Breast to bottle Post Reply

[LoobeyLu]

Help!

Am trying to make the transfer from breast to bottle but my little girl has decided the bottle is not for her! She is 18 weeks old and unfortunately until last week, I hadn't tried the bottle at all - more fool me! My toddler son took the bottle no bother so I'm a bit stuck for ideas.

Does anyone have any positive experiences they can share?

Thanks

[sja38]

Just be patient, have you asked your other half to try giving her the bottle as quite often they don't want to take it first off from mum when they can smell "boob"! You can also try the tommie tippee bottles as they are supposed to be the closest thing to the breast

[Swmummyofboys]

Hi there

I had this with both my sons and the best advice I got (from this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091 ... R2BMJ5SN9C" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) was to try a NUK bottle with a brown latex teat (this is the ugly teat you can buy but it is very soft and closest to a nipple). The milk also needs to be quite hot so that it is close in temperature to breastmilk. I bough nearly every bottle on the market and nothing worked until I tried the NUK bottle. In the book they say to go cold turkey off the breast but I didn't want to do that and so It was just a case of perserverence I chose a feed I wanted to substitute with a bottle and he only got offered a bottle. Within a week he was very happily taking it. He was slightly older than your baby because he was 7 months but I know of friends who have had success with the same bottle at a younger age.


Good luck, it is very stressful!

L

[cassie]

My first son jumped between breast and bottle with no issues. My second son had an undiagnosed tongue tie, so the first 3 months for me were very difficult breastfeeding. I struggled through determined to breastfeed, so I, too, didn't even attempt a bottle until he was 4 months old.

My first son used Playtex bottles with the flat-topped teat. When I was having issues with my second son, I asked my lactation consultant and she said the Playtex bottles are what she always recommends. My second son, however, wasn't interested... The bonus with Playtex is that they use a disposable plastic liner - so no bottles to wash or sterilise... I then tried every bottle you can think of, none of which he'd take. The only one that he finally took to was the Adiri. It's fiddly and leaks a bit and is rather expensive, but it was the only thing he'd take. And even then he wasn't entirely keen.

I actually moved him onto drinking directly from a cup (no spout) when he was 6 months old. I now have a Born Free training cup with a soft spout which he REALLY enjoys a lot.

He's 8 months old now and is doing perfectly fine. Though he doesn't sleep through the night yet, he doesn't need any comfort other than being put down again and being stroked on the back.

Good luck!

[Swmummyofboys]

Oh yes, the playtex bottle is the other one recommended in the book I gave you the link for. You can buy them in the pharmacy on the corner of Mallinson Rd

[LoobeyLu]

Thank you lulubelle and cassie for your advice and bottle recommendations. I will be going out to buy one of each tomorrow and hope to have some success. I have also been advised to go cold turkey but not sure I really want to do that so I think perserverence is the way forward - good job I'm not in any great hurry but just wanting to start the transition!

Just one question lulubelle, when your little one didn't take the bottle for your chosen feed, did you then offer the breast and did you do the bottle feed or did your partner?

[Swmummyofboys]

Hi Loobeylu

Basically what the book says is that you just have to hold the bottle close to his mouth for as long as it takes for him to take it. My son eventually would take a small amount and that would be his feed. He was, however, older than your baby and eating solid food at all so I knew it wouldn't be the end of the world if he missed a milk feed. I am rather pathetic when they are tiny and probably would have given in and then offered the boob. I know from my older son though that they just wait for you to give in!

My friend went cold turkey using the method in the book and it took her husband a tough 24 hours to get her son to take the bottle but once he did there was no going back.

I actually did it with my son but I had him on my lap facing away from me (so sitting up on me but facing the other way) and it was fine.

Good luck and remember to make the milk hotter than you would imagine. The only downside to this is that my son will now only drink hot milk but it's not the end of the world!

[Joe's Mum]

I feel for you. I felt total despair at one stage and thought that I would still be breastfeeding him at 35! I can only tell you how it went for me and hope that some of it may help.

Personally I found that it made no difference to him what kind of bottle/teat/milk (formula or expressed breast). The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to feed him in a classic feeding position. I would walk around the house holding him in one arm, jiggling and showing him things and keep trying to stick the bottle in with the other hand. The distraction seemed to work and occasionally when looking at a light or a bookshelf he would forget to complain and just get on and drink from the bottle. Often when I had just about given up trying and put him down on the changing table, just to rest my arm, I then tried and he drank the whole bottle down, lying flat on his back.

It took about 2 weeks of this rigmarole before he would reliably take the one bottle of the day. I then gradually exchanged one more breastfeed for a bottle over a period of weeks. At each feed for the first few times that breast was substituted for bottle he would make a fuss as if to say "but this one is supposed to be a breast feed".

We got there in the end, and so will you. Good Luck.