Introducing a bottle or cup?

[llareggub]

I'm hoping for some advice regarding my two week old DS2 who is exclusively breastfed.

DS1 was mix fed from birth, and mainly had formula feeds in hospital from a bottle. We really struggled to get breastfeeding established but got there in the end. Consequently I never had to think about introducing a bottle, it was more the other way round.

DS2 has not had a bottle or a cup and next month I have been invited out for the evening to an event where babies will definitely not be happy. I'd really like to go and will start expressing soon. However, I'm a bit concerned about how/when to introduce a bottle or a cup (which?) and whether this will mess up breastfeeding which is all going swimmingly at the moment.

Any advice welcome!

Hi,

I have been told that you shouldn't introduce a bottle in the first 4-6 weeks because it can hinder them establishing BF, but also you shouldn't really leave it later than 6 weeks because you might miss the window of opportunity and they'll be stuck in a rut and not want to change! My dd1 was prem so spent 2 months in hospital being BF by me by day and bottle fed by staff at night - from about 2 weeks old - and had no confusion or trouble whatsoever. My dd2 took a bottle of expressed milk at 5 weeks (just to test whether she could) then when we tried again a month later she got in a rage and completely refused! She's now 5 months and I cannot get her to take a bottle, beaker, cup, anything other than boob! SO maybe there is something in the 6 week thing? I know of others who've introduced one at a few months old with no problems though so I think it's just up to your baby and his personality!

Thanks for that.

Does anyone have a view on whether a cup or a bottle would be better?

Anyone?

Pleeeeeeease?

My DH started giving my DD a bottle of EBM from about 2 weeks and it never caused any problems that I was aware of.

In fact she had had a couple of bottles when she was only a few days old due to latching problems but then we stopped that and changed to spoons until the latch was sorted.

If it were me I would probably just go with the bottle option, but that I was always fine with DD having bottles of EBM as well as BF.

If you are planning to do this frequently (be away from the baby and leave EBM) do you really want the minder to be feeding a newborn/small baby with a cup?

It won't be that frequent and DH will do as he is told! He witnessed at first hand the problems we had with DS1 so he is very keen to do whatever we need to do to make sure we don't mess up DS2's latch. Having said that, a cup does sound like a faff so a bottle will probably be the easier option.

I'm pretty sure my supply will be OK as I am still feeding DS1 and have been for 2 and a half years, it is just the latch I'm worried about. Still, if he is anything like his brother he should be fine.

The things I'll do for a Take That concert...

oooooh Take That Worth trying anything for!
I've just ordered a Doidy Cup - apparently the baby laps from it like when BF so it often works with BF, but my dd2 is 5 months so probably more suitable for her than your ds2.
Good luck...