advice on bottlefeeding?

I have been breastfeeding the whole time I've had my new little one (now 2 months old) and I love it! but I wanted to take a ceramics class this spring and I thought about pumping my milk to give her in a bottle while I'm away for a few hours, has anyone had much experience with switching from breast to bottle and what challenges arise? i've heard of babies refusing the breast once they drink from a bottle and that would just break my heart!

 

I would start trying to give her a bottle now, just maybe one a day. And let someone else give it to her, like dad, or grandma. She will be more inclinded to take it. I don't know for sure, but you might want to try the nipples called natural latch, or something like that, they are made by playtex. I have never used them myself. But my sister did with her baby, and I noticed that her baby latched on to that nipple much like she would a breast. (even though this baby was never breast feed). At first she will prob'ly refuse it, or fight the bottle, but she will get use to it.


As for it interfearing with BF. I think as long as you are still BFing the majority of the time, or the only time she gets a bottle is when she is away from you, she will still do fine with BFing. (this is another reason why I think it is good for you to let someone else give her the bottle)

 

I heard this advisegiven by my doula at a class when another mother asked the same. Don't buy any nipples made by people that make/support formula, they are naturally not inclined ti the finer points of breastfeeding (for $ reasons). Use nipples made by serious pump experts. Have hubby give baby a bottle while you step out, she can snif you out like a hound dog and won't want the fake nipple when the real deal is around the corner. Good luck..

 

How old will your baby be in the spring? Older babies need to nurse less often than a newborn.She will probably do just fine with a sippy cup of expressed milk. Many babies refuse to take the breast once a bottle has been introduced, but they never favor a cup over their beloved num nums. Even little babies can take a cup if it's given slowly. Many babies reschedule themselves around Mama's schedule, and take a long nap when she's gone. Some babies are more agreeable and make the transition from breast to bottle and back again with no problems. YOu won't know which is your baby until you try it.

 

My baby is going to be three months old when I go back to school. So will those sippy cups work with that young of a baby? Anyone know which nipples to buy that aren't supporting a formula company?

 

I think you should wait until a couple weeks before your class. Spring has a couple months or so to arrive.


My baby was older, and I put expressed milk into a little sippy cup and she did fine.


Goodluck.

 

Well, I had a horrible experience trying to get my son to take a bottle so I could work. He HATED it and would scream. It didn't matter what kind of nipple we tried, or whether it was expressed milk, or goat's milk, or formula. Some babies just prefer mama. Just don't give up, eventually I think they get used to it. If she takes a pacifier that may help, so she has comfort when you're away. If it's only a few hours a day, your baby should be fine while you're gone. And try not to feel guilty for leaving her if she doesn't get the hang of a bottle right away. You still need to do things for yourself so you can be the best mama possible, and a ceramics class sounds wonderful. Your baby will forgive you.

 

yeah, she really has my heart alright, I can't bear to see her sad. just taking her for car rides and having her screaming in her seat breaks my heart. I hope I can handle leaving her. And I know that if she gets used to the bottle and doesn't want my breast anymore I will feel betrayed sorta. I'm gonna have daddy give her the bottle tomorrow and see how she does. thanks for all the insight.

 

i think it is different with each child. however i think that your intention with your child plays a huge role here. if you put out the energy that it will be difficult to go back and forth your child will sense that. you are going back to school, and your child will still be getting breastmilk, which I think is what is important.
i think doing a few weeks of trial before you are out of the home is essential.

 

I had dada give her a bottle yesterday and he said she just licked it and didn't really eat anything, so I'll keep trying. Does anyone know if you can keep the milk that wasn't used once it is in the bottle and she already drank off of it? Someone said that once a babies saliva touches the milk it can grow bacteria and shouldn't be used later. is that true?

 

Once you give the bottle to the baby, you can not save the left over milk. If you are worried about waisting milk try only giving her an ounce at a time. When she starts drinking all of that, give her two, etc, etc. Ohh and just to let you know baby drink less brestmilk than they would formula. Ex 4 oz of breastmilk can can be just as good as say 8 oz of formula. There is alot of stuff in formula that can not be digested by baby, so they need more to get all the nutrianst they need. ON the other hand Breastmilk is very digetable, so they get more nutirants.

 

thanks for the info. I got those breastfeeding bottle nipples for her, so maybe she'll like that.

 

Everything will be fine if you do what feels right for the two of you. I HAD to go back to work for a while, after our blessing turned 3 months. I was more of a wreck than he was, I couldn't pump enough, cried that I had to leave him, and was supremely jealous of every minute my sitter/friend got to spend with him that I couldn't. But he was fine. He survived on what milk I could pump, and we supplemented with formula. My sitter was convinced that he needed to start eating solid foods so she was feeding him cereal & probably more than she told me, the way he reacts to food. But now I quit my job YEAH!! to work at home and he's back to bf mostly. I did need to give him a bottle once in a while, while my milk came back - thank goodness that didn't take long. And he eats dinner with us - I think he just loves the social aspect of it. I puree a little of whatever goodies would be appropriate for him and give him a couple of tablespoons of dinner - he's always wanted to be at the table while we ate, even before he ever tasted food.

Don't stress - you obviously love her so it'll work out. As to preferring bottle to breast, well my advice is to use a SLOW nipple - less comes out so they don't get used to chugging down their milk and don't learn to be impatient at the breast.

 

My oldest got awful nipple confusion and would refuse the breast for days. It took us months to get her back to the breast full time. ONE bottle can do the damage. Spring is MONTHS away. I tell my clients to either wait until about 7-10 days before they have to go back to work, then try a bottle (I like the Avent) once in a while, then NEVER give a bottle unless you are at work or school. No "getting the baby used to it." If you are home, nurse. There is really NO reason to mess up your supply and her bliss by starting a bottle now.

The milk can also be given with a tiny cup, like a medicine cup or a shot glass, especially if the baby is young. Bear (my dh) gave my youngest a shot glass of milk when I would go see clients when she was only 2 months old. I have fed premies with cup. You place the rim of the cup on the baby's lower lip, keep the baby upright, and keep the level even with the floor. The baby will drink it like a kitten. ALL babies can do this. It is a GREAT alternative to a bottle, especially if you are only going to be gone for one feeding once in a while. NONE of my kids had bottles except my first one. Cup feeding worked just fine, in the rare situation where I couldn't bring my baby (like to a Consultation, where I would need both hands and all my concentration on my client.) Just take her to the class, if you are worried, I took my babies everywhere. I NEVER asked, I just did it. No one ever asked me to remove the baby. I never ask to nurse, either, I just do it. I mean, do bottle feeders ask before they feed their babies? No.

Take her with you or have you man cup feed her.

 

Damn, I wish this were true. It's a nice thing to say, but far from the truth. In my profession, I see people who "love" thier babies and do "what they feel is right" all the time......and have to hire me to fix the damage. It doesn't always work out, just because one loves their baby, I wish it did. The best defense is a good offense. DON'T introduce a bottle unless it is a matter of life or death. I see nipple confusion as one of the MAIN reasons breastfeeding fails. If you absolutely NEED to go to this class, and there is ABSOLUTELY no way it can wait, then do it, but she will only be a tiny baby for a short period of time. Do everything SHE needs now.

Some mamas simply don't have a choice and HAVE to leave thier babies. Others can do it in a way which does work, but is harder on mom (like my insistance on only scheduling clients when my dh could be home to cup feed my baby, and not doing it often when she was little) every baby is different. Some do OK with the bottle, others refuse the breast immediately, others seem to do OK, and mama ends up with awful sore nipples days or weeks later because the baby is sucking on her like a bottle and that just won't work right (had a client like this about two weeks ago, kid was FINE until she introduced the bottle, then the baby chewed her up like a teething ring.) You won't know until you do it, MOST babies don't need bottles.....ever. Make sure you HAVE to do what you are doing BEFORE you do it. And have a plan in action in case things get rough.

As for saving the milk from an already drunk from bottle, you CAN do it. It should be used within about 12 hours or so, though. The antibodies in human milk are strong enough to kill any bacteria that is introduced through the nippple. You don't want to throw that milk away unless you have to. Formula you HAVE to throw away immediately if the baby sucks on the nipple and stops, but with human milk you have some time.

You milk, just pumped, is also good in the refrigerator for up to 8 days, good in the freezer for 6 months and good in the deep freezer for more than a year. When you freeze your milk, do it within 24 hours of pumping, thawed milk is good for only 24 hours, so have a backlog of frozen, but USE fresh pumped every day and save the stuff in the freezer for emergencies.

 

guess i was just lucky then - my boys all nursed fine. i do think that part of my success was/is attitude, not stressing helps me to clear my mind to think of solutions.

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child. ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

 

yeah, um...we tried giving her a bottle and she just yells at it. Or licks if, but definately doesn't try to eat from it. I'll try the cup thing, or just keep trying the bottle. I feel selfish for wanting to take this class, i guess I dont have to take it until the fall, but i just feel so cooped up lately and I really wanted to go....your right though, she won't be a baby forever. I know I couldn't take her with me because its ceramics and that wouldn't work. So, we'll see....

 

you're not selfish, you're just human. i know i'm gonna get flack for saying this, but you do need a break once in a while. it's just as important that you keep sane. IF you have someone you can count on to take care of the baby, then it's nice sometimes to be out and "off duty" for a while.

 

I found getting out WITH the baby alleviated a lot of my post partum stress. It can be hard, especially in the winter, with a tiny baby. Just going shopping (even if you don't buy anything) or taking you and the baby out to lunch (her lunch can never be forgotten or go bad, as you have your breasts with you all the time) or just getting out on a not too cold day for a walk.

Every mama is different, but I always had this incredible resentment of my babies AFTER I had been away for a few hours. If Bear and I, say went out to dinner, I would be fine, usually while we were gone (never more than an hour or two) and thought I was fine, but then the next day I was feeling really all "SHIT, why me, this kid cries all the time, I have no time to myself, I had a taste of my old life last night, now I am back in these diaper sodden trenches!" If I didn't get away, I NEVER felt resentful. But that is just me. Every mama is different.

Now that Sage is older, I do feel replenished when I get away, even if it is to workand see a client. I think that resentment after a break lasted about a year and half with each kid. I am not the only mama who felt this. Someone brought it up at a LLL meeting once and I was thinking "OMG, I am not crazy, I am NOT the only mama who feels this." I would say about 50% of the breastfeeding mamas feel this thing that I have talked to, and the others don't. Like I said, every mama is different.

Like I said, I need a lot of alone and to myself time, so getting "away" was NOT helpful for me, as it made my yearning for that alone time I used to have worse.

You'll have to work out what works best for you and how you and your baby feel and act after a short separation. Every baby is different, too. Some kid are just fine, some take days to get back to themselves after mama has been away. One of my babies would SCREAM if I left the room, it was hell for her if I was even gone an hour, so I didn't do it until she could tolerate it. (she is now the most independent 16 year old I know.) Every baby is differnent, too, and the baby's needs need to be taken into consideration, too.