Help please. How do I get baby to re latch and not prefer bottle

[hooch]

My LO is 4.5 months. As a newborn he had constantly needed to bf and although hard to keep up I fed on demand. After about 3 momths I decided to give him a bottle of formula for his bedtime feed. He took it really well and we continued this for a few weeks. Then, LO started getting fussy when I offered my boobs for a feed. I didnt know why this was happening and tried everything for him to latch on but no he didnt want to. I offered a bottle of formula and he downed it and slept for two hours. He was obviously hungry and didnt want to work at breastfeeding. Ive never been one to spray or leak so I guess LO has to work hard to get any milk out. Now he is refusing to latch on 3 out of 5 feeds. Hes fine during the night and morning but come lunch time onwards he wants a bottle. So im now in this situation where I'm bf, formula feeding and pumping to maintain a supply. I really want to breastfeed so how do I get LO to relatch and be happy?

 

[laodicean]

I don't have any experience with this, bit maybe try a nipple shield? Thing is, this has been going on so long that he may just now prefer the bottle to the boob, but if he is willing then a nipple shield will provide the stimulation to his palate the same way that a bottle teat does.

If you introduce it at the time he'd normally have a boob feed then he'll get used to it and you can start dropping the bottle feeds.

LOs are still quite flexible in their eating habits at this stage - from my own experience. Just managed to get my LO to latch without a nipple shield for the first time since he was 2 weeks old this weekend - whenever I'd tried to get him to do it before he'd scream and throw tantrum and refuse to latch, but clearly I managed to get him on a good day and once he realised he could do it there was no stopping him!