Bottle feeding a breast fed baby

[Crochet93]

I wonder if anyone could help me with some advice or even reassurance that we will crack this. I have an 11 week old son, who was combination fed from birth due to a delay in my milk coming in. He accepted both bottle and breast beautifully. Now 11 weeks on, we are solely breastfeeding as it was easier with my husband returning to work. We have no complaints and he feeds well, but we recently retried a bottle (of expressed breast milk) and my son refused it. Crying, turning his head away and pushing the teat with his tongue. Whilst I love breast feeding, my husband feels like he’s missing out on bonding experience and it now means I can’t leave my son for any period of time. Does anyone have any advice? Or has been in a similar situation? I would be grateful for any tips. Thank you!

If you baby doesn’t want a bottle the he doesn’t want a bottle. There are plenty of other ways Dad bond eg playing, bath time and going for a walk in a sling.

Have you tried leaving the room/ house and letting your husband feed him without you around? I’d leave before a feed is due, even go sit in the car for the first time and see how it goes.

I agree your husband can bond in other ways, but not being able to leave your son at all is hard going. It’s a good idea to get him used to a bottle incase something came up and you weren’t around for a feed.

It could be the bottle. I've heard Lansinoh bottles work well for fussy breastfed babies.

I tried pretty much every bottle and teat ever made, my daughter would never drink expressed milk EVER, I only realised when she was like 7 months that she'd drink formula no problem, from any bottle going 😂 I think sometimes the chemical composition of some peoples milk changes once expressed and the baby can tell/taste it and won't drink it, I assumed that's what happened to me.

Dad can bond in other ways! Get him changing the nappies and doing the baths. Dad’s job in the first year is to support the breastfeeding mum. I’ve breastfed three babies. They all love their daddy. They’ve taken a bottle to varying degrees but my eldest stubbornly refused and is the biggest daddy’s girl ever.

@Notanotheroneaboutcovid I have tried leaving unfortunately and we just get to a point where he’s so hysterical that my husband can’t calm him at all, bottle or no bottle. Thank you for the understanding behind my question

@CuteOrangeElephant thank you for the tip. I’ll have a look into those bottles

@harper30 that is really interesting! We haven’t tried formula recently. I just assumed that it would work better if he was receiving the same milk as he would get from me. We’ll try some formula tomorrow. Thanks for the tip.

@Duracellbunnywannabe @Meandmini3 I think my original post wasn’t very clear, my husband is very involved in every aspect of our son’s care/life and has been from the very start as I had a complicated delivery and needed a lot of support. I will continue to breast feed him, but unfortunately there will be times where I will need to leave him with other family members or care givers. And I would like my son to be comfortable and happy taking a bottle in advance of this, hence me asking for advice