Breast to bottle success stories

[forevermore]

Only want to hear the stories with difficult starts but positive outcomes. I am at my wits end with bottle rejecting 14 week old. I know many others out there also waiting for a break through so please share how you did it. How old was you LO. How long did it take and what actually worked.

Thanks for sharing

Well, my DD was a lot younger than yours at 4-5 weeks. Basically we just kept trying, every day, and it took about a fortnight. We tried every day at a non-stressful time, when she was hungry but not starving. We used a teat one size larger than she "should" have had - some days we swapped from boob to bottle and back again during a feed, we kept up lots of eye-contact and I tried not to wince too much as bottle after bottle of EBM went down the sink! But we got there in the end and she now has an expressed dreamfeed every night.

DD1 I thought was a nightmare, we tried first at 6 weeks and she eventually got it at 12 weeks, basically kept trying every day and tried lots of different bottles and one day she just got it.

This time DD2 is 22 weeks and still no joy so I will watch this thread with great interest as I am literally at my wits end am supposed to be going back to work a couple of months after christmas and don't know what it will do if can't get her on bottle as i leave and get back to early to be able even to do BF morning and evening on the days i work. also just need a break am still feeding several times a night as she is awful sleeper and only way to get her back to sleep, creating more issues for myself down the line i know but doing whatever gets us the most sleep at the moment.

Spanna when you say you tried everyday was it formula and how much would she take? I am tryig everyday and only get her to take 1oz then she stops. No matter what she won't take more?

You may need a bigger teat in that case. I find I'm a bit like a broken record on this - I'm always advising this - but every time we've hit an issue, going up a teat size has helped. Especially when they start well then give up...

forevermore - when I tried with DD1 I was trying with expressed milk, i would express 3 or 4 oz in the morning and try once a day with that. we tried different times of day, different bottles etc.

In the end it was OH who had the success with her, he used to sit there making sucking faces at her while he held her with the bottle in her mouth, it was the Tommy Tippee bottles closer to nature that worked for us in the end.

Once she had got it she would have formula or EBM it didn't make a difference.

I too have been tipping bottle after bottle of EBM down the sink with DD2 it is galling, we are at the point now where she cries and pushes the bottle out of her mouth at the start she would have it in her mouth and play with it with her tongue but now she is actively pushing it away and crying, we have regressed big time Aghhhhhhhhhh!!!!