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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

12 week old bf baby-have I left it too late for a bottle?

15 replies

nicewarmslippers · 28/12/2008 20:03

My ds is exclusively bf and 12 weeks old. We tried a bottle of expressed milk at 6 weeks and he took it so well I was worried he'd go off breast milk so we didn't try again until this week. I am keen to get him to take it as I go back to work on and off soonish. He uttley refuses and screams if my dh tries. We have tried fast and slow flow (2, 3 and 4) avent teats. Any advise? is it too late?

OP posts:

gingerninja · 28/12/2008 20:13

My DD didn't have a bottle until she was about 8 or 9 months. took a little time to adjust but she eventually got the hang of it. I know some people don't have this success but keep trying the odd feed if that's what you want and maybe he'll come around.

Original poster

nicewarmslippers · 28/12/2008 21:51

thanks ginger, just out of interest, why did you bother introducing bottle at 8 months? can't they have a cup then?

sorry but I am learning about all this

OP posts:

Jennylee · 28/12/2008 23:59

they can have a cup but then you are taking away most of the sucking pleasure in life.(is only my opinion) but is what works for you and the baby, but to me is a bit of a jump from breastfeeding on demand to spout cup at under a year. is only my opinion, others may find it works well. 8 months sounds old if you have a 12 week old but they still love to suck at that age. I also find at 5 month my breastfed dd won't take a bottle.

Poledra · 29/12/2008 00:10

Have you only tried Avent teats? Perhaps look for a different shape - my older 2 DDs preferred a flattened teat rather than a round one, IYSWIM

MatNanPlusTINSEL · 29/12/2008 00:11

I recently introduced the 4 month old i care for to a daily bottle of formula (mum can't express) and we did the same feed each day in the quiet, a setting that she had for breast feeding, the first 2 days were hard work, she fussed majorly and took over an hour each time to drink 3 ozs but days 3-5 were less fussy but quicker and days 6-8 were good, day 9 i did the feed with others around and she fussed for a couple of minutes and then was fine, mum fed her on day 12 with minor fussing, all other feeds were breast.

She moved to feeding outside and we didn't have any problems increasing the bottles as planned.

It can be a struggle but the one thing we were consistant with was bottle only but we had decided to bring forward the next feed should she not take much but that was never an issue.

At 6 months anyone could feed her friends / family including her 18mo brother (with help )

chloemegjess · 29/12/2008 00:31

I would try NUK teats. We had trouble for weeks trying to get DD to take bottles, until we tried NUK. Had tried loads of different ones and really wish we had done it earlier as she took to it straigt away

MatNanPlusTINSEL · 29/12/2008 00:34

MAM ULTIvent work in Avent bottles, tho we used Avent teats and she was very messy / leaky in the beginning but was a messy breast baby and it improved quickly and she is only moderately messy now.

nappyaddict · 29/12/2008 01:03

have you tried the orthodontic teats you can get in boots. or latex ones?

gingerninja · 29/12/2008 19:24

Sorry i didn't reply yesterday but exactly what Jennylee said. It's a comfort for them. There is a lot of pressure from books and advice to get them to give up a bottle / breast by a year old but they're so young and babies need comfort I think there is too much emphasis on 'growing them up' as it were and not enough on letting them be babies. Good luck with your experiment. I also found changing bottle / teat worked as we didn't get on with Avent.

CrushWithEyeliner · 29/12/2008 19:28

Tommee Tippee worked for us with the same problem

Original poster

nicewarmslippers · 29/12/2008 20:24

thanks so much for all your help, I bought some tomee tippee ones today (couldn't find the others you suggested in tescos-will look elsewheer) but stupid me assumed they'd go with avent bottles so tonight tried avent again, at least he didn't scream but didn't seem to know what to do with it so still no joy. MatNanPlus's story very helpful

Thanks

OP posts:

CrushWithEyeliner · 29/12/2008 22:10

TT are great really - do try them xx

MatNanPlusAbroad · 29/12/2008 23:43

Oops, yes TT only work in TT bottles - i am guessing they are Closer to Nature, same with NUK and Chicco.

Boots & Dr Brown teats fit in Avent.

chloemegjess · 30/12/2008 22:38

Nuk bottles fit Avent teats, but not the other way round. Although have also seen some other shaped NUK ones to the ones we had. I bought mine from ebay, got a lovely pink set.

bubbleymummy · 30/12/2008 23:01

Try leaving the room and getting your DP to give the bottle. Lots of babies won't take a bottle from their mummy because they want the real thing! we used the tommee tippee bottles because they were the most 'breast-like' and DS didn't seem to object to them. He only got a bottle of EBM from DH a couple of times when I had to go to work for a meeting so it was never a regular thing and it didn't create any problems. Although if I walked in the door while he was mid-bottle he spat it out and wanted me!

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