Advice on switching to bottles

[Ifsomeonehadtoldme]

Where can I find some? Baby is feeding 10 times a day and often all morning or all afternoon. He’s five months and while it may be normal I’ve hit my limit. I don’t understand how I can gradually drop that insane schedule and I don’t think it’s fair on him to drop cold turkey (I could live with pain I think)

What is it you’re finding so tough? 10 times a day seems a lot of course but it does eventually even out. Has he ever had a bottle before?

Yes he has anything from grudgingly to willingly sucking down 180ml.

Combination of things are tough: Constant feeding, ten times a day thing - feels like he’s still a newborn at 21 weeks, he seems to be too hungry to nap so I can’t get a break as I always have to be present to feed and this no one else can look after him and sadly you can only sleep when the baby sleeps if the baby sleeps in something other than his carrier, Inability to plan as an personally very routine driven and he’s having none of it, his unwillingness to feed under cover means am trapped in house as I don’t enjoy having the old norksicles on display, lack of time with DS1 and can’t shake the feeling that after two identical experiences the old boobsicles are not very efficient.

I know I SHOULD be loving this but I’m really hating it and breast feeding specialist thinks I’m describing dMERS so the actual process is a little miserable at let down and the let down itself painful (as opposed to latch which could be fixed)

Does he take a dummy? He may just be comfort sucking a lot of the time if he’s still feeding that frequently. My dd refused a dummy for months but finally getting her take one around the 4 month mark was a game changer for me and she went from constantly being on the breast to going around 3 hours between feeds.

I had a friend whose dc was like this. She started him on baby rice on unofficial advice from a hv assistant because they are not supposed to tell you to wean until 6 mths. Dc turned into the most happiest contented babies almost overnight & has stayed that way - was always a cry-y baby - possibly just hungry a lot early on. Is that a possibility? Also if feeding so often is lobjust getting foremilk rather than hind milk which is creamier & has more calories? Not sure if that's much help.

If it's not I stopped bf at 6 weeks & we never looked back xx

Hates pretty much every dummy. First was the same apparently they have very high palates so only cherry shaped ones stand a chance of working. Tried couple of weeks ago. He doesn’t even like sucking my finger! His own on the other hand he loves. They’re never out of his mouth!

He’s a super happy baby presumably because he has as much latch and carrier time as he could possibly want. It is selfishly all about me...

So on stopping at six weeks how did it work? As that’s early enough I guess bfing still madly frequent?

I moved on about this time and it was pretty straightforward. Just chose a time to do a 180ml feed and then added another about 4 days later. You can keep adding them in or combi feed. Do what works for you and baby will be absolutely fine whatever you choose. And a huge well done for the months you’ve done!