Introducing expressed breast milk so daddy can feed baby.

[gigglysheep]

Hey guys,

My lo is almost 4wks old and has been exclusively breastfed since birth. Im starting to think about introducing a bottle of expressed milk so that my oh can get involved with feeds and care during the night, that way we can tag team and mummy can get some sleep. She is great at feeding and the introduction of a dummy hasnt caused any nipple confusion issues thus far.

What age did u guys attempt to introduce the bottle and what strategies worked for u? I would ask health visitor but I value ur experience and knowledge more than their txtbook answers xx

[Hidden]

I attempted at bout 6 weeks as had to a wedding where I left him behind but I didn't keep it up and at nearly 6 months he wont take a bottle so I am now giving him a cup.

Giv it a go..they say put the b.milk on the teat so she can smell it and suck.

I still express but it goes in his porridge or his cup..

I would also get ur oh or a friemd/relative to try with the bottle as she will smell the milk on u and probli wont b too keen..get him to prepare it and try with it xx

[Hidden]

I know every child is different, but I started expressing my breast milk when my daughter was roughly 4 wks of age and experienced no problems with the latch on technique or drinking it from the bottle.

my reason for also deciding to express this early too was the fact that i have another 5 yr old child who i would need to take / pick up from school so the direct feed from the breast was sometimes impossible.

It may help if you are not around your hubby when you do want her to take the expressed milk as babies usually pick up on your voice or smell when you close to them and wont want to take anything else but you.

xx

[Mummyleanne]

I also tried this from 4 weeks but she's now almost 8 weeks and has only taken my expressed milk twice. She doesn't like the bottle and really kicks off. I have never given the bottle to her but as above have said it's better to get partner etc to give the bottle to start with I was always told this too. We have tried her on formula and she's taken that twice on the times we have tried but took a while and she kept wanting more and being greedy! I want to continue Breastfeeding but I'm the same as you would be nice to have the odd time off from feeding. Good luck and keep perservering hopefully we will get there too x

[Lovestar]

My girl is only 9 days old and I breastfeed 95% of the time but sometimes my husband will give her a bottle during the night so I can get some sleep and it hasn't caused any issues so far. I was worried about confusing her but she still latches on as usual

[dons88]

I offered my first baby at 4 weeks - he glugged down everything in sight and had no trouble switching between bottle and breast.

I offered my second baby at 6 weeks and she is not keen at all, she's now 20 weeks. She'll occasionally take expressed milk but only if she's only hungry - if she's a bit tired or grouchy or anything as well as hungry she won't go near it, my OH hasn't ever got a drop down her! I've just made my peace with it, I know if I forced it she'd eventually give in rather than starve but it's just not that important to me at the moment, it would've been more handy in the early weeks when feeds were really close together. We've started introducing a bit of solid food today so that will change her eating habits.

Just go for it. Stay relaxed and don't have any strategy to begin with, hopefully she'll just gulp it down as normal. Good luck! X

[Jacksonla]

I introduced a bottle at about 5 weeks. It was formula because I couldn't express much and I wanted to see if he settled more after being full off the formula which he did. He took it straight away & we've had no problems since. He's 16 weeks now and I breastfeed 85% of the time & he has no issue moving between the two. I use MAM bottles which have silk teats rather than latex so maybe try different bottles if she doesn't take it straight away.

I'd definitely advise introducing a bottle earlier rather than later as I have a friend with an 8 month old & she goes back to work in 5 weeks but her LO just will not take one no matter what she tries. She didn't introduce it until a few weeks ago so don't be afraid to start early. X

[deemuir]

Hi I think our babies were born on the same day.

Eliza didn't want to feed on her first full day in this world she wanted to sleep. Anyone would have thought she had a busy day the day before. So I ended up hand expressing a small amount of milk and syringe feeding her.

so from the start she has always had 1 syringe feed a day the rest has been straight from the breast. It has ment my husband can do the midnight feed and I get to have some sleep every night.

She probably has about 60mls of milk at this feed (usually one boobs worth).

We hope to try a bottle in a week or two which should make life easier for the husband.

Have you got a pump yet? I get on really well with the Phillips avent electric one.

good luck and let us know how you get on with the bottle

[Summerfield]

I started using a bottle two weeks when she was 4 weeks old she loves it being fed by her dad. I'm not pumping enough milk for a night it's take me two days to get 4oz. My little one won't take a dummy. My little girl is on power bottle as well only the odd one in the day. Just started

[anijen]

I was advised to wait a month so not to cause confusion but I actually waited 6 weeks as my LO was struggling with latching on and he doesn't have a dummy so was only used to my nipple. We made sure we got right teat for bottles and all is good. Now daddy gets extra bonding time and mummy gets some me time, and it's lovely to see him feeding him.x :0)

[rufus141]

I started this at around 4 weeks with my children as in the olden days we had to go back to work around 6 weeks. I started that early so they were used to it by the time I went back to work. I did nights, so they had to really, but they all adapted very well.