Tips for introducing a bottle to a breastfed 10 week old

[Lydiagb662]

Hi, my 10 week old is breastfed and I’m trying to introduce a bottle. I’ve tried different bottle shapes but she is still not latching on and sometimes pushes it away. Does anyone have any tips?

Have you tried getting anyone else to do the bottle feed? For the first four months, my combination fed baby would NOT take a bottle from me. I had to leave the room initially!

Is it a bottle of breast milk or formula? If it's formula, try different brands etc.

If breast milk, are you freezing it first? Mine always had a bitter taste after freezing, apparently this happens for some women - I forget why!

For either, I would also try slightly different temperatures. My last DC was exclusively breastfed until about 6mo when I introduced the odd bottle, and I used a PP machine I had used with my others, and he would not take it. Eventually I figured out he wanted it warmer than that, and he started taking it no problem. I also know of a baby who would only have the ready made formula straight from the fridge!

Some babies never want a bottle, no matter what you try. On the other hand, some babies will take to a bottle then not want to breastfeed.

You know when you start breast feeding and you do nipple to nose, do that with bottle and angle the teat of the bottle up towards the roof of her mouth a bit. Its a bit hard because they're not really used to feeding in that reclined in the crook of your arm position either, so you might need to alter that too.

The advice given by a longstanding breast feeding advisor and midwife on MN years ago (anyone remember Mears?) was not to try when they are hungry as when hungry they are urgently wanting what they know addresses their hunger, and a bottle frustrates and upsets them because they haven’t yet learned that milk can come from a bottle.

So try towards the end of a feed, letting them chew or play with the rest until they realise that milk comes out. Try regularly until they get it.

(Though my bottle refusenik never did )

I have had several baby's and the this is what i have learnt. First what do you clean the bottles with i use unscented washing up liquid as even the tiniest taste of soap will affect the milk. Next i first offer breastmilk in a breast like bottle and lastly my other half is the one to introduce the bottle.

You smell of milk ,they need to get used to the bottle before you start offering a bottle.It takes time

What @Tabarnak said. Don't try it while they are starving hungry at the start of a feed, or they get frustrated/cross trying to get milk from an unfamiliar source.....wait until they are a bit more relaxed.

I pulled the bottle away slightly, as soon as they had any sort of "seal" on it, so milk came out....helped them to work out what was happening.

Also experiment with different teats/flows.