Do I have to introduce a bottle?

[mgibson]

I am a first time mom to a beautiful baby girl who is now 5 months old.  I have been very fortunate in that I have had no difficulties breast feeding.  I plan to breast feed (hopefully) until she is one year of age, then I will be returning to work.  Up until this point using a bottle has not been an issue - my MIL however has suggested that we should get our daughter use to a bottle.  What I am wondering is, is this necessary?  Or, can I just start using a sippie cup with EBM once my baby is old enough?

[Vicku]

Hi there

You don't have to introduce a bottle at all, unless you want to. It is perfectly fine to use a sippy for EBM, and it's often recommended to do this rather than the bottle if introducing EBM after 6mos. Also, at least in the UK, they recommend to ideally switch from bottle to cup anyway at one yr old. At one year old you can give cow's milk in a cup if you don't continue to BF and she will also be able to get her calcium and other nutrients from a good varied diet. So there's no need to introduce a bottle, however some mothers prefer to use a bottle even at an older age due to it being "less messy", some babies take more milk from a bottle than from a cup (but that really depends on the baby) or for other reasons. From my own experience with DD1, a bottle *can* also interfer with BF as it is easier to get milk from it and the flow is always steady and the same, comes straight away etc, whereas with the breast they have to work for the milk, wait for the letdown, flow changes throughout feed etc. Bottle preference doesn't always happen, and many mothers and babies combine bottles and BF just fine, but it is a risk that is always there when you introduce a bottle to a BF baby, and a very good one to be aware of in my experience. DD1 developed a bottle preference which led to supply problems and eventually premature weaning, but at the time I didn't know anything about this and had no support, but I really wish I had known where to get support to help me with it so we could have carried on a bit longer. Not wanting to scare you or anyone else with this, that's not the intention but just to let you know there *are* some risks if you do introduce a bottle, and in your case it just doesn't seem worth taking those risks as you don't have to HTH and let us know if you have any further questions

[Katet]

By 5mo my DS2 would take about 20ml from a sippy (I had a variety from Ds1 to test & he took one without the anti spill bit so had to hold it) & by 9mo I was giving him his mid morning feed in a sippy (he would drink it in the stroller while we went out for a walk ) He had 3 bottles in his life, all around 1mo when I was trying to give him a bottle as a DF, but worked out it took me more effort to express & then feed when he took 5-7mins to feed.

So yes I agree if you have got this far, go straight for the sippy, so much easier than introducing a bottle, then sometime later stopping, esp as most babies by 6/7mo do pretty well on a sippy.

[mum101]

From my experience avoiding a bottle is better for maintaining a bf-ing relationship.  Though, probably less of a risk as you have a good feeding relationship now. 
In a few months she'll be able to hold up and drink from a sippy cup, or with your help. She won't need a bottle.   

[Chicane]

We never did a bottle and had no problems, in fact DS went straight to a normal cup and we only use the sippy when we are out and about or at nap times because he likes to have water in the cot..so, I think you are fine to continue the way you are, it worked out for us no problem. However, he does love other children's bottles! And at any chance will try to steal them! lol! So now he takes a little bit of cow's milk and he does have that in a bottle...go figure!

[Shiv52]

DD1 only had a bottle a few times as we had a few weddings to go to and she couldn't come.  But after that i didn't bother as I was at home.  If you are not goingback to work until LO is a year then there is no need to introduce a bottle just for the sake of it.  We just offered a sippy from 7 months with water so by a year she was well used to it and was able to drink cows milk from it.