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Introducing a bottle to an EBF 3 week old

vlcoleyvlcoley member
in Breastfeeding

Hi all -

My daughter is 3 weeks old and our pedi recommended introducing a bottle at this time so that if I am ever unavailable/out, a bottle can always be an option.  I have a couple questions for those of you out there who EBF and introduced a bottle successfully at 3-4 weeks...

- My husband gave her the first bottle last night and she did pretty well.  My questions is when can I feed her a bottle?  I heard that mommies shouldn't introduce the first bottle because baby might "smell" mommy and refuse the bottle....so if the first bottle intro went well, how much longer do I have to wait to give her a bottle myself?

- How much should a 3 week old be eating?  We gave her a 3 oz bottle last night but she only got through about 2 oz of it.  Is that enough (she is 9 lbs - don't know if weight influences the amount she should be drinking)?

- How many times a day/week should we be giving her a bottle?  I initially thought we will do one bottle feeding per day, most likely in the evening so daddy can get experience feeding her.  However, I am now wondering if we can do it more frequently?  I would love to have husband give her the evening feeding AND be able to give her one in the middle of the night so I can get a little more sleep. 

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Re: Introducing a bottle to an EBF 3 week old

  • reederahreederah member

    You can try whenever... all LOs are different and it may just be trial and error. I gave DS his very first bottle at about 2 weeks and he took it fine.

    I can't remember exactly how much I put in bottles at 2-3 weeks (we rarely gave them), but I specifically remember putting 4 oz. in a bottle and just letting him finish what he could (Which was somewhere between 2-3 oz) once he was a month old.

    I believe they say to offer one every other day to keep baby familiar with the bottle but not hurt your BFing efforts. We lost all hopes of the bottle around 2 months because I stayed at home and rarely offered the bottle (so eventually he just rejected them all together and hasn't taken one since). I think you'd be ok with one a day right now, but honestly think 2 a day may be a bit much at  weeks... they get the milk a lot easier form a bottle and she may start to favor them over breastfeeding (however all babies are different so she may do just fine!). IMO, I'd wait a few more weeks before upping the bottle frequency. GL!

     

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  • luv2playluv2play member
    I just wanted to share my experience. I EBF and introduced a bottle when DS was a 2 days old because I had to supplement for a few days until my milk came in. Over the next couple months, we gave a bottle very rarely, but he would always take it from us with no problem. At around 3 months old he started refusing it. No matter if it was from me, DH, or anyone else. For my own sanity, I want him to take a bottle so I can leave him with others. So for the past month I've been offering him a bottle once a day to get him used to it. He is just now at the point of eating without fussing. If I had to do it all over again, I would consistently offer him a bottle once a day, or at least every couple days. I would also offer it at different times of the day, in different places, and from various people so he does not get so used one way of eating.
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  • JWSchwarzJWSchwarz member

    imageluv2play:
    I just wanted to share my experience. I EBF and introduced a bottle when DS was a 2 days old because I had to supplement for a few days until my milk came in. Over the next couple months, we gave a bottle very rarely, but he would always take it from us with no problem. At around 3 months old he started refusing it. No matter if it was from me, DH, or anyone else. For my own sanity, I want him to take a bottle so I can leave him with others. So for the past month I've been offering him a bottle once a day to get him used to it. He is just now at the point of eating without fussing. If I had to do it all over again, I would consistently offer him a bottle once a day, or at least every couple days. I would also offer it at different times of the day, in different places, and from various people so he does not get so used one way of eating.

     

    This exactly. We introduced the bottle at 3 weeks no problem. As soon as he turned 8 weeks he started refusing it. Here we are at almost 4 months and I am back to work and it is a big problem (I feed him all night to make up for it). I would introduce it and make sure he takes it frequently (at least every day), from different people, etc. 

     

     

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