How soon to introduce a bottle of expressed milk to a breastfed baby?

[Mary3324]

My son is 5 weeks old, breastfeeding is well established and I've also been expressing and freezing milk. I'd like to be able to give him an occasional bottle of expressed milk so that I can leave him with my husband if necessary without having to rush back! I'm wondering if he is still too young to try a bottle, how regularly I should try this and if anyone has any useful tips. I did briefly try a bottle yesterday, alternating attempts with a breastfeed, but admittedly gave up quite quickly as he screamed every time I put the bottle in his mouth!

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi I think the old wives tale is to put a bit of sugar water on the teat of the bottle,

Which bottles are you trying as this can make a difference.

i think if you want to read up on how to do this have a look at the gina ford website or have a quick scoot in her book contented little baby. i used it very successfully by taking bits out of it that i wanted to use and following her advise

It might still be a bit early, I think we gave our first bottle at 7 weeks. He may take it easier from someone else as well, as he will be able to smell milk on you and you are obviously a better alternative!

Also, might be worth trying differnt bottles and teats. Our DS likes the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature job.

I was advised by my antenatal teacher to start trying a bottle between 6-8 weeks as this window allows for breastfeeding to be established but the baby should still be open to new things. This did work for my DS. One note of caution however do keep up the bottle usage about once a day as they can forget it very quickly. We successfully used a bottle once a day so my DH could feed for about 3 weeks but then we stopped for a while and when we tried it a few weeks later around 16 weeks it was a lot more difficult for him to take the bottle and he is still not happy to take it for his bedtime feeds although he does at all other feeds.

If you are finding it difficult for your ds to take a bottle try giving it to him with just a small amount of milk 1oz say to play with and encourage him to suck from it, try this for a few days and eventually he should start to suck from it. Its worked for a few babies I know but certainly not all, so its something to try but no guarantees I'm afraid. Good luck

I did both of mine at about 1 week to no ill effect, they happily breastfed til they were one, and bottlefed if I had to go out etc...

but I did give a bottle (sometimes only an ounce) everyday to keep them used to it as friends babies had stopped.

I gave up expressing though as I truely hated it so gave them a bit of formula instead.

DS2 was OK for ages then would only take it off DH for a few months (what a shame )

oh and don't leave it until he is really hungry, we started after a feed, when almost a sleep.

ime, the earlier the better. Dd had expressed milk at earlier than a week old and never had any problems. Ds on the other hand took a bottle at a few days old but I didn't persevere with it and now at 23 weeks its a real struggle. fwiw, I found MAM teats to be the ones both dc preferred.

I fed both my babies successfully by breast and bottle from the start. Just popped teat in and off they went no problem. To be honest it may not be a good idea to leave it as they form an expectation and are likely to refuse. Try it and only start worrying if it doesn't go to plan.

I would suggest that you do it as soon as possible now. I left it too late and my DS refuses a bottle completely. We are having some luck with a cup (v limited though) and I am kicking myslef because he was topped with EBM in bottles for the first 4 weeks and I stopped this to concentrate on BFing. When I tried a bottle at about 10 weeks - he wanted none of it.

Do it as soon as breastfeeding is well established mine was about 3 weeks.

Get someone else to give the bottle.

And give bottle regularly as noonki says.