Any tips for my DH on bottle feeding EBM

[GracieGirl]

I'm currently hiding upstairs whilst my DH tries to give my 7 week old DD a bottle of my expressed breast milk. He's given one or two bottles a week since she was 3 weeks old. She's really not impressed with the idea of bottles and tends to just scream. She was better at 3 weeks but now is a lot more vocal!

Does anyone have any tips for my DH? I'd love it to be a nice experience for the 2 of them, but it really isn't happening.

Squeeze a bit of milk out into the bottle cap and dip the teat in it so it smells of lovely milk.

Get DH to drape a top you've been wearing over his front whilst holding baby so it smells of her lovely mummy.

That's all we tried, mainly it worked but sometimes it didn't.

HTH

My dd wouldn't take a bottle at all and I tried just about everyone they sell! We found that she was much better with a cup (even at such a young age). Tesco do their own branded on that is free flow with just one hole in the top. It is the same as the Boots ones that we used that have now been discontinued. Good Luck, it's a tough problem.

My DS would not even consider the idea of a bottle and was stuborn enough to last us out (although I could only stand to hear the indignent screaming for about 10 mins before giving in).

We swapped the bottle to the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature, which DS (now 8 wks) is willing to tolerate as they are much more boob-like, and I went out when DP was giving him the bottle so he couldn't smell me - tips from BF counsellor. He still isn't too keen but doesn't scream at least!

HTH

Sorry I've not been back sooner to read your posts. My DD has done nothing but feed!! My mum is round now and entertaining her for 10 mins whilst I have a quick look.

Thank you everyone. Hairy will try the Mummy smelling top later - thank you.

getthepartystarted - Already using tommee tippee bottles though not triesd actually going out yet. Does that mean I can use that as an excuse to escape for half an hour?!

Lily I hadn't thought of using a cup, that might work might it.

Thanks everyone, I will get DH to try your tips and report back.

Shameless bump. Am currently cowering in my room while poor DH tries every tip under the sun for DS (10 weeks old) who is currently letting DH know his displeasure at it...

We all need a break - please help!

What position are you holding LO in to take the bottle?

Our HV pointed out that they associate the traditional cradle hold with a breastfeed, and suggested we try different positions, e.g. in a bouncy chair, or with baby on our lap facing outwards.

DS ended up in some very odd positions, but drinking out of the bottle

Sometimes we had to swap positions 2 or 3 times before he found one he throught might work - needless to say it was a different one every night.

This lasted a few weeks, but now he seems happy to take a bottle of EBM from DP in a more conventional manner

My DD went on a EBM bottle strike from week 5-7. We switched to a faster flow teat (Tommee Tippee variflow) and also changed location and position (outside in the park, seated semi-upright in her pushchair).

Also, I gave it to her instead of my DH/MIL. Although counterintuitive, I think this helped because I knew best how to match the bottle position and rhythm as close to bf as possible. My DH and MIL were doing some strange things with the bottle. Hard to explain details, but I had to then teach them how to hold the bottle so DD would accept it. Since then, DD been ok with the occasional bottle (1x every day or so) from DH.

to get dd2 to take a bottle, we used a tommee tippee bottle with a faster flow teat than recommended. oddly, she would initially take a bottle much better from me, so we persevered with that until she came round to the idea of other people feeding her.

Thank you beela, will def. try the new position option (I've been going on at poor DH to hold him in a breastfed hold ) and the faster flow teat. We have moved to Tommee Tippee as the teat looks a lot more nipple-like, but only have a 1 flow atm.

I've also been counterintuitive with me feeding him erac and charlotte and had a smidgeon of success when I've tried to feed him on a couple of occasions, but no joy today.

Will let you know how we get on with a faster flow and upside down in the park :o

We found it best when DH stuck to the same feed time every day worked, so Boy never looked for boob at this time. We chose 7pm but I think early morning would have worked equally well. I just keep out of the way .

Also he takes it best nearly sitting up.

Thanks Pasch - once our Boy (I wanted to call him that!! :o) gets into more of a proper routine so we can predict his times better, we'll try that.

I didn't think you where supposed to use anything other then a newborn teat with a BF baby. As you can risk them prefering a faster flow of the bottle and refussing the breast?

After a couple of painful weeks of trying to get her to take the bottle from my husband, we cracked it when my friend, who has mainly bottle fed her 2, took charge.

Both DH and DD needed to be shown what to do. LO took the bottle off my friend (after a bit of persuasion) and then my friend had to persuade LO to take if from my husband.
Also I think my daughter was picking up on DH lack of confidence - nobody had show him what to do and then he spent 2 weeks trying to feed while she cried for me.