A few weeks ago my Public Health Nurse told me that I should have introduced a bottle around the 6 weeks mark, as otherwise he may refuse to take one later on. She convinced me that if I was to get sick or something happen that I might need him to take a bottle, that by then he may not want to.

I said that I thought I could just breastfeed with no bottles this time as I am not planning to go back to college this year now, but put it off for a further year. However she was so convincing that I got a breast pump and bottles etc and tried him that weekend (3 wks ago). She said I could give him one bottle a week just so he is familiar with it, and to get DH to give it to him.

The first bottle went fine. Took him a while to take any interest but drank it then I topped him up. The next weekend it took even longer for him to take it. Had to stop and leave him a while and go back, but then he did take it and I topped him up again. However this time he just point blank refused to drink from it.

My question is do we even need to be doing this at all???

Has anyone here just breastfed with no bottles and then when baby is ready moved them on to a bottle or sippy cup when they were older. Was it hard to get them to take something other than the breast then? I cannot see any reason why I would not be there to feed my baby myself. I know the unexpected can happen. I dunno. I just feel like for me I am doing something that I am being told to do, that I don't really want to do, and that my baby does not seem happy with either.

My DH was thrilled when DS took the bottle from him and I kind of get the feeling that he would love DS to to want to take a bottle from him once in a while. So I feel guilty about not wanting to do this at all, at least not yet. Has anyone had a similar experience or give any advice.

Thanks

Honestly I would not bother with the nurses advice and it appears that her advice is not working anyway, it even sounds like it is making your baby get an aversion to the bottle.

God forbid if you were to get sick, you would still most likely be able to BF all they need is the boob, unless you are on strong medication or dying that is! Which is most likely never going to happen.

Babies are not silly, if they are really hungry they will drink, if not from a bottle they can be spoon fed or syringe fed in an emergency.

Introducing bottle once a week runs the risk interfering with babies sucking of the breast and your milk supply and pumping is hard work and does not empty the breast as efficiently as a babys mouth

I would just BF to be honest, the nurse is worrying about things that may not even happen, forget about doing x in case of x. If a problem occurs deal with it at that time, worrying in advance is just pointless I think.

The nurse is foreseeing things way too much!

Bah loads of nonsense! If you baby ever needs to drink from a bottle he will, no need to "teach" him so if you are happy breastfeeding "direct" all or most of the time no need for a bottle really!

My little girl took the bottle initially (EBM, when I needed a break in the first few months) and then started to point blank refuse it (around 4 months) and we did not really push it as I was happy bf. I am now back at work and she takes from the bottle when necessary but otherwise waits for me. She is happy that way, if need be she will drink from the bottle but if given the choice she will refuse it. She does not spend her time screaming or anything, she is just happy to wait.

Do what you think is best and if you dont want to bother with a bottle yet (or ever) just dont bother
Your OH can get involved in other ways like bath time etc and in a few months time there will be weaning to think about anyway

I'm always amazed by so called health professionals and their 'advice'.

My LO is almost 9 months and has never had a bottle, she has just started to have a sippy cup with her meals and drink out of that perfectly fine. I wouldn't bother with bottles at all, if you're going to be there to feed there's really no need

Whether you get ill or not you will still be able to feed your baby, I came down with a horrible virus and felt like death for about a week. I continued to nurse my daughter every 2/3 hours through the day and night, it was exhausting but forcing a bottle onto her would have been even more stressful.

Follow you gut, if you don't want to give bottles then don't (how did we all survive before them?) x

Yes me. Had about 3 or 4 bottles in first couple of weeks and none since. Took a sippy cup since 6 months with water, just took a bit of practice over time.

There's loads more ways to bond, don't feel guilty about feeding in the natural way, he'll get over it.

WSS^^^^

It seems like very odd advice just to go to the trouble of introducing a bottle when you don't want or need to, just in case you get sick? bit like advising you to stop spending time with your baby in case one day you're not around!
Neither of my children would take a bottle despite my best efforts, but when I really needed them to as I was going back to work, we just persevered and persevered and in the end, they both did. My daughter was 6 months when she took one and my son 5 months. If you really needed it to happen, your LO would get the hang of it, a baby won't starve itself, but if you don't need to then I really wouldn't worry.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and advice. It is all really appreciated. I actually ended up talking to my DH about how I was feeling and he said whatever I want to do is fine and not to let the Nurse influence my decision. As for DH being thrilled, he said it was nice to give DS a bottle but he doesn't feel a need to feed our son to bond with him. He just wants what is best for DS and if we think that that is me EBF without bottles then that is fine. I'm so glad I spoke to him about it. And I'm glad that I got these responses as it has really reassured me that there is no need to bottle feed my baby right now.

We waited 6 week an tried to introduce bottle with our 1st and she refused it and wouldnt take it until 9 month when i had to move to formula.

I just have to say well done for your DH! What a lovely thing to say

We never really had the need for bottles. I think Alex has had maybe four or five in the almost ten months we've been BFing. It's such a faff!