Breast Feeding & SAHM?

Updated on March 21, 2011
C.S. asks from Deer Park, TX
7 answers

Those of you who bf & are @ home, any tips for getting baby to take a bottle of your milk when you're out occasionally?

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M.

answers from Cleveland on

I agree, let someone else do it. I couldn't be within 50 feet of my son when someone else fed him!

3 moms found this helpful

M.H.

answers from Raleigh on

Let Dad do it and be out of the room or house when it is done. I don't know how old your little one is, but they say the best time to introduce a bottle is between 2 and 4 weeks so they know learn how to attach to the breast properly, but don't refuse a bottle either. Hope this helps and good luck!

1 mom found this helpful

J.G.

answers from San Antonio on

I started giving my son a bottle 2 or 3 times a week always at the same feeding (when he was an infant). He rarely took a bottle from someone else, as I didn't really go out very often. But I regularly gave him a bottle just so he could get used to it.

When I did finally leave and someone else gave him a bottle, he drank it decently well. I have heard that Avent nipples aren't very good for bfed babies (b/c of nipple confusion). I stuck with the Medela nipples.

1 mom found this helpful
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H.W.

answers from Portland on

I think the trick is regularity.

I stayed at home with my son and nursed on cue. By the tenth week or so, likely before that, I began teaching my son to take a bottle of pumped milk. It started with me putting him on the breast, then, when he was in 'eating' mode, handing him to my husband and letting them work on the bottle together. I had to leave the room, and let them figure it out,and after we worked with a few different kinds of bottle nipples, he got the knack of it. (I found for him that the 'breast' type nipples didn't work-- each baby is different.)

I made a point of having my husband do at least one evening feeding each night with the bottle, regardless of whether I was out or not. This regularity ensured that our son would 'know' how to take a bottle for feedings. I diligently pumped every morning for almost a year and a half, to have milk for that bottle, as well as some extra for freezing, for my nights out.

For what it's worth, I think some families wait too long. If you have a good nurser already, it's unlikely that you will have to deal with nipple confusion. I was more concerned that if we didn't start by 8 to 10 weeks, he'd learn NOT to take a bottle, and I wasn't going to be homebound! Things worked fine for us.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.M.

answers from Dallas on

I had this very same problem and it was a huge struggle. To add to what the others have already suggested, if all else fails and the baby is old enough and able to drink from a sippy cup try putting some breast milk in that. This was the only way I was successful and it worked for short periods of time starting around 9 or 10 months.

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M.B.

answers from Washington DC on

I have four kiddies. Oh, they only took it from their dad when I was FAR away from the house... LOL! ...but once they got used to it (couple weeks) I could give it to them too:)

J.B.

answers from Houston on

Well my first took a bottle, no prob at like three weeks! My second was not having it!! What I did with him was once I introduced rice cereal with a spoon is I made it with formula, but you could totally make it with breast milk. I didn't introduce rice cereal until six months so I didn't mind the occasional bottle of formula to be given when we would go out, but a bottle of breastmilk is always great! Anyway, once he would take rice cereal I would mix it with like 4 oz of formula and then whichever grandma was looking after him, could feed him that and he would be great until I got back. Actually for me once he was taking rice cereal and being fed by a spoon, he took a bottle easily but before that you could forget it!! I just had to plan my outings around his eating schedule for the first six months. So we could slip out to dinner or a movie, but not much more than that! I don't know why he hated bottles, I tried all kinds. Once he would take a bottle he would take the cheapest bottles out there, he had no preference, weird! Anyway, if baby still balks at the whole bottle thing you can always spoon feed slightly thickened formula or breast milk with rice cereal and it will be fine, and you can stay out longer. Good luck, it flies by!! :D

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