EBF till 6 months, how to give formula!

[HJWT]

DS is 11 weeks tomorrow and BF is going great, he takes a bottle of expressed milk if I pump but only from someone other than me! I don't want to BF past 6 months. Just personal choice he is a big boy very heavy and long so dread to think what size he is going to be in another 3.5 months!

ATM he absolutely refuses formula! I had to take DD to the doctors the other day, DS & DH were both unwell so left them at home with a bottle of formula and he just spat it out! Tried again yesterday when he was starving after a long nap and again refused it 🤷🏻‍♀️

So if you EBF until 6 months how did you get your baby onto formula ?

I'm just going to listen what others say. My dd is 6 mo and exclusively breastfed. She took 20-30 ml for a couple of days (not in a row) but it's still far off a proper feed. She completely refused formula yesterday and today. I'm back to work in 3 days and my dh will stay with the baby at home. Good luck to him.

@Tatasmum how is it going 🙈 I have an important app in 2 weeks that I cant take baby to so been trying formula again and he refuses 🤷🏻‍♀️ looks like I am going to have to pump every couple of days 🥴

Have you tried different formula? Mine didn’t like aptimil but did like SMA and Hipp...

Sorry to sound the note of doom OP but my EBF baby just kept on refusing all bottles. We tried repeatedly at 6months right up to 12months when I went back to work ...

Eventually we just had to make do with giving little one water in a sippy cup and lots of yoghurt and dairy at meal times. Plus two breastfeeds at the beginning and end of every day

I read on one of these threads that Sainsburys own brand is creamer and some babies prefer it.

I'll add a positive, my bf DD has accepted a bottle of formula. For me, the key was in the temperature. I can well believe it doesn't taste as good though as the smell isn't great.

Can you mix expressed milk with formula and then gradually change the ratio? Will he take a bottle of expressed milk?

@RhymingRabbit3 Yes he will have expressed milk from a bottle but not if I give it him he refuses if I try! X

@HJWT I think that's really common - he knows you can provide "proper" milk so doesnt want a bottle from you.
If you gradually increase how often he has bottles from other people he might get used to the bottle and start to accept it from you as well.

You probably wont be able to breastfeed to 6 months and just stop - it will need to be relatively gradual increase of bottles and decrease of breastmilk. You could start that now if you're really set on stopping at 6 months.

@RhymingRabbit3 I will probably still BF at bedtime / night feeds till he is 1 as it is obviously much more convenient! So will probably get to 6 months then hopefully try and get him on a bottle in the day 🤞🏻 thanks for the advice 😊