Breastfeeding to bottle

[sugarplumfairy01]

Sorry for long post but please read and help!

My daughter is nearly 5 months old and has 2 very sharp teeth and keeps biting me, so I've decided it's time for the bottle!

She doesn't really like bottles and we've been trying since she was 3 weeks old. She'll take a bit and then stop. It's as if she says that will do me till I get my mummy back!

My parents had her overnight and she hardly ate. My husband has given her a bottle today and she's taken 3.5oz. it was the quickest she's ever taken that amount! (Normally would take an hour or 2 but she did that in 1/2 hour!)

When I switched my son my Bf to bottles I just did gradually as he didn't care what he got. But if I do gradual with my daughter I think she'll hold out on taking a decent amount from the bottle and just wait till she gets me.

Can we just go cold turkey?! I could express every now and then to ease my boobs! (She won't take expressed milk from a bottle at all!)

Everyone keeps saying she'll eat when she's hungry but she's very stubborn! When we went away for the night, nearly 24 hours with my parents, she ate about 10oz from a bottle over that time.

Can anyone give some advice on how to handle it?

Thanks x

Anyone able to help?

Mine was a bottle refuser until we introduced solids and then tried again when he was over 6 months.

I never had success with a normal teat, but did with a MAM bottle-to-sippy cup spout, which is a different shape. I also tried cold expressed milk, the bonus there being it's not a total waste if you can't get them to drink it instantly!

Could you not wait another month until she starts food? Then you could breastfeed first thing when she wakes up, breakfast, mid morning snack then a bottle then lunch etc
Would you be happy to breastfeed twice a day say first thing in morning and before bed? Bottles rest of time?
Or wait another month, start food then go cold turkey

I had the same and agree with @lambdroid it's more likely to happen after weaningto solids. I didn't even bother with a bottle with my 3rd until she was weaning as I knew it would be easier!

I've also had the biting however so I know how awful it is! If you want to try and get through it there's some advice here

kellymom.com/ages/older-infant/biting/

Also I would try dropping/pushing forward a feed maybe mid morning until reaaalllly hungry as they always feel better when they really want it!

But if you would rather stop I second what lambdroid said about the bottle to sippy cup teat and also my bf babies would never take a cold or even room temp bottle. It had to be quite warm, probably warmer than you would expect it to be...,like a cup of tea that's cool enough to drink in one go rather than sip (if that helps!) I don't know why I guess maybe breast milk is warm from the source??? It's worked for 2 of my friends who were trying to get bf babies on a bottle so worth a try!!

I would not go cold turkey simply because it's so stressful! My advice is pick a feed where she is most relaxed and least likely to be reeeeaaallly hungry. Do a warm bottle, let her have what she likes then don't feed again until she is likely to have another feed normally and give her a bf then. Still stressy but less likely to be as screamy. Also you might find she bfs better at the next feed as she'll likely really want it!!

Hope that helps in some way!

That should say feed better not feel better

I've just switched my 10 week DS from breast to bottle but formula so slightly diff to you. He was a massive bottle refuser and screamed the house down when we tried to feed him with one. We slowly introduced it so one feed a day and didn't push it, if he got too upset we let it go until the next day!

We eventually realized that he likes his bottles a little warmer than we were making them. Another realization was that DH was the one trying him on the bottle and when I took over it was better, so I did the bulk of the bottle feeding until he was used to it, he now lets anyone feed him. We needed to get the hang of it together first. It took me 2 weeks of mixed feeding to eventually get him to the point where all feeds are from bottles.

I couldn't have gone cold turkey with the distress he was in, but every baby is different.

Thanks for the advice everyone, and the link is really helpful.

Ill have a look for the sippy cup.

If I can, I'd like to carry on bf until 6 months, that's what I did with my first. I've started to pay a bit more attention when she's eating, and to wait until she's really hungry. Think I was quite bag for topping her up all the time!

We've tried milk at all sorts or temps as well, and hasn't made much difference to her.

We've also got a case of suspected chicken pox at the moment with her so feel I need to stick it out. She's got a red rash but drs don't know what it is so just asked us to see how she is in a few days!