Getting a breast fed baby to have a bottle.

milkandsugar

Hi my daughter is 17 weeks old and has been breast fed all along. Anyone have any tips to get her to take a bottle so that i might have a break. We have tried the tommy tippe and advent bottle but that hasn't made any difference. Tried putting on breast shields to get her used to the different texture.It is pumped breast milk that we have tried giving her. Also it is her Dad that is trying to give it to her and i leave the room. So far we haven't had any luck. Any help at all would be great.

hunnymonster

I've been using the breastflow bottles. the teet is designed so that baby has to use the same sucking method as on a real nipple. baby hunnymonster hasnt had any problem going between nipple and bottle but from talking to lots of people about this its rather a case of trial and error with each baby having her own preferences. i get the bottles from amaon if you want to try them.

Lola92

My dad gave me a tip when I first started to bottle feed my daughter after breastfeeding. If you hold the bottle in such a way that you can rest you fingers on their cheek or chin it helps because they get the feel of skin and warmth from you that they would get from the breast.

Also having a muslin over you arm or shoulder with a little bit of breast milk expressed on it would help so baby is still familiar with smells of feeding.

I can't advise otherwise about the bottles I'm afraid as we used the tommy tippee closer to nature ones and they worked ok for us.

implausible

We used the Nuk bottles and found them great, it may be just a case of trying different brands until one clicks.

Another suggestion I would have is trying different times of day to do it - our wee fella used to be very cranky and colicky at night-time, so it wasn't a good idea to introduce something new then. In the morning, when she's very hungry might be a good time, or in the middle of the day when things are calm.

How Strange

I use breastflow too. Our little fella would probably take milk off a mucky boot if it was offered to him though so we're very lucky in that sense.

Moonbeam

My little one likes the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles but won't drink from normal more traditional looking bottles.

milkandsugar

Thanks for all the tips. My first would drink anything that had milk in it and still does but this young lady is a different story altogether. I will try the breastflow/nuk bottles and see how we go. I never even thought that the way she was being held would effect her.Great tip. We were trying in the evenings but will change that now as well.

fi1979

Make sure she is good and hungry when you are offering her the bottle, that way she will be more anxious to get the milk and may not take as much notice! Hope it works out soon

My girl is 18 weeks and we're introducing bottles at the moment too. We have found that she takes it better from me than from my husband. I had trouble getting her to take it at first as well until I tried holding her almost as if I was breastfeeding her so the only difference is that it's bottle not breast - everything else is the same.

One important thing that I read, and that makes sense to me, is that if she refuses the bottle don't offer her the breast straight away. Wait 5-10 mins and do something else to distract her before giving her the boob so that she won't associate refusing the bottle with getting the breast.

Also, I know people are recommending to wait until she's very hungry but I think that it's best to try when she's in a calm mood and is hungry but not starving - if she's really hungry she'll get easily frustrated when she can't get the milk the way she's used to.

Best of luck!

Redpunto

Had the same problem, took about 5 days, used nuk bottles . Started to breast feed and snuck the bottle into her mouth until she started sucking. Eventually she would just then take the bottle. Try different teats as well- expensive but u might just find the one !

January

I agree with trying it when she's not too hungry so she doesn't get too distressed about it.

fairymonica

@milkandsugar, how did the change over go ? did any of the tips above work for you ? i'm at that stage now and not having much luck :rolleyes:
do you have anyother tips to add ?

milkandsugar

hey fairymonica. So far she is still as bad as ever. The only times she has taken a bottle is when i had a glass of wine and she woke up I and I think the smell of drink off me put her off so she took a few she ounces. The only other time was when we were in town shopping for the day and she didn't look for anything until we were in the car on the way home and she took a bottle in the back of the car. I've tried everything else and the child will usually starve herself rather than take a bottle even when i have left her for the day. I am hoping that she will eventually cop on seeing as she is now 9 months old. I hope it goes a little bit easier for you.

How Strange

milkandsugar would she take milk in a sippy cup or beaker? I'm weaning my son off breastfeeding at the moment and I'm giving him milk in a tommy tippee sippy cup as I don't want him to get used to bottles now at 11 months.

hacked

My little girl was teh same. She was exclusively breastfed, and the hospital and instilled a fear in me of nipple confusion, so I never really gave her a bottle. That just resulted in her never taking one!

It can be expensive trial and error, but I personally found other peoples reccomendations of bottles were no use. Every baby is different! No matter what I did, my little girl wouldn't take anything.

All I can say is keep at it and at it and at it till your little one gives in. I was exhausted trying, and my child was stubborn, but it made life very difficult when I went back to college and she refused to drink anyhing for her minders!

Oral Slang

My little one wouldn't take tommee tippee, but takes nuk ones. She will only take it warmed up though, and takes other half a few attempts for her to take it.

One thing I would recommend to people trying to introduce the occasional bottle - make sure you give them regularly. We didn't and when I went back to work when our little girl was 6 months she hadn't had a bottle in a couple of weeks and wouldn't touch it. From my research at the time they are inclined to go off them at that age anyway if they are also still breastfeeding. In the end our lady just survived without during the day but it was very tough going at the beginning and I wish we'd given her a few more bottles in the run up to keep her used to them.

milkandsugar

I did try a sippy cup but only with a bit of juice or water. I never even thought of trying the milk in it but first thing tomorrow I will and see how I get on. I think that she is a very head strong child though

fairymonica

I found teat that looks like......... well i guess you could say a crushed nipple,its an NUK bottle. My baby took to it right away,it is a much better fit for her mouth than the tommee tippee i was trying,its latex so it seams a bit softer,and she can't bent it to pop it out of the side of her mouth that i found she was doing with the other teat. She has had two bottles both yesterday and today and I gave them to her myself without her wanting my breast, so fingers crossed for the rest of the week.:o

charlie2505

Your post gave me so horrible memories of my DD who was being weaned onto bottles about the same age. I tried EVERY bottle ever made and I fed her, DH fed her, neighbour down the road tried to feed her to no avail. This went on for WEEKS! Eventually PHN realised that we were using the wrong sized teats for her age. Was giving her stage 1 teats and she was about 16/17 wks. So when we changed to faster flowing teats she got into it quite quickly and tommee tippee bottles worked fine. So not always about the bottle type-they are more concerned about the flow coming out in most cases!! Could be worth a try anyways and good luck-its so upsetting and frustrating-and I think girls seem to be fussier when it comes to feeding-well that's my experience anyways! My 6 month old boy would lick the milk off the floor if he could!!