Taking a bottle

burnseek

Hi,
I'm looking for any tips on getting bubs to take expressed milk from a bottle. She's 7 months now and EBF. I want to get her used to taking a bottle now and then so that others can help with feeding and I can leave her for longer with family so that can work. Just tried a bottle and she really wasn't interested so ive just wasted a bottle of expressed milk (and its not so easy to express!!) any help would be great!

taraleanne

Eek, you waited a bit long, it won't come easy for a 7 month old ! (or so I've been told by friends so we started at like 2 or 3 months and he took it no problem).

However...make sure YOU are FAR FAR AWAY. Don't let her wonder why mom's standing right there and dad's shoving an artificial nipple in her mouth. Make sure you are using the correct level of nipple. Probably level 3 by now for the 6m+ old baby. If it's not fast enough she'll lose patience. You might have to try a few different types of bottles/nipples. Keep trying but again, make sure you are far far away so she can't even smell you. I'd even try it out of the house, again where you aren't anywhere to be found. 

PepperBug

At 7 months, I think it will be very difficult to get a baby to take an occasional bottle. I would suggest working on a sippy cup of water instead. For that, I would leave one around for baby to play with often, and eventually, she'll take it. Once she takes the sippy of water, try leaving her with someone else with a sippy of expressed milk and see if she takes it. My son refused bottles after 6 weeks and only took the occasional bottle at day care. Once he started taking a sippy, things got much easier because he was amenable to drinking expressed milk from it. That made weaning easier too...I just added some cow's milk to the expressed milk and increased the proportion of cow's milk to breast milk over 2 weeks until it was all cow's milk. Good luck!

burnseek

Thanks guys! She takes the sippy cup with water no probs, didn't even thingk of putting milk in that! I'll give it a go!!

taraleanne

Actually, try a straw cup!! I kid you not, my son was only 5.5 months old and he got the straw in 2 days. Pedi and public health are saying to skip the sippy all together and do straw cups. I know a ton of babies who take their milk out of straw cups beautifully! (also regular cups too- like Avent cup with a fancy lid) Give it a try!

Crequito

You'll probably have to get someone else to give LO the bottle the first few times with you far away or completely gone so she doesn't see/smell you and wonder why she can't have her usual.  I've heard that offering a sippy cup or straw cup at this age might be easier than introducing a bottle.  Good luck - whichever method you choose routine is the key.  Maybe designate one feeding a day that is from a bottle so LO gets used to it???