Breast feeding to bottle

Guinea_2

Hi everyone
Just asking some advice really. After an initial period of not getting on well with breast feeding (5 days!) my baby has taken to the b**b very well and is now flourishing on breast milk aged 12 weeks. What we would like to do now is begin introducing a bottle at some points as he feeds every two hours (apart from during the night) which can be a little wearing for me as you can imagine. The only problem is that he seems to have rejected the bottle. When he was first born I had to express and then give it to him in a bottle and he had no problems with that, although now he just doesn't seem to like the bottle. We have tried various different teets but none of which seem to work. Another reason for me wanting to introduce the bottle is that I have a dentist appointment soon and after that I won't be able to breast feed for 24 hours.
Has anybody got any suggestions as to how I can get my baby interested in bottle feeding?
Many thanks for any ideas!

kindofagilr

Which bottles have you tried?

The tommee tipppee closer to nature ones are supposed to be good? or the breastflow bottles

chocdonuty

Is it only you that has tried to give baby a bottle? Quite often if the mother gives a bottle or is very close by, baby can smell her and quite obviously will want the real thing!
My dd got on best with the old fashioned latex teats with the narrow bottle that you get in chemists. Most of the new ones are the big and wide ones, which drove me mad by folding up all the time despite changing the flow rate. She was bf completly for 4 months, then went onto bottles gradually over another 4 months

got-it-spend-it

My BF son gets on fine with the closer to nature bottles but I know other people have found either the breastflow ones or these Mam ones better. I think a lot of the time it is trial and error.

As chocdonuty says it is worth getting someone other than you to try LO with a bottle.

Guinea_2

kindofagilr wrote: »

Which bottles have you tried?

The tommee tipppee closer to nature ones are supposed to be good? or the breastflow bottles

Hi
We have tried the tommee tippee which I thought would work as they are quite small but he didn't like it at all. The strange thing is that he did okay with them when I found it hard to breast feed at the beginning.

Guinea_2

chocdonuty wrote: »

Is it only you that has tried to give baby a bottle? Quite often if the mother gives a bottle or is very close by, baby can smell her and quite obviously will want the real thing!
My dd got on best with the old fashioned latex teats with the narrow bottle that you get in chemists. Most of the new ones are the big and wide ones, which drove me mad by folding up all the time despite changing the flow rate. She was bf completly for 4 months, then went onto bottles gradually over another 4 months

My husband and I have both tried to give the bottle, although not with me out of the room. Maybe we should try that next.
I don't know how long I will breast feed for at the moment as I know it's best for the baby but when he feeds every two hours I get a little frustrated when we always have to rush things so we can get home for the next feed! I am one of those mothers who don't get their b**bs out when out of the house...I know that I should get over my embarrassment but I just can't!

Guinea_2

got-it-spend-it wrote: »

My BF son gets on fine with the closer to nature bottles but I know other people have found either the breastflow ones or these Mam ones better. I think a lot of the time it is trial and error.

As chocdonuty says it is worth getting someone other than you to try LO with a bottle.

I think that I will try some of the breastflow ones now. I didn't know about these. I am ordering them now!
Thanks!:j

3onitsway

We eventually got DD1 to take one from OH, with me out of the room, but OH wrapped her in the t-shirt i'd been wearing all day so she'd still get my smell.

Btw: the every two hours will end soon, honest!
I think 12 weeks is a pretty common time for a growth spurt - it'll be over before you know it.

Guinea_2

3onitsway wrote: »

We eventually got DD1 to take one from OH, with me out of the room, but OH wrapped her in the t-shirt i'd been wearing all day so she'd still get my smell.

Btw: the every two hours will end soon, honest!
I think 12 weeks is a pretty common time for a growth spurt - it'll be over before you know it.

Everyone says it'll be over before I know it! The only thing is that I have the most convoluted way of breast feeding! My Mum and I went to the Baby Show in Birmingham last week and they had a place where you could breast feed which I used a couple of times. All the other Mothers were just sitting there looking comfortable with their baby breast feeding and there was I sitting with a crooked back, leaning over my baby sticking my b**b in his mouth! My Mum said that I looked in pain!!

3onitsway

Looking in pain isn't good! :eek:

Another thought, do you do lying down feeding at night?, I used to find that most comfy at home and quite often did it in that position during the day.

If you do evening feeds like that for a while, then OH uses the same position but with bottle, and wrapped in your t-shirt, it might feel familiar enough to trick him into taking the bottle?!? I dunno - might be worth a try!

hermanmunster_3

found that both kids lost any interest in the bottle at that age - only mum would do :mad:. never got interested again..

Settled for a teacher beaker in the end.

Growth spurts don't end - they start at 12 days and stop somewhere round 18 years.