Tips for Bottle Feeding a Breastfed Baby

This is a very common issue with a lot of my clients so I thought this may be helpful!  The first piece of advice I have here is to introduce a bottle early and often.  Ideally around 4 weeks and then a bottle at least once a week to keep it in the rotation.  So many of my clients come to me before they are returning to work in a panic because baby is not taking bottles so introducing early and often can certainly help.  If that didn’t happen, it’s ok!

Here are some tips and tricks to help ease this transition:

·       Remove mom from situation as much as possible.  Baby is much more likely to accept from someone else -especially without mom in close distance.  Skin to skin is always a good thing even if its Dad or Grandmom or nanny giving the bottle (this gives baby the cozy comfort that’s built into breastfeeding)

·       Try different bottle and nipple types.  General rule of thumb gradually sloped bottle and slow flow nipple (2 of my favorites Dr Brown’s bottle with slow flow level 1 nipple and Lansinoh momma breastmilk feeding bottle)

·       Baby is more likely to accept milk that is the same temperature as coming straight from you.—so warm it up! May also help to heat up the nipple as well

·       Put a little warm breastmilk on the outside of the nipple (and when you are working on this transition, only put an ounce or so into each bottle that you are trying to ensure you are not wasting breastmilk)

·       Try offering bottle when baby is sleeping (perhaps trying towards the end of the nap)  The thought process is if baby is not quite awake yet she may not realize that she is feeding from the bottle and therefore more receptive!

·       Technique: Paced feeding which mimics breastfeeding

-try to offer bottle at time of day when baby is most mellow (don’t wait until baby is full on hungry)

-put baby in upright position before offering the bottle then hold the bottle horizontally so milk flows slowly which is similar to breastfeeding

-encourage latching the breastfeeding way so instead of putting the bottle’s nipple straight into her mouth, try stroking her nose with the nipple and let baby take the lead

(the complete opposite thing to try is to try putting baby in the same position you typically breastfeed her in and offer her a bottle that way.  Babies are usually more receptive to the paced feeding but this is also worth a try)

·       Staying calm is always always best as baby can sense the anxiety, panic etc.  As much as you can, try not to stress and take a day at a time.