Breast to bottle

[user1474320794]

Any advice to make the transition for my five month old? Currently refusing all bottles, both expressed and formula. Tried Tommee tippee and advent bottles, and also tried all sorts of tricks, slipping test in with breast, half asleep, wide awake just doesn't want to know. Please no suggestions as to going cold turkey and her having no other choice because I don't really want her going for any length of time with no milk and her weight gain has not been very good at all, one reason why I want her on formula. Thanks

The only bottle my daughter took to when changing from breast to bottle were the Lansinoh ones.

Alternatively maybe she'd take to a sippy cup instead?

Mam bottles and nuk bottles are suppose to be more acceptable to breast feed babies.

Nuk glass bottle with latex teat. The latex is closer to boob texture than silicone

I used Mam bottles, it took me six weeks I think, and a lot of wasted milk. I offered a bottle on every feed and eventually she took one. The first couple of times it worked when she was facing away from me, and TV on as a distraction.

You need to make sure it isn't you offering the bottle!! Mama =boob and no less will do!! We used mam microwave sterilise green ones!! And my dh did the bottle while I got on with some chores out of sight!! Started at 1 bottle a day while I was at work and built up from that.

I went through exactly this situation as I had to return to work at 5 1/2 months. We tried everything but he would not take the bottle from anyone. I had a long commute and would be out if the house for 12+ hours and he never took a bottle. In the end we started weaning with purée and added extra water to keep him hydrated.

Mam bottles with formula slightly hotter than recommended worked when I swapped DS at 5mo. I did have to go cold turkey though as he would always hold out for a boob if he thought that was an option. I hand expressed as little as possible when I needed relief, took ibuprofen every four hours and it settled in a few days.

Thanks for the replies I will have to get a mam bottle and give that ago, I think I may even have to go out for a little walk while her dad gives it ago I'm always around so she's always looking for me while attempting the bottle. How long did your baby go without milk for until the bottle was accepted? I may try that when her weight (fingers crossed) gets slightly better as last week we even had a drop in her weight, somewhere in between one to to ounces, so obviously getting concerned about that.

My HV told me that she wouldn't go hungry and she'd give in eventually, this was not the case, I put her in nursery one day a week at six months to get used to it prior to returning to work and she refused bottles all day, would eat barely any food and whenever I picked her up would still refuse a bottle so I'd then breastfeed her before we left the nursery. She was pretty stubborn.

Ohhh I'm so pleased bought a mam bottle and she took an ounce from me, I think she may have taken more if I'd expressed more but I didn't have high hopes so I didn't. Hopefully this is not a once off. Fingers crossed. thanks for all suggestions

I think it helped that the bottle was still hot out the steriliser and freshly expressed milk, will keep trying tomorrow

Glad to see this as I'm switching to ff my 5mo DD2. I bf DD1 a lot longer but this baby seems to be an all day cluster feeder at present and I'm not enjoying it one bit!

Anway just wanted to add that my DD1, although never lost weight, she was a slow gainer. I think I heard lots of bf babies put on lots of weight in the first 3 months and then it slows down. My HV was obviously unaware of this and made me feel awful and inadequate. Partly down to being a sensitive first time mum but also her lack of breastfeeding knowledge. I just wanted to tell you that if you are enjoying breastfeeding and are only stopping because of the weight gain to perhaps go with it another week and see how you and baby get on. Obviously I have no background on your situation but I'd hate for you to feel pressurised into doing something you may not want to do!

Best of luck with whatever you do for you and baby

It's a variety of reasons really, the weight being the main one, she's taking couple bottles a day now which I'm so pleased about. I'm not wanting to cut out the breastfeeding completely straight away just want to combine whilst doing the transition. She doesn't seem to have a lot which would explain the weight loss, she has had four ounces at most with that being the morning feed then throughout the day if I offer her a bottle she'll take two ounces!

I'm not used to the bottles guidance either, if I were to have a bottle of either expressed or just made up formula how long can that bottle be drunk from, to keep offering ?