Need Help Switching from Breast to Bottle

M.,

First of all Congrats on Breastfeeding! YOu are doing the very best thing you could ever do for your baby, especially for the first year or longer... Way to go! Keep it up!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE come to the Nursing Moms Care and Share group held at the Clearwater Morton Plant Hosp. It is run by the hosp certified lactation consultant and is attended by moms who also breastfeed. You will gain ENORMOUS amounts of info from experienced moms and someone professional as well. Infant group (pre-walkers) meet every 1st and 3rd Friday of each month but you can also call the Lactation Consultant directly for advice or appt. The # is ###-###-####.

Since you are going away soon, you should call her asap. If you can get your baby to drink from ANYTHING before you leave, it will be far less stressful on the baby as well as the caretaker and you... Plus you will want to be pumping EVERY time that she would have normally been nursing so that you do not take a serious drop in milk supply. Remember that your body only produces what it thinks you need, so you can't skip feedings/pumpings.

Have you taken the "Out and About" nursing class offered at Morton Plant for nursing moms that intend to work, leave for more than a few hours,etc? It would be very helpful as it discusses the aspects of the right time and how to intro the bottle, pumping and storing breastmilk properly, etc.

From what I have learned, it is best to start WAY in advance of any seperations, so start immediately. Have the caretaker feed the bottle and you be completely gone from the house, not in another room and not helping or talking. If the baby knows you are there, they get frustrated and confused becasuse it is sooo natural for them to prefer to nurse than to suck on a plastic fake nipple! Let Daddy and your mom try this WITHOUT you around several times a day at minimum to get started. Once she accepts it, then keep doing it once a day so she stays comfy with a bottle or cup. Try the Playtex Natural Latch, it is usually recommended. Do it when she is hungry but not starving, so her tolerance and limit hasn't already been reached. Use fresh milk to start, that way it feels most natural. There is also a 'breast bottle' by Adiri that is a bottle shaped just like a clear breast and some babies like it. You can also try other things like a small cup (shot glass size), a straw or even a sippy. My son will drink SMALL amounts of expressed milk from that organic juice bottle sippy that you get in the juice section of Babies R Us (it comes with 'my first juice' in it which I throw out)...it doesnt spill and he has to suck a little like nursing (but not really). He likes to hold it and try. He got about an ounce one time but like you, I didn't introduce the bottle and stick with offering it periodically when he was younger, so not he only nurses from me too. I don't mind, but I also never am apart from him for more than a few hours.

Is there any way you could post-pone or change this trip if she won't take anything before then? It will be such a stressful weekend for everyone, especially her, if she hasn't accepted anything yet. This time is her life is so important (and sooo short!) and she will need you :-) She looks for nursing not just for nutrition/feeding, so the bottle is NOT going to replace you when you go. Her comfort, warmth and security will be gone too, which can have a big affect on these emotional developments at this age. It will be hard, if not impossible for her to understand where the person she looks for and trusts most is not responding or there, not just for the nutrition.

Do you have Dr. Sears 'Breastfeeding Book' or LLL's 'The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding' as I am sure both contain excellent advice of bottle feeding expressed milk. You could also contact a LLL person or attend a local meeting. Just get advice and get started! Just remember that you can't be home when someone tried to feed her, go for a drive or walk for a few min and have them call you if it isn't working....then try another bottle or the breast bottle or cup. She will not only have to learn to take milk from something else, but also to accept that the comfort isn't going to be there for that feeding too, so it is normal for her to fuss, but hopefully the hunger will guide her and she will give in. Ihave heard on some babies not eating ALL DAY at daycare until they get home to nurse from Mommy...and did it for months until they could drink from a sippy, straw, cup, etc....

Best wishes and hopefully she takes something this week or you are able to travel at a later date once things are all in place!

I had the same problem with my daughter. She wouldn't take anything (not even the Breastflow bottle) except for the Adiri bottle, which you can find at Babies R Us. It looks embarrassingly like a breast, but I guess that's why it worked! She doesn't technically suck on it the way she should, but she'll latch on and gum it enough that she can drink it (she wouldn't even put any other bottle in her mouth - and we tried them all!). Because of your daughter's age I would recommend the second stage bottle (it has a blue base). If you get one, make sure you screw the base on really tight, and know that a little milk will leak out when you fill it, but that's normal.

We also found that she took it better if she sat in her bouncy chair, rather than being held. Then she didn't think she was supposed to be nursing. If all else fails, I second the spoon feeding idea - a slow process, but at least she's getting fed. Good luck!

Hi M. - this you cannot do! Because she won't let you! If she knows you are near she will protest until you give in. I am a flight attendant and with my son he was extremely stubborn at 3 months! My mom bottle fed him with the smushed gerber nipple and advent bottles. But he protested for several hours after i left (normally fed every hour). Pediatrician said all was normal but all kis/babies will eat when hey are hungry enough and they will figure out a way to do it!! When I left and they got a schedule somehow he figured when i came home and protested until i walked in the door!! Then attached to me for sevral hours!! I had to sneak into the house and shower before feeding him. Dont worry...and good luck.

I am having the same exact problem with my 2 1/2 month old son. So far, I have tried Medela bottles and Playtex Natural Latch. He has just screamed both times. I went to Babies-R-Us today and bought the BreastFlow bottle, 2 different kinds of Gerber Nuk Orthodonic bottles, a large medicine dropper and a medicine spoon. I am PRAYING that one of these will work. I plan on leaving the house with my older son (who never did accept the bottle) tonight and having my husband try the BreastFlow bottle. Every day I am going to have him try a different bottle anf hopefully he will finally accept one of them. I will definitely let you know what happens, and PLEASE e-mail me (____@____.com) if you find a solution :) The thought of my baby not eating all day while I am at work breaks my heart, and I only have one more week before I go back. Thanks!

Avent bottles always worked for me- prob a size two or three nipples for a six month old.

She is old enough that you might have to do what we did. My youngest would never take a bottle so my Mom fed her breast milk from a spoon when she was six weeks old and I had to go for my check up. After that when ever anyone kept her they spoon fed her. My sister-in-law had her drinking from a cup at four months old. I would suggest trying a cup. After all she is six months old and should be sitting up on her own and eating some solids now. You are better off it she will take a cup instead of a bottle. Breaking a child from a bottle can be hard so why start her on it if you don't have to.

My daughter never did take a bottle, even when I would leave the house and my mother or my husband would try to give it to her. It was too stressful for everyone, and we finally gave up after many attempts and bottles. We also tried using a syringe sort of thing that is typically used to give a child medicine, but that seemed rediculous, and for us it was just easier to change my plans and stay with her and breastfeed her. She started to drink a bit from a sippy cup at about 7 months. Gerber makes one with two handles and a soft spout. You might prepare yourself for the possibility that going out of town isn't going to work any time soon. But I hope it works out in your case! Good luck.

I used the bottle called BreastFlow by learning curve. You can find them at Babies R Us. Just buy one bottle to see if it works. I use the the stage 1 teet, the stage 2 is too open for my 5 mos old. Good luck!

M.,
Hello there. I'm a mom of two that are teens now. I breastfed both of mine as well. When my son(1st born)was a baby I bought Playtex nurser bottles. I was told by the Pediatrician at the time that they were the closest to mom's nipple and caused the least amount of gas. They come with little baggies that you drop in and then dispose. As the baby drinks the breastmilk from the bottle, the baggie naturally collapses, therefore causing less gas. Take into consideration the fact from breast to bottle is a big transition. I started the bottle every other feeding so that he could get use to it(the nipple on bottle). He didn't seem to mind considering bottle nipples are much easier to get liquid out of than the natural breast.Less work for the baby. Anyway, I wish you luck in your transition from breast to bottle and also with the little one. Being a mom is awesome! Good luck.

The only thing I remember reading is when you are trying to get your baby used to a bottle YOU can't be the one to offer it. She smells you and knows that this is her normal comfort. Have your husband try. I have also read that at a younger age they smell you from quite a distance.

Good luck. I know this must be hard.