NIPPLE CONFUSION

[guptamadhvi]

hi all
my son is 5 and 1/2 month old . he has been on mixed feed from birth. i have been bottle feeding him with formula twice a day - once in afternoon and one at night. for last 10 days i have increased his formula feed to 3 as he remained hungry. i plan to start his solids now. but the problem is he is simply refusing breastfeed. he takes it when he is sleepy or i give it in his sleep. otherwise he just starts yelling even when i bring him to that position. i want to continue breastfeeding him till 1 yr at least. pls suggest.

[shivi]

Hi there.
I had one kid, my first, who had no issues changing to and from ebm in bottle to breast again. I was in work from 4 mths so two feeds in middle of day or one daytime and DF were ebm in bottle.
Then came DD. She was a different kettle of fish entirely. She was a very distracted feeder from the start, highly spirited and hungry! She also had a tongue tie which made bottle feeding much much easier for her. So after using the bottle for top ups only at bedtime - she had no patience to wait for low milk supply and slower let downs in the evenings - I had to stop bottles completely at 7-8weeks ad it wad really impinging on all her feeds.
I have heard of babies that cope well with 1 or 2 feeds from bottle, and definitely the sleepier ones are better to use bottle feed for as baby is less likely to remember them as easier but usually moving to three feeds can create havoc with breastfeeding unless you have a barracuda like my ds who really didn't care how he got his milk....
the other issue is, are you pumping to keep up your milk supply? Sometimes dropping to 3 feeds can really reduce milk supply.
are you working and unable to feed during the day? If not, I would continue feeding in sleep or when semi conscious and pump when formula feeding time comes round.

hth xxx

[eva026]

We went through this 2-3 times when BFing and that was with only using the bottle once a day. It is possible to get them to BF again, just hang in there:)

A few things worked for us at different times.
First was to change the nipple on the bottle to one that requires some sucking to get milk out. I know Medela does one (Calma) and I think Dr Browns does too. That way the bottle isn't the "easy" way to get milk any more.
I'm wondering if LO is too young to try a sippy with a valve or straw for formula?
Feeding when LO is sleepy or drowsy is great too. That got us through a good few months of BFing. Like Shiv's DD, mine was always very distracted and impatient so I could only feed her properly just as she was waking up from naps and at night.
I also popped DD on just after expressing till letdown so LO had milk at the breast instantly.
You can also try wearing a colourful necklace (make sure it's not easy to break though) to keep LO busy while BFing. When we were going through a nursing strike I'd get DH to stand behind me keeping DD occupied while she nursed.
Another thing that comes to mind is to try nursing in a position that is totally different from what you usually do, so they baby doesn't start to freak as soon as you get him in your usual nursing position. I ended up feeding laying on my side with DD upside down (ie her toes in my face). It was super awkward but at least kept her calm enough to consider latching on.

It was really stressful but I quickly began to catch onto signs that Dd was developing a bottle preference and would try all or some of the above tricks while ditching the bottle for a few days to get her settled with BFing.

Like Shiv said, pump instead of the feed you are missing. The more feeds you skip the less milk you produce.