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Parenting

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Original poster

Bottle feeding a BF baby

14 replies

Browniee · 14/08/2019 21:01

I’m just looking for some advice really from anyone who has been there!
My baby is 15 weeks EBF from birth (apart from top up bottle feeds in the first weeks as she was jaundice which my partner did).
We’ve tried and tried introducing bottles and finally found MAM is working for us, as it’s the same shape as her dummies.
We have a few things on in the next couple of months which would be great if we could leave her with grandparents with expressed milk to feed.
The HV advised that I should leave the house or at the very least the room, and let my partner feed her.
However when we’ve done this he’s spent ages trying to get a bottle in her and eventually I’ve taken over as she was literally getting hysterical and we tend to take it in turns if she’s having a total meltdown. As soon as I start feeding her the bottle she absolutely guzzles it down.
She might have 10/15mls from him but very slowly and with a lot of screaming and fussing in between.
So she does take a bottle, but only from me - which sort of defeats the objects of bottle feeding her as she could just have it straight from source!
Any tips or advice to get her to take a bottle from someone other than me greatly appreciated!

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MustardScreams · 14/08/2019 21:08

Can you start her off feeding and transfer to your DP whilst she’s still feeding from the bottle and see if she’ll continue with him? If she does then you can shorten the time you’re holding her to him holding her and you giving her the bottle, and eventually him just giving the bottle. May take some time but you should get there!

Dd was the opposite, if she could sense me in a 50 mile radius there wasn’t a chance she was taking the bottle!

modgepodge · 14/08/2019 21:18

Problem is, if you’re there, you’ll take over and she gets what she wants. My sister had this. As soon as she actually left the house, and couldn’t step in and take over, the baby took the bottle. Good luck xx

Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 21:18

@mustardsceams
If I hand her back to him she tends to restart the hysterics! But maybe a sneaky transfer could be a good idea and just keep going with it.

I’ve heard loads of people saying that once they’ve left the room/house their babies take the bottle but I was sat up in the bath earlier feeling very guilty as I could hear the screaming upstairs! I’m sure she can sense that I’m relaxing without her and decides to put a stop to it 😂

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Cuppa12345 · 14/08/2019 21:20

My husband struggled as I think my dd could still smell me maybe, or was clever and knew I'd be nearby if he was there maybe. We got my mum to give her a couple of bottles and then my husband and then me. Worked a treat.

Mum2jenny · 14/08/2019 21:20

I couldn’t get my bf dd to take a bottle under any circumstances. Not could my dp. So she was bf totally until she’d handle a sippy cup.

PutsFootInIt · 14/08/2019 21:21

who will be looking after baby while you're out? DD would take a bottle better from my mum and mil than DH. might be worth getting the person who will be babysitting to try?

Rosebud1302 · 14/08/2019 21:22

I had to actually leave the house so he knew I was gone. He basically watched me leave haha. It still took a few days of point blank refusal, lots of upset etc but we persevered and one day he took it. Never looked back since. Good luck x

TixieLix · 14/08/2019 21:36

How about giving your DP an item of clothing of yours that's you've worn recently to drape over himself so that the baby gets your scent? Make sure he's not wearing any cologne or aftershave too. No idea if it would help but worth a try.

Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 23:13

@modgepodge I think I need to be a bit stronger but I always cave and end up giving her the bottle myself (or before we knew she’d take these bottles, boob).

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Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 23:15

@Cuppa12345 asking your mum to do the feed is a good idea, I might try that! It’ll probably be my mum who babysits the first time if we head out for the evening so we maybe need to have a practise run to put my mind at rest!

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Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 23:18

@PutsFootInIt Really good idea! Why won’t these babies take a bottle from their Dads! 😂
To be honest, I think my partner gets as worked up as she does now so maybe she can sense the dread on him 😕 grannies are a bit more ‘been there done that’ about it all and more relaxed!

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Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 23:19

@Rosebud1302 Thank you! That’s given me hope that we can get there too 😄

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Original poster

Browniee · 14/08/2019 23:21

@TixieLix That’s a good idea, maybe what I’ve been wearing during the day. I’ve heard that works for settling newborns to sleep in their cots too so it’s worth a try! While the bottle was warming I did put the breastpad (reusable) that I’d been wearing all day next to it in the vain hope that that might help!!

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Original poster

Browniee · 05/12/2019 19:54

So as a very belated update (because I have found many a Mumsnet post through google and sometimes they just tail off without conclusion!) my baby is now taking the bottle.
In the end we had success with Tommee Tippee ones, and it took about a week of feeding her at the same time each evening before her bed for her to take it without fuss. We were just really consistent with the feeds. She takes formula now at that feed (BF for every other feed at the moment), but at first I mixed a little bit of expressed milk in with it to get her used to the taste. Each night the hysterics got less and less and now she will have the feed off me, my partner or my mum so far.
It feels very freeing and we managed to have a meal out followed by a birthday party without fuss. I know every baby is different but I think being consistent with the last feed was what cracked it for us. I also think because she’s being weaned onto solids now that’s helped my approach to it, because when she was just having milk in the early days the thought of her missing a feed panicked me a bit. We also managed to drop the dream feed the week afterwards so (for now) it seems like we’ve got a much more grandparent babysitting routine going on!

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