Tips for moving from breast to bottle

daddydaycare

Myself and my wife are having trouble moving our 5 1/2 month daughter Sophia from the breast to the bottle and are wondering does anybody have any advice, hints or tips to help us. To help you I'll provide some background on Sophia.

From around 4 months we begun trying to move Sophia from the breast. Initially my wife tried to express milk using the pump but for the effort and pain for the small amounts expressed we decided to leave it. My wife then tried to express manually by massaging her breasts but again this would take time, about 2-3 hours for a 4 ounce feed. Sophia did take the breast milk from the bottle but shortly after had a bout of diahorrea which our doctor felt was due to the fact the breast milk was out so long before being taken or refrigerated.

It took 2 weeks for the diahorrea to completely clear and after much talking with friends we decided on formula milk and chose aptimel. This met with some good initial success, Sophia took 2 ounces of the ready made formula and just as myself and my wife were about to begin our celebrations. Sophia had an allergic reaction and we went to the hospital. Her breathing or personality was never affected but she just got really red all over and began to swell around her face, eyes, hands and feet. The doctor put it down to the formula milk and said it would be best to switch.

Since then we have tried the bottle again, before we could at least get her to place the teat in her mouth and try but now she just closes up her mouth and cries. We sometimes get the bottle in put she just shakes her head until the teat leaves her mouth. She still takes her feeds with the spoon and has done since we started on her feeds last month.

We are at a loss what to do and my wife will need to return to work soon, any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

causal

You might find some useful information on weaning here.

Firstly I'll point out that I'm not qualified in infant/baby/child care, but what follows is from my own personal experience.

My tips on weaning :
Take into account the effect on baby on mother when weaning - make it gradual.
It's a change of diet for baby - so she needs time to adapt.
Your wifes production has to slow gradually to avoid 'over engorgement'.
Let's say Sophia gets 6 feeds per day (where B=breast, F=forumla), you could try something like:
BBBBBB
BBFBBB
BBFBFB
BFFBFB
BFFFFB
FFFFFB
FFFFFF

If you've only got 2 weeks before your wife goes back to work - then you can try to get Sophia weaned off daytime feeds - you don't have to have her totally weaned (unless there are other circumstances) so that might relieve some of the time pressure on you.

As for your baby rejecting the teat:
Make sure the milk is at the correct temperature.
Another tip is I used to invert the bottle (with the lid still on) before placing in the babies mouth - this allows the teat to reach the same temperature as the feed - rather than baby getting a cold teat in the mouth followed by warm feed.

- you could try to 'con' her into taking it - i.e. let your wife act like she is going to breastfeed but use the bottle instead - so keep the bottle out of Sophias sight, and have the teat at the right temperature. This could backfire if she cops on and subsequently refuses to take to the breast for normal feeds

On the subject of sterilising bottles:
Avent do a steam steriliser that can sterilise 6 bottles in about 5 mins or so - it's absolutely brilliant. Bottles are sterile for 2 hours at room temperature - and up to 24 hours if refrigerated.

hth
causal