When to introduce a bottle of expressed milk

[PrincessGurn1984]

Any advice on when to introduce a bottle of expressed milk? Keen my son will use both and I’ve heard mixed timings from 7 days old to 6 weeks old. My son is 10 days old. I asked the midwife and they were relaxed. Aiming to just give one bottle of expressed to start with so he gets used to it x

[Solly-44]

Hi, we started introducing a bottle (but ours was formula) at 5 days as he had lost too much weight at his midwife check. We were really lucky in that my son wasn’t at all fussy, he’d take whatever he was given 😅 but I’ve heard it varies quite a bit. We also just did 1 a day at first.

[Shannnom]

hello — we had heard that we should wait until the baby was 4 weeks to avoid “nipple confusion”, and I was so determined to make it to that time! But at 3 weeks I was so exhausted, my husband and parents gently convinced me to let them give my son an expressed milk bottle for one feeding in the evening and get a solid chunk of sleep. And they were right! He took to it right away and it made absolutely no difference in his normal breastfeeding. If we have another, I’d probably wait a week or two and then introduce a bottle, so long as there were no other feeding concerns.

[PrincessGurn1984 in reply to Shannnom]

Thanks that’s great advice, similarly that’s what I’m thinking if my husband can give him a bottle of my expressed milk before I go to bed then I’ll get a nice chunk of time asleep. Did you find breast feeding led to more frequent poos? X

[Shannnom in reply to PrincessGurn1984]

I only ever breastfed, so I’m not sure, but my little guy had to have antibiotics at birth and so he had extremely frequent poos for months. They did get better eventually though!

[Purpledoggy]

In general the advice is to wait until BF is established ie you’re both comfortable with it. That might take a week or 6 weeks depending on you and bub. However, lots of personal factors go into it that the general advice doesn’t take into account-weight gain, mum’s sleep deprivation etc. I think mine was about 1.5 weeks when he had a bottle-he had cluster fed every 15mins from 9pm to 4am and I was so exhausted hubby took him off me and gave him a small bottle of formula. I cried so much as I felt like a failure, which in hindsight is ridiculous but obviously at the time I was not thinking straight! He was always happy having either boob or bottle so I don’t think it would have made much difference what I did. We always used the extra slow MAM teats and pace fed at first so he never got impatient with boob. Xx

[PrincessGurn1984 in reply to Purpledoggy]

Thanks, you def did the right thing! Fed is best. I truly believe that. Im also finding that he is pooing a lot? I think that’s common with breast fed babies? It’s like during or after every single feed! It’s constant x

[Purpledoggy in reply to PrincessGurn1984]

We had a poopy pants as well 😂 yes it was after most feeds and pretty voluminous for a while. Defo more common with BF. It was a gamechanger when he finally stopped pooing overnight at a few months old as I felt I could leave his nappy overnight, making wakeups much faster to deal with. Xx

[PrincessGurn1984 in reply to Purpledoggy]

I look forward to that ! Will be much easier 😂 when he had his weight checked at 6 days and then again at day 10, he was the same weight which surprised me, as he’s feeding really well, and I wondered if it maybe due to the amount he’s pooing? He’s almost pooing more than he’s absorbing maybe? X

[Purpledoggy in reply to PrincessGurn1984]

Who knows but it may simply be when you weighed him relative to the most recent feed and poo. We all know we get weighed first thing on a morning and preferably after a poo so the scales are kindest 😂 I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage, it sounds like he’s doing fine 😊xx

[Hidden]

As I have said in other posts - I am not anything close to an expert at feeding!

But I did think a lot about introducing the bottle and how the baby would react to breastfeeding alongside.

All I can say is each baby is different in my experience.

For my first, she was never interested in bf and got so frustrated with it once she knew the bottle was there.

For my 2nd he loved breastfeeding, we had to introduce the bottle again due to needing to increase weight....but it doesn't bother him. He still loves breastfeeding.

X

[Redsequin]

Hi lovely. My little girl had a bottle literally from birth as I was too unwell to feed her on the first day. Did not stop her learning to latch with relative ease and she still goes happily between bottle and breast 6 months later. Xxx

[Emdog87]

Hello, with my first she was about 6 weeks but my second we introduced expressed milk within the first week. I always heard mixed advice, some say not too early as you’ll confuse them whereas with my second they said I could introduce it straight away.

I think 1 a day would be a good way to start. That’s what we did and then dad could help with the feeding.

X

[PrincessGurn1984 in reply to Emdog87]

that’s brill thanks! Will try that. When did you increase it from one expressed bottle a day? X

[Emdog87]

As soon as she took to the bottle I increased quite quickly. I wanted both of them to be breastfed but I really struggled with it so as soon as I got the hang of expressing I just gave her more bottles and less boob. Expressing isn’t for everyone, I have friends who hated, I guess it’s just finding what works best you guys.

X

[PrincessGurn1984 in reply to Emdog87]

I’m finding expressing good, I’ve got a portable pump so can walk around with it in my bra so really handy. What did you do when you went out and about and wanted to give baby an expressed bottle? X

[Emdog87 in reply to PrincessGurn1984]

I used a little cooler bag to keep the milk cool and fresh. My 2nd child didn’t like warm milk so it was easy with her. You’ll have to check this but I’m sure breast milk is still safe at room temp for up to 6 hours, you can keep it in the fridge for 3 days or freezer for 6 months. I found in the early days I produced a lot of milk so I built up a supply. But if we were going out I’d just stick a bottle in a little cooler bag.

Also if I was going to be out for a while I used to take my pump with me, (I had a rechargeable which was fab) and I used to pump in the car on journeys or if we were visiting people I’d just go into a quiet place to pump and again pop the expressed milk into my little freezer bag to keep it fresh.

[Sunflower35]

You have had lots of interesting advice, and to be honest, I feel you have to do what you feel comfortable with. I have pretty much exclusively breastfed, initially for fear of nipple confusion, and now I wished I got her to have at least one expressed bottle a day after BF was established, as I was back to work at 7 months and she refused bottles. I was hoping to be able to express and give the bottle by the time I was back to work, but she had other plans. I did try every bottle type I found but she would close her mouth and cry like a beast lol. Thankfully I could work from home and feed her in between calls, but it was not ideal!

The only thing, if you are expressing, I’d mirror his feed timings to keep up with storing the amount of milk you’ll be feeding him, otherwise you might start adding formula eventually because you cannot keep up with the amount he takes as they say your body adjusts to the feeds. If you don’t find the amount you produce drops, or if you would like to switch to formula eventually, then it is ok. Random note - They also say to keep the baby near while expressing to help with milk production. I only managed to express while feeding once, and found it too complicated…

Bottom line - In my experience, I wished I got her used to the occasional bottle. Just don’t add too many if you wouldn’t want him to be exclusively fed with bottles.