Breast to Bottle cold Turkey struggle

[mamastef]

Hey!

I have been trying to make the Breast to Bottle switch with my 4.5months old LO but am struggling.
We started on Sat morning on her first feed of the day & offered the bottle for every feed that day. By the end of day one she took 3oz. I then BF her at 3am & back to the bottle only all day today.
She only took 1oz in the morning & a further 2oz a 5pm.
She actually doesn't reject the bottle in general but just doesn't know how to get the milk out & gets frustrated after a few minutes.
I am worried as she is not having any wet nappies & is a very unhappy bunny. It is heart breaking to do this to her but my milk supply is disappearing (despite best efforts to keep it up) so i really need her to take the bottle.
Tonight i flinched & fed her before bedtime so she would at least get some fluids in her. she woke up within an hour wanting some more but i refused & offered a bottle instead but she screamed the house down & Daddy had to put her to sleep as she only wrestled with me & rooted for the breast.

This is such a hard process. Would anyone have any advice? The "no wet nappies" is my main worry.
I know i am supposed to hang in there but my heart is breaking to see her so miserable.   

Thanks for your help!
x

[~ Vik ~]

Hi there

Is your intention to wean completely, or to offer the bottle as a supplement?  Just asking because you could go about it differently depending on what your final goal is.

Have you read this?  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64926.0
What type of bottle are you using?  Have you tried different types?  Many bfing moms find that bottles with wider nipples are better accepted by their los because they have to open their mouth wider to "latch" onto it, kwim?  I use the playtex bottles with the disposable liners and ds took to them quite well.  I use the variable flow nipples.  I've also heard of success with Avent and Tommy Tippee (sp?) bottles.

I didn't go cold turkey when I introduced the bottle to ds.  Cold turkey can be very stressful, for mom and lo!  (as you've discovered )  I wasn't really in an urgent situation though...  I was going back to work full time in a couple months, and needed ds to be able to take the bottle for the feedings that I was going to be missing.  I started with the after am nap feeding and pumped fresh ebm (ds has a dairy allergy) and offered it to him in his bouncy chair in front of the tv ( but the distraction helped!)  If he started to fuss I let him out to play, as I didn't want to give him a bottle aversion, and tried again in about 15 minutes or so.  Just kept offering the bottle for that entire feed period, but then I would bf as usual or the next scheduled feed time, and all other feeds.  Once he was accepting that feed reasonably well (3ish oz at the beginning of feed time, took about 1.5 weeks) I moved on to the pm nap feed.  That one didn't take nearly as long as he was already accepting the bottle.  I still bf morning and night most of the time, but ds will take a bottle from dh if I'm at work during that feed time too.  The transition wasn't easy, but it went pretty smoothly.

You mentioned that your milk supply was disappearing.  Have you seen the tips here?  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65905.0
Also some great information on this website:  http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/low-supply.html
You may not have to stop bfing if you don't want to!

Finally, here's the link to the http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=157385.0 FAQ with some more information on that for you.

Let us know how you and your dd are doing!
Big hugs,
Vikki

[mamastef]

Hi Vikki! 

Thank you so much for your reply & great tips.
We've had a breakthrough today! Maia had 3 full feeds on the bottles plus her solids. (i had to start solids as she was not gaining enough due to my low milk supply).
I didn't bfeed her at the mid night waking last night but stuck with the bottle & actually it wasn't too bad. She fussed a bit but then took 3oz & fell asleep.
All day today, she only had bottles. she took 3 feeds (5oz each time) but again tonight i fed her before bed as she was really inconsolable.
We opted for the Tomme Tipee bottles after trying lots of different brands & teats. I warmed the teats before feedings & warmed the milk as well ( but not too hot).
i hope that feeding her in the night won't upset the progress made. We'll have to wait & see.
This has been such as hard emotional process but i think/hope we may be close to getting into the new bottle routine. (fingers crossed!!)

It will be a great relief for me as the last couple of month have been really stressful as i often didn't have enough to satisfy her. The issue was exacerbated by the fact that once she had emptied my breasts she would pull off straight away therefore not generating the demand. By the end we were "wrestling" at every feeds. I tried pumping but found nothing helped. i had even tried fenugreek which helped at first but then it seemed i became immuned to it & my milk disappeared again.

I have enjoyed bfeeding but after the last while i am ready to stop. I will continue the night feeds (before bed & mid night) for a while & see how we get on.

Thanks so much for the support. x 
mamastef