Has anyone got any advice on helping a breastfed baby to accept a bottle? My little boy is 6 weeks old and I’m trying to get him to take a bottle of expressed milk but it’s not happening.
I waited til around this time to reduce risk of ‘nipple confusion’ but I’m now starting to believe this is a complete myth and that I’ve missed the window of opportunity, as most of my NCT group are now combination feeding and introduced the bottle much earlier with minimal problems (I’m the only one now exclusively bf).
I’m now starting to feel really quite worn-down and depressed about it. I love spending time with him so much but the thought of never being able to spend more than an hour or so away from him for months and months is really worrying me.
I’ve tried having my partner give him the bottle instead of me, tried doing it both before and after a breast feed and at different times of day. He just doesn’t seem to know what to do with the teat and pushes it around with his tongue instead of sucking. Eventually he gets distressed and cries and we have to stop.
I know there is lots of support to help people with breastfeeding but is there anybody out there who will help with bottle feeding at this stage? I’ve been discharged from midwife and health visitor. Or has anyone got any tips from their own experience? My mum has told me that I never took a bottle myself so I’m now feeling like it’s not going to happen. I never anticipated that this would be an issue when I started breastfeeding 😢
Bit long, sorry but hope someone can help xx