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Preemies
Switching from bottle to boob...
I have every intention of breastfeeding my son once he gets home but I know that sometimes you just can't switch a baby from bottle to boob. I have been pumping for the NICU as much as possible so hopefully he won't get used to the taste of formula over my milk. But how many of you were able to make the transition from bottle to boob? Any tips for a more succesful switch?
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Re: Switching from bottle to boob...
Savannah
Callista
Baby Trail Blog
"Someday we will look at our babies and know it will be worth it. If it was easy, we would not have had our babies, the babies we were meant to have." From Amy052006
I am now almost totally unable to give DS a bottle. He is a boob snob. This would be wonderful, but due to my oversupply and fear of masitis, I have to pump and figuring out when he will be eating (demand schedule) is hard, so if I haven't recharged my supply, he gets a bottle...now he doesn't really want it, so daddy will have to feed him it. So, yes, it can be done. Just watch out for clogged ducts and mastitis, because chances are you are pumping more than your LO will eat.
I should also add, this wasn't immediately, when he came home he was still on the 1-2times a day BF schedule and now at 3 months is all about the boob.
We did when DD was about 4 months old and she went to the breast f/t at 5 months old (she was 2.5 months early). When she came home from the hospital I would BF once a day and then offer her a bottle but we weren't really getting anywhere with that so one day we just went to BFing full time and it worked. It takes a while for them to get good, just like any other newborn, but we were lucky that it worked
just keep trying. it doesn't always work but the more you try the more they get used to the idea and it just may work. Work with your LC as much as you can, but you should also be prepared to know that it doesn't work for everyone and sometimes depending on how many additional calories your LO needs, it might not be an option.
GL!
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey
can't you just pump immediately after he eats to empty yourself out? if you're pumping inbetween his feedings you might be making your problem worse.
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey
This is what I have been doing, the only complications now are that I am back to work and he at first was only nursing 2x's a day, as directed by the peds, so we are in transition trying to figure it out. Yes, pumping too much can be the cause of an oversupply...I have been weaning down from the every 3 hours they initially had us on while he was in the NICU and donating the excess. It is getting much better now. He only takes 3 oz at a feeding (roughly) and I can still pump another 3-5 when he is done
This transition was a ~4-6 week process for us. When DD came home from the NICU she was on unfortified breast milk (she was born at 31 weeks 0 days, came home 36 weeks 1 day).
We were on a feed every three hour schedule (which we kept until she was ~42 weeks). We'd alternate feeds between breast then bottle and bottle only (I'd pump during the bottle only feeds). After about 2-3 weeks we gradually took away the supplementary bottle from the breast feeds, but continued to offer bottle only on the alternate feed.
Then we started breastfeeding each feed. Initially we offered the supplementary bottle on the alternate feeding that used to be bottle only. After another couple of weeks DD could have been EBF. We kept 1-2 bottle feeds in a day for convenience sake. In particular DH took the 5 AM feeding