going back to school- bottle & paci advice?

[JenMidwife]

I'll be going back to school part time when Erin's 3 weeks old (timing sucks). We are blessed that she sleeps well @ night, but not much during the day & is perpetually attached to my boob. She's a great BF-er, so I'm not too concerned about nipple confusion, etc. I started pumping a couple days ago & so far that's going well.

But any experimenting we've done w/ her has not gone well... totally refuses anything but the boob & occasionally DH's pinky.

Help! Any advice?

[Azreial]

I've done this a couple of times.
1. have someone other than you give the bottle (I'm assuming you're already doing this)
2. do not be anywhere nearby when baby is getting the bottle
3. try warming the bottle nipple by running under warm water
4. patience patience patience
5. possibly try a diffrent bottle/nipple. We've had good luck with avent and dr browns; horrible luck with playtex. Stick with a slow flow though.

good luck. We're bottle and breastfeeding here, if you have nay questions you can pm me and I'll do what I can to help. Also with dd she started a bottle around 4wks and we had a bit of trouble too

[peilover010202]

We've been using the Playtex Ventaire with GREAT success. We started at 2.5 weeks with ds and dh gives the bottle while I'm asleep. No nipple confusion here and ds took to the bottle easily with dh.

I agree with Azreial, stay as far away from the bottle as possible - maybe even leave for 1/2 hour.

We use a slow flow nipple too.

GL!

[mamamilkers]

Also try having DH hold her in a different position than the one she BFs in. That helped us quite a bit.

Good luck!

[Azreial]

totally OT but every time I see your name mamamilkers I think it says mamakillers :

[Sailmom]

All of the previous suggestions are good ones. You could also try cup feeding. Also - once you get her taking the bottle, keep it at the slow rate nipple (the 0-3 month one) forever. You don't want her to like the faster rate and refuse the breast! With my dd we started with the bottle of EBM at 2 weeks exactly, DH gave it, and I went for a walk. She took to it like a champ. I started with a paci a little earlier - like 10 days. It was 10:00 pm one night - my dh had made a really nice dinner (the first one since her birth) and everytime we sat down to eat, she would cry for the boob. So I tried a paci and we never had a problem with bfing. She had her paci for comfort when the breast wasn't available. As I had to go back to work when she was 12 weeks old, I think it was a life saver for us. I think the key for bottles and pacis is to start early, but not TOO early. Good luck! I know this is heart breaking for you! But I managed to go back to work full time, and pump for dd. She never had formula, and she is still nursing at 2 years old. YOU CAN DO IT!

[mamamilkers]

Originally Posted by Azreial

totally OT but every time I see your name mamamilkers I think it says mamakillers :

Oh my goodness! That's unfortunate

[2 in August]

There was a thread in breastfeeding challenges about good bottles for bf babies. There was one called second nature ( i think) that was supposed to be very similar to breast feeding. There were other recommendations too. With dd we bf and supplemented, Avent worked the best for us and I never moved her past the slow flow nipple either.

[JenMidwife]

Great stuff! Thanks for the advice everyone... & thanks for no flames!

We got her to take a little from the bottle last night while she was calm... when she's hungry & screaming may be a different matter. So far, not much luck w/ the paci...

[JenMidwife]

SUCCESS!!! Thanks again for the advice everyone... persistence was the best advice