Introducing a bottle to a breastfed baby

0ctober

Hi, I'm currently breastfeeding my 6 week old daughter. We've been trying to get her used to taking a bottle of expressed milk so I can have break from time to time but she is just completely refusing the bottle. I asked my phn and she recommended the NUK latex teat bottle. We haven't been able to find the NUK bottles anywhere, we tried the local chemist, tesco, boots, superquinn, mothercare- none of them had them!

Just wondering does anyone know where to find the NUK bottles? Also any tips for getting her to take the bottle? Starting to panic a bit cos I have images of myself being completely tied to her all day every day for the next few months if she won't take the bottle!

Thanks

Maggie 2

Do you feed her yourself with the bottle? She may take it better from someone else?

How Strange

Yes I doubt very much if she'll take a bottle from you as she can smell the good stuff on tap! Get her dad to give it and leave the room because she will still smell you.

I used breast flow bottles from mothercare. They're quite big and awkward looking but my son had no problems drinking from them. We had to give him one for the first time with expresed milk during a particularly bad 6wk growth spurt marathon feeding session.

0ctober

Oh yeah she's cute alright, completely refuses point blank for me whereas OH and my mam have managed to get her to take a small bit! Yeah I think she's hitting the 6 week growth spurt as she's constantly on the boob the last day or two. I've a good bit of expressed milk in the freezer so it would be great to be able to get her to take it. Sometimes it feels like I've nothing left, she's sucking me dry! :P

cyning

Nuk Ireland have a Facebook page: if you ask there they will tell you your closest local supplier

My little girl hates nuk won't take them at all for me: the plain advent bottles are her fave! I love the nuk ones I was so disappointed their bottles are so pretty!

0ctober

cyning wrote: »

Nuk Ireland have a Facebook page: if you ask there they will tell you your closest local supplier

My little girl hates nuk won't take them at all for me: the plain advent bottles are her fave! I love the nuk ones I was so disappointed their bottles are so pretty!

Thanks cyning, will check out their page yeah its the avent bottles we have at the mo but no luck with them. To be honest I dont think its really the type of bottle thats the issue, I think she just wants the boob and thats that!

Neyite

0ctober wrote: »

Thanks cyning, will check out their page yeah its the avent bottles we have at the mo but no luck with them. To be honest I dont think its really the type of bottle thats the issue, I think she just wants the boob and thats that!

What helped me was to give him an ounce of expressed milk before each feed- I had to do this because I was giving colic drops, but because it was only an ounce it was gone in no time, and then he got boob. Introduce it gradually.

Now he gets a bottle of formula going to bed and happily takes the full bottle, I went away recently and he took bottles of expressed and forumla milk for the full 30 or so hours I was gone.

I did read somewhere that you should try to match the teat of the bottle to your nipple. I'm tommee tippee shaped

KGLady

Out of curiosity, what happens when she refuses the bottle? Do you let her latch on straight away?

I had similar with my second, all she wanted was boobs! At ~8wks we were going to a wedding (overnight) and I was an anxious wreck about leaving her with my mother for the night because everything we had tried to get her to take a bottle previously had not worked, I'd end up getting distressed and feed her myself. We had enough expressed milk and backup formula on stand by, but I bawled and tried to make Mum promise she'd call me if baby wouldn't feed and I'd come home - which with a grandmothers wisdom she refused :P she said she'd drive to the hotel and have me feed her in our room if things got desperate.

Low and behold, the day of the wedding came around and we still had never managed to give her a bottle but my mother stood her ground and insisted we stick to the plan when I was wavering about going at all. First feed she turned her nose up at the bottle and cried for a good 10-15 mins (at which point I'd have broken) but my parents just snuggled her and waited and offered her the bottle repeatedly every few mins, till eventually she was tired from bawling and hungry and wolfed the whole feed in one go. The next feed she grumbled and moaned but took the bottle within 5 mins and by the third she didn't waste any time and just got stuck in. When we were home the following day she was only delighted to latch on and we reverted to BFing her again apart from the odd occasion where Dad would feed her while I was off duty or when we needed to boost her intake with formula, and we never had the same troubles again with her.

Its very hard when we are so in-tune with them, the perseverance needed to encourage accepting a bottle is often best left to Dad or another trusted adult when we are out of earshot

0ctober

Thanks for that KGLady! Yeah when she refuses I just end up giving her the boob which I know is kinda counter productive as it teaches her if she refuses the bottle she will eventually get boob. But she gets herself so worked up with the bottle that nothing else will calm her after! I know what you mean about not being in the room, I cant watch anymore when her daddy tries with the bottle as she starts gagging and crying and it breaks my heart!
I managed to find the NUK bottle in boots today, so we'll try it when her daddy is home later...will let you know if there's any success, fingers crossed!!

Piper101

I've seen nuk bottles in the new boots in blanchardstown and the one in Liffey valley if that's any help

0ctober

I love nuk!!! She guzzled the whole bottle straight away with no fuss. Such a relief!! I can finally have a little break now. Thanks so much for all your suggestions

0ctober

Disaster! She's refused the bottle since taking that first one. I thought we had found our solution...so frustrating!

Cat Melodeon

0ctober wrote: »

Disaster! She's refused the bottle since taking that first one. I thought we had found our solution...so frustrating!

Bear with her. It's not the bottle and not the milk, they are clearly okay with her if she's already taken one feed successfully, it's just her way of expressing that she'd prefer to have you. I had a similar struggle with my girl except I left it even later to introduce the bottle. She wouldn't take a bottle for me until she was over 9 months old. However, when I did need to leave her overnight or at the creche, she took it from her dad/nan/minder no bother. Hunger is the best sauce and although it might seem cruel to be doing that to such a wee baby, they generally learn very quickly that if the mammy isn't available, the mammy juice in the bottle will do just fine.

Try not to stress about it. If you can at all, schedule her daddy to replace you with a bottle feed at the same time every day/evening and take yourself off to the tv/internetz/bath/walk for a couple of hours. No matter how much she protests or refuses to take the bottle, persevere, don't come back to feed her and it WILL pay off. Worst case scenario: she doesn't feed, cries a bit and is very hungry when you come to feed her 2 hours later. So be it, I'm assuming you mind her all day and it's good for your partner to get a dose of what it's really like to be in charge when she's not happy. Also good: you get a break (make sure you remove yourself out of earshot). In the worst case scenario, 2 hours of being hungry won't damage her and she should figure out soon enough that it's still the same milk, just a different delivery system (make sure it's at the right temperature too, too warm/cold can upset them).

Best case scenario: she just gets on with it after a try or two and everyone is happy.

It IS very stressful. It took us ages to get it right. We started with Avent bottles, went through EVERY make of bottle there is and yep, in the end she went with the Avent after all. This is about her wanting you, nothing else. She'll soon figure out that it's actually about your milk, not you. Good luck!

0ctober

Thanks cat! Yeah we've been trying it every day after dinner. I leave the room and we make sure its nice and quiet etc. The last 2 days she hasn't protested so much, yesterday there was no crying and gagging she just kind of played with it in her mouth. We try not to force it too much and just let her get used to the feel of it. If she gets upset her daddy calms her down and then we try wait 20 mins or so before giving her the boob. I'm afraid to speak too soon but there does seem to be a little bit of progress!