Breast to bottle hellllllp!

[Myfairone]

Hello Ladies,

ANy advice appreciated....I have exclusively breast fed (LO now 23 weeks old). I have just started to introduce him to baby rice (which he seems ready for and is enjoying) and I have to start thinking about stopping breastfeeding.

I am returning to work in April and was wondering (in your humble opinion) when the best time to stop breastfeeding would be? And how do I start?

Add onto that another question....LO will not take a bottle!!!!! He has only taken one once and that was just purely by luck. Anyone got any tips?

If I'm being honest I have totally enjoyed the breastfeeding experience and feel so upset at the thought of stopping and just know I'm going to feel the loss of the closeness...but, its not going to be practical for me to continue after I return to work...

Any help much appreciated.

You may be able to continue feeding morning and night once you return to work.

Start with the bottle of ebm between feeds, so he isn't very hungry. You may find it easier if your dh tries this first. If you do it, put ds in a chair facing you, or hold him in a different way from if you were to bf him.

Play with the teat on his mouth. Make a game of it. It doesn't matter if he takes no bm at all. Do this until he loses interest or starts to get upset or bored. Do this once a day. You might want to try freezing ebm in ice cube trays - you don't want to waste several ounces if he's not interested. Don't follow this with a bf, if he is upset, try to comfort him in a different way than feeding him - you don't want to make the association of playing with bottle = followed by bf.

Have an old bottle amongst his toys. Let him chew/suck/hit things with it (don't let him suck the teat - not good to suck empty bottle). It sometimes helps to familiarise a baby with a bottle.

This softly softly approach could take a while to do, but is most likely to work imo.

Don't 'starve' him into it.

april is still ages away and by this stage your dc will only be on one daytime feed a day. (will be almost 10 months) To be honest this could also be cows milk, so long as has two v. good feeds from you per day. I would thus not worry about the bottle and just try to get her used to the beaker.

My mate got her DD to take milk with the juice spouts, you could give that a try.

And if you don;t want to give up then don't. Nothing stops you giving the first and last feed yourself unless you work shifts. I did it with DS and it was fine.

forgot to say that this means that you can continue breast feeding even when you are back at work

You don't have to stop bfeeding, I went back to work when my lo was 9mo and carried on feeding mornings and a few times in the evenings. Sometimes she'd drink one bottle of formula mid morning but not always. I'm still feeding her twice a day now she's 2.

You could try a cup, your baby will be around 9mo when you go back, right? In that case he should manage a sippy cup, my DD certainly did at that age. I really wouldn't stress too much now about this bottle business, you've still got a fair amount of time to get him used to it.

Forgot to say, as for when to give up. Well thats up to you. When you are both ready for it would be my advice but thats just IMO and IMo you don't sound ready yet. WHO recommend breastfeeding for at least the first 2 years.

ladies, thank you...you're right! i feel so much better knowing i don't have to give up and it didn't occur to me he would only be needing a lunchtime feed by then.

will start letting him play around with bottle & sippy cup.

thanks again ladies.