Please help me to convince dd its for her own good?

[bumblingalong]

can anyone advise me as to how i can persuade my very stubborn 4 mo dd that a bottle would be a good thing?
I'm very happy bf at the moment & will be carrying on but i suffer from migraines (-didn't while i was pg as this is apparently normal?). Had my 1st 2weeks ago since having dd. luckily my dp was home but i've realised that i need to be able to get her to take a bottle so i can either take my medication & look after her or be able to give her to my dp or mum to look after her as my vision is badly affected.
Asked hv for help & was told to "just hold teat in her mouth & eventually she'll take it......... oh you'll have to do this for up to 2hrs at a time, several times, even if shes screaming"

as you can imagine i don't want to make my dd upset & have tried introducing it slowly & getting my dp to try, but its not happening! help me please!

bumbling - four month olds can take a cup, with help. Try an egg cup, even.

Babies as young as this don't manage large volumes with a cup, it's true, but at four months she will be fine on the odd occasion you need to resort to this.

I agree with you - it's never worth making a baby distressed or screaming to get them to take a bottle.

Oh dear, what awful advice. We had the same problem with DS, but it seemed that the harder we pushed it, the more stressed he got and he definitely wouldn't take the bottle when he was upset. The best advice that we received was

1. use a fast flow teat - 3 holes as this is similar to the speed that breast milk comes out. I think some babies refuse a bottle as they can't get enough milk from a slow flow teat.
2. Offer breast first to get baby's appetite for a feed. After 2 minutes, take baby off the breast and offer the bottle....all in a quick motion.

This worked for us, but not first time round. Took a bit of work! Good luck and let us know how you get on

bumblingalong, it's worth double checking that your medication is compatible with breastfeeding.

very often mums are told to stop breastfeeding in order to take certain medications. more often than not that advice is wrong.

the breastfeeding network has pdf files you can download to find out if your medication is ok.
otherwise I'd really recommend asking somewhere like i want my mum on their forums. there are def a few people on there in the know about such things! (the breastfeeding 1 forum is free to post in)

I second the advice to check up on your ability to take your meds and carry on feeding

I have the same problem, 3 month old dd wont take a bottle and I get migraines from lack of sleep. Luckily dp is at home for a while and when I had my last attack he took, and brought her to me for feeds. It wasnt great as I could have done with not moving at all for several hours. We'll try a cup again next time and keep trying a bottle every now and then as well.

Definitely try a cup. A doidy cup can be used from birth, messy but might be worth a go. my Mum just spoon fed my ds when he refused a bottle, just enough to keep him going for when Mummy would feed him again!

I found DS would take a bottle of EBM from DH or nanny, but not from me... as he associated me too much with the breast. could try that?

Thanks for all the advice, will try a cup & see how we go!