Breast feeding and bottles - advice please

[mum2b1]

Hi,

I am planning to breast feed my first baby (due end of July) but I also want to express so that my husband can help with the feeding/ bond etc.
How long should I wait before introducing the bottle (containing breast milk).
My NCT teacher says 3 weeks but that seems a long time and it seems to me that the longer we wait the more confusing it will be for the baby.
Surely if we do it earlier say after about a week and a half the baby will be more likely to take to both and not really have a preference...

any suggestions?
Has anyone else tried this successfully?

i gave it 4 weeks. you need to establish the breastfeeding first.

and then did the baby take to the bottle and switch happily between the 2?

Be careful! I expressed too soon with my first baby which led me to produce more milk than was needed, become badly engorged and go on to develop a breast abscess-all very painful and stressful! I think they advise you not to do it for the first few weeks as the milk you produce adjusts to go with your babies feeding pattern. Also, during those first weeks you need to relax as much as you can and I personally find when I begin to express that its an added pressure. You may have a completely different experience to me of course and I hope it all goes really well for you!

yes she does, she is 6 weeks but only has one bottle of ebm a week.

I think you run the risk of having a problem either way - leave it to late and they may not accept the bottle (DS never did - we waited until 6 weeks) but do it too soon - and by too soon that is before breastfeeding is established (which usually happens around 6 weeks) then they can get confused.

What usually happens then is that they prefer the bottle - its a lot easier for them to sit there and have it tipped into them than work at the breast and they then refuse to latch on. Also breastfeeding works so much on a supply and demand basis - the more your baby feeds the more milk you produce - and vice versa - that if you replace feeds with a bottle early on your body thinks you dont need to make as much milk and your supply drops.

Once you get past six weeks things are usually a lot more settled and you have built your milk supply up so the odd bottle doesnt matter in the same way and they know how to breastfeed well so less likely to refuse the breast. Now this six weeks seems average for most people and is when breastfeeding gets a lot easier, baby takes good feeds, not painful for you etc. In hindsight we established breastfeeding much earlier on so should have tried a bottle of ebm earlier on but I was sticking to that 6 weeks.

I understand wanting help with the feeding but if you end up just using formula as baby refuses to latch on it can be a lot more hassle - warming bottles, cleaning, preparing rather than just popping baby on - and once your partner is back in work its going to be you doing all of that (if you are at home with baby). Also babies do still bond without feeding - cuddles, skin to skin, bath time, daddy fun time etc...

Why not pop over to the breast/bottle board and see what they say over there?

xxx

Thanks for all the advice
x

I expressed when DS1 was about 2-3wks old - my mum had gone on holiday when he was 2 days old and she felt guilty and was desperate to babysit when she got back! Was really hard work expressing though - not knowing how much he would take from a bottle plus fitting in the expressing between feeds. He happily took it though. I went back to work before he was 5months old and I still managed to breastfeed him till he self weaned at 13months. He would take a bottle or breast - so long as he got milk, he didn't seem to care!

I personally don't think I would express just to give DH a chance to feed though - it is a bit of a faff (washing bottles, pump, getting the time etc) You'll be surprised how happy your hubby will be without needing to feed the baby - DH was never too bothered about it but loves DS. (if that makes sense?)

Hi mum2b1. I had the same plan as you - really wanted DH to give the baby a bottle of EBM for the late feed so I could go to bed earlier. I tried to introduce the bottle at about two weeks and my baby just refused to take it. We perservered for a while but when she did take it, it made her windy which she wasn't otherwise.

The other source of stress I found was expressing. When I saw how much (little) was coming out I fretted over my milk supply and yet when I wasn't expressing I was mostly pretty confident about my milk supply!

So we gave up the bottle feeds in the end and DD is now almost a year and still BF. I hope this doesn't come across as negative because I know this system has worked well for friends and relatives, it just wasn't for us! Good luck.

Hi Fruitscone,
can i ask what bottle u used?
We have bought the tommytippee anti colic ones that are 'supposed' to mimic the breast and reduce airflow.
Thanks

Expressing just so DH can do a feed for 'bonding' is absolutely not worth the effort - get him to do bathtime or bedtime or something else non-feeding.
Expressing is, IME, a major pain and a fiddle compared to bf, esp in the early days when you are knackered already - remember that to guard your supply you should be expressing at the same time dd is feeding so you can't (eg) sleep through the feed DH does.

After bf is established, expressing so you can go out and have a haircut etc without dd is an entirely different matter and a very good idea . One bottle a week while I was at choir was plenty for dd to keep her hand in, as it were.

I also think it's a bit much to expect babies 'not to have a preference' of breast over bottle or vice versa - that'd be one unusual child!

DD1 was fed EBM from a bottle from the start I had to work hard to get her to latch on (juandice) so we just kept up with 1-2 bottles a week.

DD2 would have drank milk from an old shoe given half the chance I think she got her first bottle at about 3-4 weeks and maybe got 1-2 a week after that if I needed to go out somewhere.

I agree expressing is such a faff and hassle sometimes.

I have bought those Tommee Tippee anticolic closer to nipple bottles this time as well we shall see how we get on.

I had to introduce a bottle with DD2 at 3 weeks as I was readmitted inot hospital and was very sick. DD2 had to go home with DH and due to the high doses of drugs I was on even expressing milk for her wasnt a choice i had. However, I did mange to keep my milk going by expressing and then dumping milk.
DD2 was 6weeks old by the time i got home, and we mixed fed for a while and she was back to just BF at 7 weeks.
I would say feeding is just one part of the bonding tbh, get dh to do nappies and bathing, hugs ect. You might not want to express off at all, it takes time, and effort
HTH

mum2b1,
I am not in the UK but I used the NUK anti-colic / slow release bottles, with no joy.

However I do think my baby has a bottle aversion because I had to stop BF for two weeks while taking medicine in the winter and it was a huge struggle to get her to take formula from a bottle and I resorted to tipping it in her from a beaker in the end. Not fun and we were both relieved to get back to BF!

One thing I found with the expressing was that in the early days, it was unpleasant and quite painful to express - even with the electric pump - because my nipples were so sore. This was less of a problem when I was expressing in the winter to keep my milk supply up while on antibiotics, but still quite laborious and tedious.

I had to express and resorted to feeding the ebm in a bottle at 2 wks purely because my nipples were so sore and I needed a break. It was that or give up. After that he lo would take a bottle on occasions I was out no problem but continued bf until he was a year. I also introduced a dummy around the same time which is also considered a 'no-no' but for me was a lifesaver. I know plenty of people who left it until 6-10 wks and then baby would not take bottle/dummy. I think the trick is, not to give too many bottles, I would say nor more than one a day or baby may get 'lazy' and prefer the bottle. I agree that I wouldn't do it just so dp could help out as its not really worth the hassle. The main reasons I did it was initially because of the pain and then later if I wanted to go out somewhere. hth.

Bathtimes and bedtimes should be used ALONG with feeding for bonding, not instead of.

Its worrying to see comments about something being too much hassle to do and so not worth doing.

Dads feeding is important, maybe not as important as mum, but don't marginalise it.

Maybe some dads would like to be consulted, and go with whatever works for you.

Im sure that some dads cant be bothered either.

Many things in life arent 'necessary' but I think the father doing as much as possible and if this can include feeding his child then great!
The roles of a mother and father are equal and every need of the child should be met by each if possible and if both parents want that.

i agree with Mrs badger

Here we go again....

mum2b1 - none of the bottles that sell themselves on the strength that they reduce problems for babies going between breast and artificial teat have been independently tested and proven to work better than any others.

Tommee Tippee have made a bottle that looks a bit like a breast, but it doesn't function like a breast so the experience of feeding from it is completely different from breastfeeding. Yes some bf babies will be fine with it. Others are happy with a sippy cup, or a cheap latex teat, or a cherry teat, or Avent, or a normal cup. You really have to try them to see.

I think if more people understood the basic physiology of breastfeeding they'd be less persuaded by the weasel words of bottle manufacturers out to make a quick bob on the back of current campaigns to promote breastfeeding.

MrUmble - you know babies will suck on anything. There are some tribes in Malaysia where men let their babies suckle on their man boobs to comfort them while the women are out fetching water from the well/hoeing the fields. Have you considered this?

Here's an article on nursing fathers that might interest you: www.unhinderedliving.com/nursingfather.html

It might be a great bonding experience for you - you could comfort your baby and allay your insecurties about your role as a father, without putting your partner through the hard work of expressing.

Tittybangbang why do you assume MrUmble has insecurities about being a father?

He just wants to be there for his wife and baby and share in all the experiences.
I think it is great that he wants to be so involved.

My DH was fully involved when mine were babies. However he didn't make extra work for me by expecting me to express milk. Instead he brought the baby to me for feeding at night, then did all the winding, settling etc. while I got back to sleep. Far more helpful than feeding the baby whilst I sat and looked on with tingling breasts!