What bottle/teat to buy for a newborn?

[LuckyC]

Hello all - advice appreciated.

Do I need to buy bottles + formula for newborn in case breastfeeding does not work out?

What kind of bottle/teats should I buy?

Thanks

tbh they are so readily available in 24 hour supermarkets, if you do get to that point, that I'd say not worth it.

my personal opinion-don't set yourself up to fail-you already have all the equipment you need if you are going to give BF a shot!

There are many other ways you can prepare for potential difficulties (and it is important to know that not everyone has BF difficulties) such as
-knowing where your local BF support is, -reading about BF or watching a DVD about it, -having the numbers of all the supportive BF orgs
-talking your plans through with your DP or family beforehand etc.

Depends on how much you want to breastfeed.

IME, it is too easy to give up - and consequently be upset with yourself for quitting - if bottle feeding stuff is in the house.

That's certianly what happened with me and my first baby. If I hadn't have had bottles and formula in the house when the HV had told me to top him up then I wouldn't have been able to grab a bottle in minutes and maybe that extra hour or so would have been the breakthrough we were waiting for.

Topping him up did not help improve my supply which is what we needed and so that one bottles turned into about a fortnights worth during which things got no easier.

There are enough 24 hour supermarkets around now that if you really need a bottle, then you can get the bits you need even in the middle of the night. I'd say wait and see. You might not need them at all.

I didnt buy any bottles until my lo was 8 days old and i decided to give up breastfeeding him and express instead + ff

hubby went out and got bottles to go with the breastpump we had + some cartons to try the different formulas out there

just to give a different opinion, I wish I had brought a bottle and formula with me at the hospital because my milk came in very very late and I had to feed the baby something...(colustrum was not enough, very hungry baby). In the end I did not breastfeed because of a series of problems including infections/antibiotics etc and I just know I would have been able to do it given a bit more slack at the start.
one of my best friend breastfed successfully for 8 months and she was fully prepared with a bottle and formula at the start.
I got tommee tippee bottles with number 1 teats, and aptimil formula to start with. then gave the baby hipp formula.

They will give you formula and bottles in the hospital if you need them. Should be no need to take them with you.

Different point of view here. When I finally got to breaking point with the breastfeeding causing so much pain was early evening and I realised that I could not face another 3 feeds until the next day when I could feasibly get a breastfeeding counseller to come. I was glad that my DP had insisted on getting all the stuff in "just in case" even though I had originally been against the idea. At least my baby got fed that night.

Unless you're planning on exclusively breastfeeding the entire time then you will probably find yourself needing bottles at some point anyway, so I would say its worth getting some in. For example, you may want to express if you want to go out for an evening and leave baby with someone else for a few hours. Also, your DP/DH may like to give a bottle of expressed milk occasionally.

Don't assume that breastfeeding will be easy like I did. For some people it is. For others it can turn into a nightmare. If you end up in the latter category, then don't let the breastfeeding gestapo bully you. A couple of weeks of breastmilk, whether from the boob or the bottle is better than none at all, the most important thing is giving it a go. Best of luck, hopefully you'll be one of those who find it easy.

Thanks Zebedee, June, GoldenSnitch.

Am swinging other way now (!) as live in tiny village in middle of nowhere and maybe a some bottle-feeding stuff is a good idea if it saves a couple of hours in the car at midnight with a screaming baby...

In that case, I probably would get some in.

Just remember, breastfeeding can be tough and a newborn only has a stomach the size of a walnut so feeding every hour is not unusual for the first few weeks and does not mean you have no milk.

I wish someone had told me that the first time round as I think I gave up too soon with DS. With DD, I knew what to expect and stuck with it, just swapping her from boob to boob 3, 4 even 5 or more times per feed if necessary and I was amazed at how quickly things settled down and I felt like I was satisfying her. She's 14 weeks now and has been sleeping 6 or more hours a night for about a month now.

It's bloody tiring but it's worth it.

I used the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles as they're supposed to be good for combining breast and bottle feeding and was recommended to use the vari-flow teats rather than the slow teats the bottles come with. DS swapped easily between breast and bottle. DD won't take a bottle at all but I think that's her being stubborn rather than the bottles.

Another vote for Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles here, size 1 teats, Aptamil formula, started off with the ready-made cartons until we knew what we were doing. Baby has taken all her bottles well since Day 1.

I agree with zebedeethezebra. I fully intended to breastfeed and resisted my mother buying me bottles 'just in case'. My newborn cried all the time from birth, fell asleep at the breast and behaved strangely - latching on and off, head bobbing. We had the midwife round time and again, and she just said it was breastfeeding technique, despite baby showing this strange behaviour when she was present. The midwife even said it was a shame to express, even when it would take 15 minutes for baby to latch on! We were supposed to see a breastfeeding consultant who never turned up.

To cut a long story short, we ended up in the neonatal intensive care unit when baby lost 13% of her weight and eventually had enough and refused to breastfeed (five days after birth). I wish I hadn't believed the breastfeeding indoctrination of antenatal classes, where they said everyone can breastfeed. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome, and it turns out that I didn't develop the breast tissue to breastfeed - I just don't have the supply. As for the stomach the size of a walnut, they say that in antenatal classes, and that's what made me think she was getting enough, when she wasn't. When we went to neonatal intensive care, five days after birth, she was on 55ml of my expressed breast milk and formula every three hours. We were there for three days while she got near her birth weight again. Mine is an extreme story, and breastfeeding works OK for most people. However, in the hospital they said four in ten women have problems with breastfeeding. Most of the early returns to hospital were said to be due to feeding problems - including milk coming in late. They hospital doctors also exploded the myth about nipple confusion after using bottles - they said it just isn't correct. So if you have to top up, do so and don't worry, or your baby will go hungry like mine because I felt I shouldn't use formula or I'd failed.

You can get bottles in most big 24 hour supermarkets. I would recommend the 125ml ones with slow flow one hole teats, which is all newborns can take. If you live near a big supermarket then just wait to see how you get on. If you don't, you could buy some in case and then sell them on if you need to. The formula boxes say how much to give for the age. You won't find an independent evaluation of formula - no-one will tell you what is best because apparently it is 'advertising'.

Hope this helps. I hope you get on OK with breastfeeding.