BFing/bottle feeding

PAGAS

So, I think we have some issues.  In the beginning, she would get one bottle a day so I could rest and she took it without issue.  Now that she is STTN, I EBF unless I am not home.

The last two times I have left DH with her, she takes half the bottle ok, then she fusses over the rest.  Then, she proceeds to scream after the feeding.  And she doesn't stop until I get home.

With me going back to work in two weeks, should I start feeding her a bottle once a day again to reintroduce it to her?  I plan to come home and BF as often as possible, but I don't want to have her screaming over a bottle when she has to take one.

Any advice would be great.

nanann

YES YES YES feed her a bottle every day!

sorry, don't want you getting stuck like I was.  I had to work VERY hard for Elena to take a bottle before I went back to work -- same story as F.  Started out fine so I took a break and then lo and behold the bottle was the devil.

J never took a bottle.  Actually, I can count on one hand how many times she took a bottle, and ugh.

OH -- and a trick that *might* help.  Elena always started hating her bottle half-way through feedings.  Quite simply, they got too cold for her discriminating tastes.  If I reheated up the milk -- or at the very least ran the nipple under hot water again to trick her, she'd drink the rest of the bottle.  Might be something worth trying.

ucalum93

you might want to run it by a lactation consultant.  I know at womens hosp, they help new mothers with this all the time before they go back to work.

CindyandScott

I would think throwing in a bottle a day would be a smart idea. Reagan was not sleeping through the night at Finley's age and was taking a bottle at night and then when I went to work she had no problem switching between the 2.

rayskit10

i think the fact that she is taking the bottle then screaming half way through is very different from not wanting the bottle. typically a baby who won't drink from a bottle won't drink from a bottle at all. like you can't even get them to suck. half a bottle and then screaming doesn't sound at all like typical refusal to me.

since it happened when she was home with daddy, i have to wonder if something about the way those feedings are going that is causing her to have a gas bubble which hurts in the middle of feeding? if he hasn't, C should try burping her when this happens. BF babies typically don't get burped much b/c of the mechanics of it all...

i would also call the nurse line and ask. again, the fact that she starts and doesn't finish doesn't sound like the typical "i don't want a bottle" to me. the 1st couple times i left Tru with DH he didn't take the bottle. come to find out, DH was trying to give him cold milk straight from the fridge.

try to feed her the bottle yourself. if it goes well, my advice would be continue to nurse her as much as possible while you can and that the bottle thing was specific to the feeder, not the bottle...