When should you introduce a bottle to a breastfeeding baby? There are a lot of different theories about timing and how to avoid nipple confusion. Watch this video to see what worked well for me.
When to Introduce the Bottle
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We introduced a bottle at 2 weeks. I had expressed some milk because I was engorged and he couldn’t eat on the one breast. My mother had him while I was napping and he acted extremely fussy and he had just eaten an hour before (normal I know). She decided instead of waking me to get the 1 oz that was in the bottle and give it to him. He drank it and slept for 2 hours, longest he had slept since he was born. He never had nipple confusion since we also tried a pacifier. But he did refuse bottles after a while since he knew it was formula (when I supplemented) and not the good stuff. He got spoiled.
The only one of my three to even entertain the bottle was my middle child, my daughter. I utilized the bottle at the three month mark intermittently when I needed to leave her during feeding time. I only fed her breast milk with the bottle and it was either my husband or my mother who did the feeding. HavIng someone other than myself giving the bottle was part of the success. Breast fed babies seem to associate the scent of the mother with the breast and can lead to challenges in getting the baby to take the bottle, regardless of what is in it.
My two boys refused the bottle under all circumstances and went right from breast to cup without any difficulty.
Knowing my son Oscar was going to be bottle fed when I went back to work full-time, we introduced bottles at 4 weeks (our lactation consultant recommended to do it around then). Our breastfeeding was in a good rhythm at that point and he did not have any nipple confusion. My husband would give him a bottle of expressed milk (2-3 ounces) then a bath every night which in addition to getting Oscar into a routine was a great break for me! I have heard it’s difficult to introduce a bottle when they are older so I am really glad we did it when we did.
All 3 of my kids started with a bottle at the hospital and they had bottles (while I pumped) during the wait for my milk to come in. After my milk came in, they still had some bottles of pumped milk because I was so sore.
They never had any nipple confusion and I was glad I went with my gut at the hospital to give them bottles even though I planned on breastfeeding. By my third, it made things less stressful.
After 3 months, my kids all got 1 bottle per day to give me a break to go out and exercise or have a glass of wine or whatever. I need off-duty time.
I think it’s all personal preference, but I’m glad that I gave a bottle very early on (within the first 24 hours) because it is very nice to be able to have a break. No harm ever came out of it for us!
my first baby took a bottle really well, starting at 6 weeks, right before i had to go back to work part time. after my second was born i quit my job to stay home full time. i was pretty lazy about pumping and giving him a bottle. he did not ever take one. now i have a third baby who is 3 months old. i would like him to take a bottle, but am wondering if it’s too late? i’m looking forward to reading everyone’s tips and advice.
With my first son I started the bottle after the 1st month with expressed milk because I knew I had to go back to work. Now I am a stay at home mom and just had our second child in may. I had tried a bottle twice and then became lazy with it, know he won’t take one at all. I guess we will go straight to a cup in a couple months. It’s just difficult now if I ever have to leave him. I think starting the bottle early and even doing one once every couple of day with expressed milk would have been good.
My son didn’t have any issues taking the bottle for the first time and I don’t recall him having any trouble switching back and forth from breast to bottle as needed. I did eventually switch completely to bottle, however, because he turned into a biter and it got very painful. I was glad to hear that you had no trouble starting your third child off on a bottle right away, as I’ve been considering pumping and bottle-feeding from the start for our second child. My sister has been giving me a hard time about this, however, and tells me I should at least attempt to breastfeed first, but for me the important thing is the breastmilk, not the way in which it’s delivered.