*HELP Hungerstrike - introducing bottle to EBF 5 month old

[Antie66]

My nearly 5-month old is EBF and have been 'accidental parenting'  by letting him fall asleep on the breast snce birth. We are going to start sleep training to reduce night wakings (currently he wakes up about 4 times a night). However, I'm not sure he doesn't wake up because he is hungry and I want to introduce a bottle so that I can rule out hunger as a cause of waking up. I want to follow Tracy's advice and persist with giving the bottle (I'll use expressed milk) when he's hungry. Now I "tried this, but..." he didn't take the bottle until 3pm (ie he hadn't fed for 9 hours!!!) and even then only had 20ml (then fell asleep exhausted as he normally falls asleep on the boob which he hadn't had, so he was very sleep deprived that day). He only slept for 40 minutes (woke up after his first sleep cycle at which point I would normally feed him again for him to fall back asleep ... You see my problem!!).  At 5pm he was getting very cranky - hungry and tired, but as he was still refusing the bottle I caved and put him on the breast. You can imagine the night was worse than ever as he had to make up for the lack of feeding.

Questions: How long do I not breastfeed my baby in order for him to take a bottle? When do I breastfeed him again (and when do I then try the bottle again)? I don't want to starve or dehydrate my baby!!

Thanks for reading!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I wouldn't not feed him tbh. Have you tried any other types of bottles? I would perhaps try some other brands and just persist in trying at the beginning of a feed but bf if it doesn't go well. Took 3 types of bottles to get DD3 to take one and someone else had to feed it to her!

Also worth noting that current bf advice is different to the books and that nf's are perfectly normal. Plus he may be heading into a growth spurt around 6 months at which time you may get an increase in nf's anyways. Or perhaps he is hitting that gs now?

[Antie66]

I have tried 4 different brands of bottles with various teats and he's taken one of them before. I think he takes it better when tired (to the point of nearly asleep) and hungry. The nighttime awakenings are not a new thing and are not related to growth spurt - he never slept any better than this. I don't mind feeding him during the night either, once or twice if he needs it - but waking 4-5 times a night doesn't have to do with hunger and I know this. I will use sleep training to break the association of sleep and boob, but do want to know he's 'topped up'. And also need the flexibility a bottle will give.

[Lolly]

I wouldn't with hold the breast at this age either, as he has no other means for eating. Have a look at this link, there's some great advice here.

A bottle (or more!) a day…  Mixed breast and bottle feeding

Laura