6 mo Supplementing

melalfred

Hello! My daughter is 6 months and has had breastmilk exclusively. We started a bottle of BM at our evening/ bedtime feed so my husband could participate, we started this at 4 weeks and she takes the bottle no problem from him, our nanny, and myself. I'm pumping when away from her but my supply is not keeping up with her eating. I will need to start supplementing with formula soon as I am running low on my freezer stash of BM. We've tried formula when on vacation and she would not take it from the bottle. We tried both mixed with BM and by itself.  We also tried a few different brands. I've read to give her tastes of it mixed with purée etc  so she will take this in small amounts.

Any suggestions for getting her to take a full bottle of formula? I understand we may need to do this in steps over time and I have enough frozen BM for a few more weeks. Thanks in advance! 

abloom6510

Are you present when you try to get her to eat the formula? My daughter is mostly breastfed but we supplement for daycare. She will not eat it if I'm there (in sight. Or even if she can still hear or smell me). I would recommend having someone else feed it to her while you run an errand. Also try when she is hungery. Breast milk is sweeter than formula so it doesn't taste as good. My daughter will only eat it when she is hungery and often will try to wait it out a bit (eats up to about a half hour later than normal).

melalfred

Great idea. I will have our nanny try in replacement of a bottle when she is due for a feed. Thanks!