How to get baby on the bottle!

smezger

Hi all! I searched this topic but a lot of people gave bottle options. I would love some advice on what you all have done to get LO to take a bottle after EBF for three months. We have tried many different nipples but he seems to just want to play with them. He does not latch on and I'm going back to work the end of this month and need him to feel good about eating without me! Thanks all!

maelily15

It might need to be when you aren't around. In my breastfeeding classes, the instructors said that it's better for another person to give the bottle so that the baby doesn't get confused about which to want. They said it might have to be done with you out of the room because LO will just refuse the bottle since the real thing is available. Babies as old as ours can see pretty far away and can recognize their parent's voice even from another room- that's why it's recommended for the mother to at least leave the room when first trying to wean from EBF.

lmk115

I agree that someone other than mom needs to be the one to introduce it. Also you need to try a couple different brands to see which one your baby likes. We used the medalq one that came with the pump at first. We then left it somewhere and so had to try others. My baby would not eat from any other style- tommy tippee, dr brown. But I know other babies that will only eat one of those. It unfortunately cost a bit to figure out which one will be the one for your baby.

lmk115

Also timing is important. Baby needs to be hungry, but not too hungry where they are cranky. Also I recommend that whoever other than mom that is going to introduce the bottle have some one on one playtime with baby while mom isn't there just before they feed them.

cam12345

Agree with pp about it needing to be someone else to feed baby, when we were introducing the bottle we would get the soother going for her first and then pop it out and quickly put in the bottle. That seemed to really help, she struggled for a few weeks and now goes between bottle and boob with no problems, she still doesn't like to take the bottle from me though

hdjustice0212

We use the wide neck dr. Browns; they are suppose to mimic the breast feeding latch. Our son does great with them! He's 11 weeks and I've been back to work since 8 weeks. My husband introduced the bottle to him during his first morning feed.

whaboosh

Another tip: try to stick with a type of bottle/nipple for a good period of time before switching out for a different brand. A BF baby may find it difficult at first to use a bottle but if it is getting exchanged too frequently it can cause the baby frustration.

When we first have LO a bottle, there was more milk dripping down her face than in her stomach but eventually she got a hang of it without issues.

Good luck!

foresk

I agree with all the advice above. Just wanted to add that my daughter used to throw up every time I tried giving her a bottle up until today. She is exclusively breastfed but we tried to introduce a bottle so that I would be able to leave her with my husband occasionally, in case I need to go somewhere. Every time we gave it to her she was interested and tried to latch on but would spit up or even throw up at the end. Today though I gave her some water because it was hot outside and she latched onto that same bottle that we tried before and was suckling like a pro. I guess she was just not ready for it up until now. She is 3 months and 3 weeks old.

jatam97

He may associate being held to getting the boob. Try putting him in his car seat and feeding him. Then eventually taking him out after he is used to the bottle. I know it's not ideal but I know a few people this has worked for.