So nervous about introducing a bottle..

[Mummafrog]

Hey ladies,

I could really do with some reassurance.
I'm a first time mum and I adore breastfeeding. I have no need to do a bottle of expressed milk every day or even once a week. I just want to occassionally be able to have a night out with my partner and I feel very safe with my mum looking after my DD

But is this possible? Can you just do a bottle of expressed milk once in a while? Will baby take it and if they do will they go back to the breast again? I feel so worried about it effecting breastfeeding but I think I'm being a bit irrational, I need the voice of reason from you mummies hehe.

I've bought the Medela Calma teats hoping they will help and I'm soon going to start expressing once a day anyway to donate milk and get my body used to it for returning to work next year so being able to pump enough should be fine.

I'd just love to hear from mums who only used expressed bottles occassionally and how it went? Any tips?
Thank you

 

[cflower04]

Stalking!

 

[Bumblebee2408]

Hey mummafrog,

Not the same situation but my little man had tongue tie so couldn't latch properly or get enough milk so I had to bottle feed until his tongue was snipped to relieve it. We are now combi feeding due to low milk supply which I'm trying to build up.

My point is we are now trying to reintroduce BF and he goes back and forth easily from both bottle and breast. He's been bottled fed since day 4 and hes now almost a month old.

I've used the medela teats to help wean him back onto breast they're fantastic as they make baby work hard for the milk as they would when feeding from us. Much better than standard bottles which just give out milk.

Hope this helps.

 

[pinkpolkadot]

Hi, with both DD's I have only needed to give the occasional bottle of expressed milk but I decided to give the one a couple of times a week (even if I was there) from 3 weeks as I had read quite a few cases of it being left a while to start or in between bottles and then baby won't take it.

Doing it this way we have never had any problems switching from one to the other although I know every baby is different. I know exactly the worry you feel, I felt the same with both girls the first few bottles!

 

[Sarah lo]

I was worried about this too. I really struggle to express, I try to pump every night after he goes to bed but I only seem to get an ounce or two a night so it takes me all week to pump enough for one feed

Because of my issues with expressing, i wasn't able to try Wesley on a bottle until 9 weeks which I've heard was leaving it quite late, but he was absolutely fine. Now he just gets the odd bottle now and again, about once a week and we have no problems at all going from breast to bottle and back again.

My daughter was the other way around. when she was a baby we tried her on a bottle very early on, maybe at about 3 weeks old. She was absolutely fine switching from breast to bottle and back again too. I combi fed her for 4 months without any issues.

We used tommee tippee closer to nature bottles with a size 1 teat for both of them.

 

[patch2006uk]

I decided not to give bottles at all. I have generally stayed with my babies while they are EBF, but as soon as solids are introduced it frees you up significantly. We offered water in a cup from 6 months, but many say they are suitable from 3 or 4 months. If I needed to be away, I'd choose to give a cup feed rather than a bottle personally. That being said, many babies do happily switch between the two. I just didn't fancy buying a whole set of something with such a limited life span x

 

[luna_19]

We gave bottles occasionally until around 2 months then nothing until we tried around 4 months and he wouldn't take it, never managed to get him onto a bottle and gave up and switched to cups but he still to this day refuses to take any expressed milk. I wonder if giving a bottle a few times a week would have helped...

 

[Pearls18]

Both my boys were EBF until 6 months but both had the occasional bottle of expressed milk from about 5 weeks. Caused no issues, it was a little harder getting DS1 to take it than DS2 but it enabled me to be able let someone else watch them when needed. I hate expressing though such a pain, but we had no issues, no nipple confusion, gave me a bit of freedom.

 

[sheldonsmommy]

I started using a bottle occasionally from about 2 weeks or so. Really no issues but it was always someone else giving it. A little later I tried to give him a bottle myself, and he really didn't like it. He wanted boob instead. So my suggestion would be to get someone else to introduce the bottle so he's not smelling boob and getting bottle

Currently he's 8 months and being weaned to formula, and he will now take bottles from me (took about a month to get totally comfortable with taking it from me).

 

[FarmMom]

I started the occasional bottle at 4 weeks because i knew i'd be back to work at 12. She would go a couple weeks with no bottle and has always been fine. Now she is getting more because i'm working but still nurses with no problem when i'm around, and prefers me to the bottle.

 

[lisa1980]

We introduced the occasional bottle of expressed milk at 4 weeks. DS never had any problems going from bottle to breast. He had always latched and fed well from the start so I wasn't too worried.

I had intended to give him a bottle a day to try to get more sleep but all the faff of expressing and sterilising meant I didn't do it as often as I thought, but I'm planning on doing the same again this time as it was useful that he'd take a bottle when we needed.

 

[Mummafrog]

Thanks so much for sharing experience and advice

What I'm getting from your replies is that babies are different and either doing the occassional bottle will work for my little one or it won't. But she has been a super breastfeeder from day one and I have the teats that don't give her a fast flow without effort so hopefully she at least won't lose interest in the breast which is my biggest fear.

What I want is to be able to only do it once a month or something until I go back to work.. but perhaps that is unrealistic, perhaps I should think about once a week or something. I'm not going back till she's 9-10 months though and it just seems like a lot to do for so long, I suppose it would give me the opportunity to go out and I know the grandparents really want to babysit for longer periods but I have no desire to be seperated from her for a long while yet :/

Just airing my thoughts! X

 

[cjwn]

Edited.

 

[Snufflepop]

We had the opposite experience to most of pp's. DD bf'd brilliantly from day 1 but refused any kind of bottle. We tried her at 3 weeks then 6 weeks and then 8 weeks and no joy. We also tried normal teats and the medala teats but nothing worked.

It doesn't really matter and we have given up trying now. I am off work for a year and have no real need to be away from her so EBF is fine. The only reason we tried is because hubby would have liked to be able to do the odd feed and it would have freed me up a little bit just to go to the gym for an hour or just get out the house for a bit.

Never mind, just means I get lots of snugly feeds! It's such a short time in their life I am happy to just go with it!

 

[mrssunshine78]

My first dd had to be bottle fed at first as she wouldn't latch until day 10, we kept up one bottle of expressed milk or formula until 6 weeks and then DH went back to work so I just ebf her from then on, but after that she refused completely to take a bottle until she was about 9-10 months old. All babies are different though. I haven't tried bottles at all with dd2 and unsure what to do when I want to wean her.

 

[Snufflepop]

My first dd had to be bottle fed at first as she wouldn't latch until day 10, we kept up one bottle of expressed milk or formula until 6 weeks and then DH went back to work so I just ebf her from then on, but after that she refused completely to take a bottle until she was about 9-10 months old. All babies are different though. I haven't tried bottles at all with dd2 and unsure what to do when I want to wean her.

We are having this dilemma too. I figure we will just skip bottles completely and go straight to a cup! Goodness knows if it will work though!