10mo only breastfed to switch to bottles - questions/please help

[christinasoong]

Hello fellow parents

I have an almost 10 month old baby girl called Emily.

She has been exclusively breastfed since birth with no bottles (yes, I do regret not giving her one a day). I have tried to give her bottles before and she has taken up to 30mls so she can do it however she protested and I didn't persist. I have now decided to give up breastfeeding completely and put her on bottles for all milk feeds.

I have read the other posts here and there are some great tips which I will try.  I am planning to keep trying a bottle consistently over a 24 hour period (i.e. no breast at all) to try to minimise the time it takes however I have a few questions I hope you can help with:

1) at her age, would people recommend variflow or normal drip teats? is there a particular brand or model you would suggest for her age?
2) should I keep her normal 3-daily solid serves during the transition time?
3) should I wait until my husband can give her the bottles? she has taken a bottle from me before.

thanks very much for your help with this.

cheers

Christina

[noah's mama]

Hi christina - I recently switched my ds to bottles from exclusively bf...I would recommend a teat with a flow designed for breastfeeding babies, since a teat recommended for a baby Emily's age might have a lot faster flow than she's used to from breastfeeding (unless you have a very fast letdown - how long does she usually take to nurse?)
I would definitely offer her the bottle every chance you get, no matter who gives it to her - it could take a while to get her to accept it (it took a month of trying every day with Simon) so you need to be persistent. Definitely let your husband try as often as he can.
I wish you the best of luck! Try not to get frustrated if it's not working right away. And remember you can try a cup or sippy cup with Emily too since she's 10 months.

[matthewsmama]

THye usually say that you need to offer it constantly. Also, if you will no longer breastfeed, then they say you should only offer the bottle and have her take it when she is hungry. Iwas never able to breastfeed so I am really no help about the weaning and switching to the bottle, however, on the breastfeeding forum there is a post on support for weaning and I am sure the ladies there will have much better advice.  Sorry I couldnt help much.  Good luck, Christie

[Gorgelocks]

Hi Christina

I'm just going through the same thing with my 6 month old. The advice I've had is to continue with the solids as you normally would and to offer the bottle instead of breast. Dont breast feed her at all during this time. Be persistent and patient - expect it to take several days. I'd advise you to do it with your DH as it's quite stressful, so you can take it in turns. Dont give up!

I'm on day 4, but breast fed for the last 3 nights and stupidly stopped the solids (I didn't know this was the wrong thing to do). Today we've been giving her solids and I wont breast feed her. Like Emily, my DD can take milk from a bottle, but doesn't. Its really frustrating and I'm wondering if she'll ever do it. I'm assured by everyone that she'll get it in the end.

Best of luck & do let me know how you get on
Gorgelocks x

[christinasoong]

Hi all

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. As it turns out, we tried using an NUK wideneck bottle which had the teat/size which most resembled my breast/nipple. The faster flow was no problem - my letdown/milk had always been quite fast. We made sure the milk was warm and the teat was also warm.

We've tried every feed for a couple of days and Emily will generally take between 20mls - 100 mls although she has refused the bottle entirely a few times. I've then offered her the breast afterwards. However I think I will probably have to not offer the breast for say 12-24hrs to get her fully on bottles. I might try that maple syrup trick, too.

Right now I think she enjoys the snuggling and together time of the breastfeed. As do I.

Now that she's taken the bottle I'm not so worried because I know she can do it. Now we just need to get her to do it all the time.

Thanks again,

Cheers

Christina