Tips on transitioning a BF baby to a bottle?

[dreamer_dachsie]

My almost eight month old son has been exclusively breastfed, and now that I am gearing up to return to work in a few months I would like to get him used to taking a bottle. Also so I can get a break

Until now we have not consistently given him bottles for a variety of uninteresting reasons. He had bottles shortly after birth, which he took fine of course, and since he was four months old he has taken bottles successfully 2-3 times nad refused bottles about 2-3 times.

Pretty soon we will begin giving them to him often and in earnest in anticipation of being separated from me more consistently for about 5-6 hours at a time, so I wondered if anyone had any tips from their own experiences tp help get him to take them? Success stories? Failures?

 

[anchor31]

I''m not an expert as I haven''t had my little one yet, but we were told to start introducing the bottle by skipping one breastfeeding a day, at a regular hour, and increasing slowly. Also, that daddy (or someone else) should give the bottle, and not you. You may even want to leave the room in case the baby might refuse the bottle because he''s smelling your milk.

Good luck!

 

[robbie3982]

Dreamer, we did everything Anchor said except for increasing from 1 bottle a day. The only time he had more than 1 a day before I went back to work was when we left him with my mom to go to a wedding. The key for us was making sure the bottle was the right temperature. Des is super picky and won''t take the bottle if it''s too cold. My first day back to work he only took 3 oz from my mom, but I think it was because she hadn''t quite figured him out yet. The next day with MIL he ate like a champ.

We also had to go through a bunch of bottles to find the right one. We ended up with the playtex drop ins.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

We started introducing a bottle after 2 weeks b/c I was so worried she would refuse one later. Luckily she never had issues but I second having your DH feed him so he doesn''t get upset. Try putting breast milk on the tip too. Just try different ones. Does he use a paci? Maybe his the bottles that are the same brand as those. Good luck!

 

[Pandora II]

Get your husband to feed him with you out of the room.

What I have heard is that if they take a bottle before 4 weeks, they will ultimately always take a bottle - unless a more attractive alternative is right in front of them! Mummy Moo Moo is always top choice!

I use a brand of bottle called: Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature which are boob shaped and have a slow flow teat so they are as close as possible to the real thing. I've also always warmed the milk as well.

 

[Blenheim]

DD, if Hunter's not really taking a bottle yet, he's old enough that I'd personally try going straight for a sippy cup and bypassing bottles altogether. I think that they can start using sippy cups around 6 mo or so, although I haven't tried one with George yet. Just a thought...

When we started George on a bottle, he took one pretty easily from DH but refused to if I was around. So I second (third? fourth?) the idea of having your husband do it when you're not around.

 

[packrat]

Nothing real productive to add, other than to agree w/Blenheim that he might be ready for a sippy instead. Trapper never did take a bottle-we were just lucky to be able to work around it. (''Course, part of that was b/c of ME..he''s our last, and I wanted to hold onto nursing as long as I could)

I reeeeallly just wanted to post on here so I could say that I adore looking at the baby/kid avatars..I get the warm fuzzies and want to snuggle and smooch on them all.

 

[movie zombie]

we went straight to a cup at 8 months. wasn''t a problem. why go to a bottle?

mz

 

[PinkTower]

A third vote for a cup.
My children are older now, but neither one of them ever had a bottle. Both babies tapered until they were off breast milk by around their first birthday by gradually increasing the milk from a cup.

 

[fieryred33143]

I think Hunter will do really well taking a bottle because bfing is well established. I would suggest finding bottles that are similar to breast nipples. I like nuk, most people don''t though but I like that DD has to work hard to get the milk not like with other bottles where it just drips out.

I think the risk with giving a bottle is that when he gets on the breast, he may get "lazy" so one thing we do is let her take in about 10 gulps then break the seal by twisting the bottle to the right. And after a few minutes, we remove the bottle completely and put back in. Of course Sophia is younger but bfing isn''t as established with us as it is for Hunter so doing the above keeps her from forgetting how to eat at the breast.

 

[Mrs Mitchell]

Dreamer, I''d suggest trying a cup too.

We never, ever managed to get Amelia to drink from a bottle and we tried pretty much as soon as BFing was established. No way, not having it.

A cup was fine though, no drama there.

Jen

 

[mrssalvo]

another vote for the cup. Jake would never take a bottle and I was consistent enough. Plus, it was just easier to nurse. We actually went straight to a sippy but did the Munchkin straw sippy, which was much easier for him to get the hang of than a regular sippy.

 

[chrono]

I'd either go straight to a cup or something with a straw. Mine both did much better with cups than with trying to get used to a bottle. Most babies/toddlers start with a sippy cup at 6 months, but you'll have to experiment to see which cup your baby prefers.

 

[lili]

Another vote for the cup or straw.
Mine never took the bottle even though she did intially before my milk came in.
We tried the bottle w/ her since she started at daycare at 6 months.
The caretaker tried all different methods, but no luck.
After 2 months, we gave the straw a try and she''s been drinking from it since.

Since Hunter is about the age where he should be learning to use the cup, no point really to try and get him on the bottle.

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

GREAT help as usual. I think we will move right to the cup. I don''t plan to wean him for a long time yet, so this is really just for the 1 or 2 feedings he will get while I am at work -- technically I return to work full time in January, but I am only teaching one class and actually plan to only work part time, 3 days a week for about 6/7 hours, until next May.

Can anyone recommend some different brands of cups they liked? I have not actually given him one yet. He is co-ordinated... sort of

I honestly have a hard time believing he can use a cup, but it won''t be necessary for him to use one until January, so I have some time to try and get him used to it. I will look for the munchkin one with the straw...

 

[puffy]

are you going with sippy to start off or going straight to the straw cups? B was totally not a picky cup person, so he basically took anything that i gave him.
i gave him born free sippy to start until i discovered he could sip out of a straw, then i used the take and toss plastic cups with straws and he liked those just fine. then i got a bunch of other cups with the kiddy characters on them, and he liked those just the same. he''s actually using water bottles with the spout on them now.
but if hunter is picky about his cups, it''s all going to be trial and error. i''m sure he''ll be fine with a cup. if he''s putting food into his mouth, he''ll be fine!

 

[Mrs]

Sage drinks water from the playtex straw cups that I got her. I started her on the straw by placing my finger over a regular straw with a little water in it and bringing it to her mouth and letting go so that the water flowed into her mouth. She quickly learned that straw = water and had no trouble with the playtex cups I got her.

Here is a comparison of some of the straw cups out there that I read before I bought her the paytex ones.

I have never tried giving her breast milk from a straw cup though. We use the medela and Dr Browns bottles which she seems to like fine. I don''t think I would give her BM from the straw cups I have for her since the straw doesn''t reach all the way to the bottom of the cup so she wouldn''t be able to drink it all and the straw cup doesn''t have any measure on it so I wouldn''t know how much she is drinking.

Hope this helps!
Mrs

 

[chrono]

Dreamer,
My boys did better on the Tommee Tippee cups since they never got the hang of the traditional non-spill valves.

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

I thought I would update this thread and let everyone know that Hunter is taking milk from a cup with a straw! He took it from a sippy, but doesn''t like to tip his head back to drink, he likes to sit upright, so straw cup it is.

Now I just have to get into the habit of pumping, which I abhor.

Can anyone tell me how much milk a 10 month old will need at daycare??

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

That''s awesome that Hunter is drinking from a straw cup! Congrats!

I was going to vote for the cup, too, because I had a child that I didn''t introduce the bottle to early and she never would take one. It was really rough the one day that I had to leave her with her dad.

I know pumping sucks (haha, literally), but at least you''re not exclusively pumping. I pumped every day for 8 months after going back to work when Will was 4 months old and had a love/hate relationship with the pump, but I thought it was important so I refused to stop until he was a year old.

You should figure that Hunter will need about 1 oz. of breastmilk for each hour that he''s in day care. Some babies will need a little more, other babies will need a little less, so if he''s gone for 9 hours, I''d send 9 oz. plus 2-3 oz. extra for back up. Over a week or so, you''ll be able to see what the right amount is.

You may have to educate your day care provider about breastfed babies'' needs. Will was the only baby out of about 8 that got BM at day care, so the ladies in the infant room seemed to expect him to eat the same as the formula fed babies. He got a 3-4 oz. bottle in the morning and afternoon and I came to day care to nurse him at lunch time each day...and by 8 months of age, the formula fed babies were drinking like 8 oz of formula in one bottle. I ended up having to bring in some articles to show them why Will was fed differently.

I always sent an extra 3 oz. bottle in case something happened that I could not be there to pick him up at 5:30, but this was for emergencies only because I wanted him to be ready to nurse as soon as we got home. Once, a new lady started and gave him this emergency bottle at 4:45 so when we got home, I had to spend time pumping to recoup that emergency bottle.

You may find that Hunter decides to reverse-cycle. He may refuse to drink much milk at day care during the day, but once you''re home with him at night, he''ll want to nurse a lot during the night to make up for the day. This is perfectly normal -- some babies just prefer to wait for their meals straight from the tap.

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

Rockpaper All good tips! I am in Canada and since we get 12 months of mat leave, as well as other cultural differences perhaps, I think that BFing is more common here. So the daycare is used to BF babies. I actually don''t plan to have him in full time at the start, I am thinking 5-6 hours maximum. But that''s a good rule of thumb. I know in that period he would normally nurse 2x, so I guess he will need 2 bottles. I''ll be curious to see if he does wait to see me to nurse. It would be odd since he doesn''t nurse at night now he would have to drink a lot in the am and pm before work, or I guess he could start waking at night

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

You are SOOOO lucky that your day care is experienced with breastfed babies! It can be hard to be the different one that has to educate people.

Sounds like you have a good plan with starting part time. I''m sure that Hunter will have a great time getting to hang out with other kids once he gets used to being there. I always hated to leave my kids, but the social interaction was wonderful for them.

If he does reverse cycle, it may only happen for a little bit until he gets used to the new schedule. It stinks when they start waking up again at night after they''re STTN. I think that''s harder than if they never STTN and you''re used to being up and down.

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Date: 11/27/2009 9:51:23 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
I thought I would update this thread and let everyone know that Hunter is taking milk from a cup with a straw! He took it from a sippy, but doesn't like to tip his head back to drink, he likes to sit upright, so straw cup it is.


Now I just have to get into the habit of pumping, which I abhor.


Can anyone tell me how much milk a 10 month old will need at daycare??

I would start with the average amount you pump out each time he skips a feed from you and go from there depending on the feedback the daycare gives you. You can always give them a little extra the first day while you are trying to figure things out.

 

[dreamer_dachsie]

Date: 11/28/2009 10:55:35 PM
Author: LtlFirecracker

Date: 11/27/2009 9:51:23 AM
Author: dreamer_dachsie
I thought I would update this thread and let everyone know that Hunter is taking milk from a cup with a straw! He took it from a sippy, but doesn''t like to tip his head back to drink, he likes to sit upright, so straw cup it is.


Now I just have to get into the habit of pumping, which I abhor.


Can anyone tell me how much milk a 10 month old will need at daycare??

I would start with the average amount you pump out each time he skips a feed from you and go from there depending on the feedback the daycare gives you. You can always give them a little extra the first day while you are trying to figure things out.

I don''t get much when I pump... only about 3oz right now. Granted it isn''t skipping a feed, I do it after he is in bed. I know he drink more because he is a bog boy and ws EBF for 6mo, so I think pumping just doesn''t work so well for me? But I will give it a try as you suggest and see what happens!

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Sounds pretty typical, I forgot the first rule of breast-feeding which is that the baby is the best pump out there and can usually extract more milk than a machine .

The other option is to measure out the volume you put in the cup he is drinking from. When he is done, measure what is left. That could be an average feed. Than multiply that by the amount of times he is going to drink BM in day care. Than provide a little extra just in case .