Help with breastfeeding

[Blak]

Hi, FTM here. My daughter is 3 weeks old and I’ve been breastfeeding but for a couple of reasons and am wanting to stop and really struggling. She won’t take a bottle. I’ve tried letting dad give her an expressed bottle on an evening and she takes it but is then very fussy afterwards. I’m having to leave her for a night in September so I need her to be able to take a bottle. Does anyone have any advice for getting her to take a bottle please.
Thanks in advance

URGH i feel your pain, i wanted to stop but DD refused a bottle so I'm still breastfeeding 8 months later! Things that people suggested not that it worked for us was someone other than you doing it, warm the milk up more than you'd think, bit of a distraction, singing, swaying etc. Good luck!

Are you struggling with breastfeeding generally? Or is it just the not taking a bottle?

If you’re wanting to give up breastfeeding you could try just going cold turkey, until she’s hungry enough. Also a dummy may help with the fussiness, she may be wanting to comfort suck.

If you want to keep bf then I’d start trying various teats and bottles to see if theres one she’ll take. You can also try a cup or spoon feeding.

Bear in mind by sept things will look very different, babies change enormously in a month.

My DD wouldn’t take an expressed bottle but guzzled down a bottle of formula.
I nearly gave up around 3 weeks too as I found it awful but she was badly sick after her first formula bottle so I gave in and now 18 months later she’s still on the breast.

She might be fussing because she doesn’t get the same comfort in a bottle, try a dummy or if your set on stopping breastfeeding a bottle of formula might fill her a little better and help her nod off.

It might also be an issue called 'excess lipase' where expressed milk tastes almost soapy unless you scald it.

Yy to the dummy. Sometimes they just want to suck and the milk pisses them off. Try it when she is quite snoozy and relaxed- if she's agitated and you're introducing something new it'll make it worse.

You could also try a different brand of bottle if the problem persists.

Is he doing paced feeding?
I would be prepared though that some babies are flat out bottle refusers.
My 3 year old never ever took a bottle no matter how much we spent or how much we tried.
And my 1 year old will now sip some water from it but having milk at night will not happen.

Have you tried different bottles? Maybe MAM or NUK?

Are you wanting to give up bf or do you want to combi feed?

What specifically are you struggling with breast feeding? People maybe also to offer suggestions if you want to try and make it easier. The first 6 weeks of bf are intense then it starts to get easier.

I’m just guessing, but she probably wants to suck for comfort as well as for food. Because it’s much easier to get milk out of a bottle, babies can finish sooner and they aren’t able to comfort suck at the end in the same way. Have you tried a dummy after the bottle so she can spend a bit more time sucking?

Do you want to give up breastfeeding entirely, or are you just looking to introduce bottles because of the night away you’ll be having? Breastfeeding is really tough in the first couple of weeks, you're right in the trenches right now. It will get a LOT easier (I found it was much better by 6 weeks, but exactly when seems to vary quite a bit). Maybe leave it a week or two (if this is an option for you) and then try to introduce combi feeding? I think around 6 weeks is the usual recommended time for introducing bottles if you want to combi feed.

I certainly found my DD was more accepting of bottles when she got a bit older. It also depended on who was dishing it up - she’d take one from my DMum no trouble, from my DH she’d fuss a bit and then give it and take one. From me, not till she was 8 months old and only then in the car!

Take your time if you can. If DH offers her a bottle frequently, she learn this is an ok way to get milk. I’d actually avoid evening to start with - newborns are notoriously fussy near bedtime. Try earlier in the day to start with and then move it later when she’s more used to it.

Latex teats are worth trying, especially the nuk ones with the flattish end. And make sure you tip the bottle so so air gets in with the milk.

Some babies are fussy about temperature. When I switched ds2 to formula, it turned out he liked his on the cooler side.

Hope it works out for you both the way you want it to

Thanks everyone for the replies.
@crazychemist truth is I never wanted to breastfeed for long anyway, I had GD during my pregnancy and was advices to give her my milk to start of with to avoid a risk of high blood sugar to my daughter. I think the midwifes are a bit pushy with breastfeeding though and tbh daughter took really well to breastfeeding but I would now love to be able to combine feeds if not to stop breastfeeding altogether. My daughter takes a bottle it’s just it will never send her to sleep like my boob does and she is very very fussy afterwards. Tried her with a dummy but that’s not helping either. I guess she just likes the comfort of the boob