Help! Baby hates formula!

[SassyPants87]

Wanted to start giving my 5 week old one bottle of formula at night. He does take bottle of my breast milk but honestly I really hate pumping so wanted to start giving one bottle of formula at night so hubby can do the feed.
Problem is my baby hates formula! Screams and spits it out! Any suggestions as to what I can do to get him to drink it?

Start gradually mixing it with expressed milk until they're used to it?

@RoseValleyRambles will that work if the plan is only one bottle of formula at night and the rest of the day breast milk?

i never managed unfortunately ! Daughter now 20 months. I now regret stressing so much over it tbh - hours of perseverance and baby screaming not wanting the bottle - me hiding in a different room or leaving the house coming ho to defeated husband.

instead what I did for a break was go to bed super early like 6 or 7 pm while my husband sat up with the baby for about 4 hours or however long she could go without needing a bottle and then he take her to me for milk and take her away again and I’d sleep until maybe 1am then swap and take over the night so he could still sleep before work.

Not sure. You could always try a couple of bottles a day while you establish the habit?

Have you tried a few different types of formula? They might be nutritionally the same but they smell (and presumably taste) different eg kendamil smells less fishy than Aptimal. You could test using the ready to drink bottles.

To be honest I would just persevere with feeding baby at night and baby will eventually sleep longer.you have only just established breastfeeding I wouldn’t go introducing bottles yet as it will interrupt your supply.

Try a different formula. We and subsequently our adult daughter found aptamil best.

If it’s aptamil, it’s horrible. DS had reflux and was sick constantly.
Aptamil sick smelt awful, the others were okay. Try Cow & Gate or Hipp Organic.

Cross posted - I wasn’t responding to the aptimil post above mine!

What worked for me was consistency with offering a bottle every night. Mix with breastmilk initially (they can be mixed at the same temp), my partner would also give the bottle with me out the room so she couldn't see or smell me. During the day I would put the teat in/near her mouth whilst lots of smiles from me so she associated it with good things. The milk also has to be very warm (not room temp or slightly warm). Baby is 16 weeks now and will take a bottle as and when needed.

Also FYI you will need to express when baby has the bottle so the feed isn't missed or else you will
impact your supply x

Get your partner to give the bottle and you leave the house for the first few times. Baby is unlikely to take it from you