Bottle feeding

[pudding16]

Hi,

We are trying to introduce a bottle of expressed breast milk every night before bed for my 6 week old. Some evenings she will take it with no issues and then the next evening she will be fussy and sometimes gag.

Is this normal?

We want to continue so she gets used to it but are we being cruel? We would stop entirely if she continued to refuse every night but this isn’t the case. Is she just being fussy?

Hi yes definitely normal.If you want her to be able to take a bottle aswell as breast feeding and not have her develop a complete aversion and literally only feed from you, then you probably need to try and persist with the bottle as a routine but some B/F babies just won't take their milk in anything other than a boob (both mine!) as they just know the difference and what they prefer!
It's a difficult balance combination feeding, one I've never managed to achieve, but hopefully you may have more luck, I have a friend whose LO has always been able to switch between breast and bottle fine, so it is doable for some :)

Yes, very normal. Perhaps try a different time of day initially until she is used to it? Nighttime breast milk is full of melatonin and it's very comforting - she probably wants the closeness when she's being fussy.

It's all about persistence. She's only little and she doesn't understand what you're doing and why. With time and practice she will get it