To give 7 week old a bottle for one day?

[rainydays03]

Hi everyone,

My 4 week old is EBF and we have an event coming up in 3 weeks that was booked when I was pregnant. It’s a Craig David concert in the day that will only be for a few hours but the reality is it’s unsuitable for a baby - at the time of booking I didn’t think i’d still be BF but actually we’re really getting on with it so don’t want to stop.

Would I really confuse baby if he was given bottles with breastmilk in them for the afternoon? I’ve started building my stash up in the freezer, but how do I go about introducing the bottle?

Also, silly question but how do I get the milk ready from frozen?

Thank you so much x

It should be fine by 7 weeks, your bf will be well established by then. Although there is a small risk your 7wo will refuse the bottle.

I would try giving him a bit of expressed milk in a bottle a few times before, just to make sure.

Also, if it's only a few hours, the baby would probably be fine even if they didn't want to feed, so don't angst too much!

Start the bottle as soon as you can. They might not take a bottle if they do they will be fine

We introduced a bottle at 2-3 weeks under the direction of the midwife. My partner gave her a bottle on a Saturday and Sunday morning. Unfortunately it didn't last very long as she developed a bottle aversion with reflux and allergies around 10 weeks

I have high lipase and she only liked fresh milk and it develop a sour taste. I would check this before committing too much to the freezer! There are things you can do if this is the case but I wasn't needing to express enough to make it worth the research!

Thank you so much for your replies!

I feel so bad for leaving him so little but he’s our 4th baby and really feel as though a few hours would benefit my partner and I - we’ve barely seen each other since he’s been born 😂🤦‍♀️

I will definitely try the bottle a few times before hand, assuming he will be happy to go back to the breast as soon as i’m back?! I’m worried he will
prefer the bottle!!

Be hardcore about introducing and then phasing out the bottle.

You need to go out when DH gives it. Then have equal commitment to losing it. However I found mixed expressed for a bottle and bf is the perfect combo - DH did the last feed and first wake up (9pm / midnight ish) so I could go to bed at 8pm and get a good chunk of sleep.

For us when bottle feeding:

Expressed milk out of freezer into tuperware on the side for an hour or so
When it was slush puppy then into bottle
Bottle warmed in boiling water but also shhhhhh in microwave just give a really good shake several times to avoid hotspots

Mine loved it really hot - gross thought but if you've ever had to get a wee sample, you'll notice t's really hot when it comes out and so is breast milk!! So we had to get milk pretty hot and also upended the teat inside the bottle so it also warmed up with the steam from the milk.

I made a point of giving my youngest a bottle of expressed milk fairly regularly from a young age so we had the option of bottle feeding if needed.

That and using a travel cot at home for daily naps so they were happy in it wherever were both things I wished I'd worked out before my 4th 🤣

Oh and keep to the slowest flow teats otherwise they get used to the faster flow and THATs what upsets them back on the breast

I think mixed feeding is the best of both worlds so I'd absolutely use this as an excuse to introduce the occasional bottle.

Hadn’t thought about this, that’s amazing thank you!

You can get variflow teats which are good for bf babies as the more they suck the more milk they get which mimics the breast more.
We used the lansioh bottles and teats which my daughter got on well with....when not having aversions to the sight of the bottle!

Get someone else to try the bottle with little one , you don't do it , they will be less confused with smell of milk, also presumably they will be doing it day you are away.

DD wouldn't take the bottle when I was in the room or even in the house - stepped out for a few hours to get my highlights at the hairdressers and the little monkey took the bottle happily from my mum - until I stepped foot back in the house

Can I ask how you did this so you didn’t lose
your supply please? We cosleep so I like the idea of BF in the night still and maybe a bottle or 2 in the day? x

After 4 kids i’ve never thought of this! My 3rd son won’t even sleep in the car as he’s so used to his cot, pitch black room and white noise machine! Nightmare when trying to stay in hotels lol