......lots of friends of mine moved onto the NUK orthodontic ones (not the silicone ones) after BFing with good results.

I hope this helps.

Thanks Daisy! (doesn't time fly! Not long for you now - best of luck my love) (manly pat obv)