Tips please for getting a 6.5mth old BF baby to take a bottle (have I left it too late?)

[snooks]

Apologies if this has been done to death already, but I really need some advice.

dd3 6.5 mths old, always bf. I did try her with a bottle once when she was about 3 mths but she hated it. I have 3 under 4 anyway so never found the time to express, it was hard enough finding time to bf....

Dh and I have a big night out planned in about a month's time so am trying to introduce a bottle (dd doesn't reliably sleep through). This is the 4th night of trying a bottle after her bath, it's a Tommee Tippee Close to Nature with a size 3 teat (fast flow). Sometimes she will take a few ounces but it's a struggle - only if she's drowsy enough not to realise I think.

Is it just a case of perseverance? Or a different teat? Any tips/advice/suggestions would be very very welcome!

i have just tonight given ds his first formula ( sniff) he is four months

i just used a normal avent bottle and gave it at the end of a breast feed when he was chilled

he fussed at it a bit and then drank it ( only an ounce and a half)

he has been having expressed bottles though.....

have you tried a diff type of bottle - maybbe teat is a little fast?

DS has never reliably taken a bottle. Sometimes he will, but only when he feels like it. We just stopped trying after a while - he will eat more solids when I'm away now (never for more than 7-8 hours and mostly in the daytime).

Can you go out after the bedtime feed? She might take one in the night (if she does night feeds) when she's sleepy.

Alternatively, try a doidy cup or sippy cup?

Are you getting someone else to give it to her rather than you?

yeah, I did wonder if the teat is a bit fast. I could try the slower one (but don't want to confuse her even more!). She's had a mixture of me, bottle and beaker (sippy cup), tonight but is still awake. I suppose it's early days still though.

Now asleep! Started this post 3/4 hours ago. On the night out I will feed her myself before going but can never rely on her to stay asleep - sometimes wakes for a top-up after half an hour but often sleeps til 4ish. I thought I'd be an expert by the 3rd baby but still learning. Thanks for the replies, will keep trying

NUK bottle

someone else in darker room (less to see)

cloth that smells of you (sleep with one night before or something)

Are you using EBM? more likely to take it, my dd will spit out formula

Don't even be in the same room

Can you tell i have done this??

pudding, dh has tried too,(but only a couple of times), i've tried by giving it to her with her facing forwards on my knee away with me (a technique we tried with ds1 who was also inclined to prefer the boob).

My dds didn't take bottles either (ever ), but around that age (when I was dying for time off) I got them to accept formula in cups - tommee tippee 1st cup I think was first success.

In hindsight, never having to convince them to give up a bottle nearly made up for 6 months of exclusive bf with very little time off. That's a lie, obviously, but makes me feel better if I look at it that way.

scorpio i think i have to up the ante and will do those things - leave the room etc. I'm getting a bit too laidback with the 3rd baby - imagining that things will just sort themselves, if that makes sense.

I do try to express, the only time I get is in the evening after 8pm when my supply is crap, don't have the time in the morning which is when I should do it. So it's formula (feel guilty), she's kind of used to the taste of it because I mix it with her veg/rice in the day (because of my lack of expressing).

dd is my third too could you get up a tad earlier to express? (hard i know...)may help, but if she is ok with it thats probably not the answer!!

what's the NUK bottle? [scorpio]

madrush - ds1 was like that [rod for my own back springs to mind] but I felt pathetically proud that he never had a bottle (only because he didn't like them )

but it would be so nice to go out without worrying and guiltfree, not that I've got anything to wear, but that's a whole different thread.....

OMG, my ds3 was awful! Now, this was a baby who had been in SCBU and bottlefed EBM while in hospital, and thereafter regularly given a bottle of EBM at home but at 5 months just started refusing point-blank to take them!

dh, MIL and SIL were no help whatsoever so I had to do it all myself. What worked was:
1/ forgetting about bottle for a few days as our attempts had been a bit fraught so needed to give him time to recover
2/ Bring ds3 to visit friend with bottlefed baby to invoke Power of Peer Pressure
3/ Use MAM ultivent teat on Avent bottle, then give bottle of EBM to baby with baby held facing away from me, all the while singing Don McClean songs.
This worked!

However!!! he then started refusing them for a second time!
The solution this time was to buy Playtex bottles like this with this teat in Latex, fill them with cows milk with a bit of sugar ( was not spending money on formula and hadn't the energy to express and he was over 6 months) and made a game out of it. After a couple of goes at this he took the bottle but was never 100% happy with the idea and in nursery had to be given his milk before his solids or he wouldn't touch the milk and would then be constipated.

Ds4 is a little angel in comparison!

ds will take ebm from a nuk teat, medium flow. he took it from dp and i wasn't in the room. he didn't like the medela teat but he has nuk dummies so i think this is why he took it so easily.

you can get them in boots, easily, its not specialist or anything just found that dd liked that teat!

(this thread is helping me out too...)
will nuk teats fit on avent bottles??
thanks

i think the nuk wideneck ones might but not sure as i use standard bottles. check with the chemist if you can-i just buy them in my local independent one.

You don't need to give them a bottle at 6 mths. they can take it from a cup! then you don't have all the problems of weaning them off the bottle onto a cup later. Also more like just a 'drink' then as opposed to 'replacing mummy'! It's be much easier, give it a go!

ok, so i think i should be going for the cup option too (dd is 6.5 months too).
i really want to use a spout thingy (i know this is something to wean off later too) but i just can't deal with spillages.
life is a bit stressful and my expressed breast milk too precious.
i have a tommy tippee free flow spout in the cupboad, and some kind of tupperware one,
best cup to start with??