BF baby refuses bottles and I need to go to work

[Willowrose63]

Baby is nearly 10 months old. We have tried many different bottles several times with no success. Wondering if you had experience with this and what did you do about it? I work 12.5 hour shifts so with commute time I will be out of the house for 14hrs ish. There is a breastfeeding room where I work so thinking that her Dad will just need to bring her over at some point during the day.
Any advice appreciated thanks

I went back to work when EBF and no bottle DS was 10 and a half months. He was absolutely fine. Never took the expressed milk I gave nursery but ate well and had a big feed before and after drop off.

@starrynight21 you sound like a lovely mum

@Willowrose63

Baby is nearly 10 months old. We have tried many different bottles several times with no success. Wondering if you had experience with this and what did you do about it? I work 12.5 hour shifts so with commute time I will be out of the house for 14hrs ish. There is a breastfeeding room where I work so thinking that her Dad will just need to bring her over at some point during the day. Any advice appreciated thanks

A 10 mo can reverse cycle. So you just let them have all the breastmilk they want when you return. I did this with my 6 mo when I had to return to work. He got into a nice pattern of only bf at night.

It's so stressful isn't it, mine are teens now and I still remember the worry. Neither of mine would take a bottle so we went straight to sippy cups at 9 months. The first days I got back from work they both smelled a bit cheesy as they'd dribbled / missed the milk but the next day or so they got the hang of it. Always liked a big bf as soon as I came in the door but that was fine as it was a good excuse for a sit down.

Neither of mine ever took a bottle. If I was there, they BF'd; if I wasn't, they ate food and drank from a cup.
That did 'make up for it' at night, but wasn't too much of a problem, as we co-slept.
It took a few days and, of course, I was worried sick that DS2, in particular, went for hours without milk, at first. But he adapted, and BF'd at night/first thing, until he was 6, so...
There's no one way to make it work. You/they will work it out.

I’m in a similar situation with my DS but luckily I don’t work 12 hour shifts.

He will take small amounts of EBM from a glass or off a spoon (if using a spoon it helps if the milk is thickened with weetabix). We also try to mix EBM into his foods. He is prone to constipation on weekdays so we have to be very careful with his diet.

@mumsiedarlingrevolta glad to hear you both survived thanks for the tip on mixing the milk in with yoghurt I hadn't thought of that! Now you say it it seems obvious

@EL1984 so true they do learn alot from watching other babies!

I've just had this problem with my DD, I had to go back about a month ago when she was 5m. We tried to get her used to bottles for weeks beforehand, but nothing worked. We tried at least 12 different types, different times, temperatures, positions, people... To cut a long story short, nothing had worked by my first day back. So she had to go cold turkey.

The first day I went home at lunchtime. From the second day onwards, she just had to have bottle or nothing, so she started to take a bottle. To be honest, she's still eating the absolute minimum while I'm out of the house, and she just feeds non-stop in the evening.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, but if I'd known it was going to work out like this, it would have saved me a lot of stress (not to mention the money spent on bottles and teats)!

Very reassuring to hear all of your experiences, thankyou!

Have you tried a sippy cup / Doidy cup instead of a bottle. At her age I wouldn't try to introduce a bottle as you kind of want them to start giving them up by 12 months anyway. Try the cup for breastmilk / formula or even cows' milk (this will be fine at 10 months if she is also having breastfeeds in the morning / evening and extra at weekends).
Failing that, assuming she's weaned well and is eating 3 decent meals a day so won't need a lot of milk during the day as a source of food, then just make sure she's got a lot of milk and liquid in her diet and keep offering sips of water. Porridge (Ready Brek), yogurt, custard, fruit purée, jelly etc. If you are still able to offer the breast first thing and when you get home, she'll get what she needs then. I speak from experience as neither of my kids would take a bottle when I returned to work at 8 months ish.

I would give breast milk or formula in a sippy cup or straw cup.