Breastfed babies and bottles

[purplemyrtle]

DD is 11 weeks old, never had a bottle, I don't need her to take one now but will do in the next few months. I'd heard that if babies don't learn to drink from a bottle by a certain point it can be difficult to get them to take from one. Anyone have any views/experience on this?

yes, younger dc didnt take a bottle till 8 and a half months, when i gave up breastfeeding. dnephew stopped breastfeeding aged 13 months, and now, aged 19 months, still hasnt had a bottle. he went straitght on to cups. breastfed babies tend not to like the coldness or rubberiness or whatever about bottles once they are used to be being breastfed.

tbh, bottles are a major faff. so is expressing. can it really not wait a few months, until he is older and can take solids and/or milk from a cup?

Thanks stitchtime, you're right it is a faff, I breastfed DC1 for over a year, sometimes expressing, but can't remember how early we tried a bottle. Need to do it though so wondering how long I can put off the faffing or whether I need to start trying now!

It is a faff expressing and sterilising but surely never being able to leave DD with anyone else is much more inconvenient.

My friend didn't introduce a bottle soon enough and was unable to leave her baby for 6 months!

Unfortunately, my experience of this wasn't a particularly good one. I didn't introduce a bottle until DS was 3 months old and he never took to one. I tried every bottle and type of teat there is, I tried doing it, my DH and mum tried doing it. We tried doing it when he was hungry, when he wasn't hungry, when he was asleep and when he was playing. I gave up trying a bottle at 6 months because I couldn't take the stress any more. I accepted that it would be a while before I could leave him and decided to persevere with a cup so that the transition would be easier at a later stage.

This has been a real pain, but unless I went cold turkey and refused milk completely, I honestly don't think we would have done it. Yes, it's a faff (I did it a lot while we were trying) but I wish I could have done it a lot more often!!

DS is now 11mo and down to one milk feed in the morning and one in the evening, but it's been a stressful, tiring road so if you want to be able to give him a bottle at some point, FGS do it sooner rather than later!!

I wish you the very best of British luck!

I'm not convinced of this to be honest. I've heard of bf babies who take bottles regularly from early on, and then suddenly refuse the bottle at 5 or 6 months.

Sorry, what I meant to say was that I think if a bf baby refuses a bottle it's not to do with whether they had one early on or not. Some bf babies just refuse bottles suddenly one day whether they are used to them or not. I think it's best to introduce a bottle as soon as you want to, or a couple of weeks before you have to (to give you chance to try different teats etc if you have problems).

idont think it is such a pain not to be able to leave a baby for six months. unless you have to return to work, there are very few places where you cannot take a baby with you. and its for only a short period of your life.

to the op. i think you probably need to start about now, or you might even have left it too late. i think it depends on the child, and how stubborn they are. iyswim.