When to Introduce Bottle to Breastfed Baby Uk

A few months ago I received a call from a confused mum; her baby was 3 months one-time, breastfed, and that night he had refused his daily bottle.  Mum couldn't understand why, after all they had given a bottle one time per twenty-four hours since week 2 every bit advised to "go him used to it".  He had always taken it without a problem why now should he refuse?

I get asked when should parents introduce a bottle a lot, and like the mum above many are told early on introduction equals success, and conversely if the bottle isn't introduced early so baby is probable to refuse or struggle with technique.

What'southward the deal?

Firstly expressing:

In the early days of breastfeeding (in one case milk has "come in") your body is trying to establish how much milk your infant needs and thus how much to produce.  Information technology does this based on what is removed, and then if y'all feed infant and and so express, your breasts will replace a feed plus more to supersede the amount expressed.

Mums often plan to express so dad tin give a feed and allow a longer stretch of slumber, but in the early days this often proves rather impractical as missing a feed results in overfull, painful breasts - significant mum ends upwardly pumping over again whilst dad gives the bottle.

Some mums deliberately choose to cultivate an oversupply early on, usually if they want to build a stockpile for some reason ie they want to feed infant at present, plus add a regular corporeality to the freezer.  Otherwise an oversupply can exist problematic, leading to engorged painful breasts between feeds, faster flowing milk and increased leaking (as an example at the extreme finish of the scale, one mum I worked with had to sleep with a super absorptive nappy taped over each breast at night).

Bottles:

I've spoken to and then many mums over the years who have diligently given a bottle every twenty-four hour period, or every week from a immature age to ensure infant would be used to taking it.

This doesn't still account for the fact babies accept personalities.

Some will have that daily/weekly bottle fine until ane twenty-four hours they decide out of the blue that they don't want it thank you; others will go along to take a bottle just fine.  Some will refuse a bottle in the early days, then one mean solar day decide actually OK they volition beverage from it.  Others that aren't offered a bottle when young will take it just fine when offered at any historic period.   The aforementioned can also happen to a baby fed exclusively from the bottle.  I've worked with mums struggling to get the necessary amount of formula or expressed milk into babe because they fuss or refuse the bottle, take hours to consume small amounts or leak, splutter and gulp.

Introducing a canteen and finding baby takes it, really only tells you they volition do so at that point in time.  It is no indicator of how baby will reply at whatsoever point in the future.

Information technology seems a standard expectation (particularly with beginning babies) that mum will of form express and bottle feed at some point, imagine not being able to leave infant!  Some mums have no alternative but to do so if they need to work or be separated.  On the flipside if you don't need to, it'south also OK if you don't desire to, mums oft tell u.s.a. that the expectation she will want time away, is greater than her desire to really do so.

Babies naturally settle into a more than predictable pattern of feeding, and so some mums find it'south easier to work things in and effectually this rather than expressing.  From around 4 months some soft spouted cups are suitable if you don't need bottles on a regular ground, and things like a doidy loving cup can exist used fifty-fifty earlier.

Nipple confusion, real or not?

This really depends on who y'all inquire!  In my feel the biggest risk in terms of bottles is if a baby hasn't completely mastered the breast and/or has reduced milk transfer, the period from a canteen tin crusade some to quickly show preference to the easiest milk source, causing them to fuss earlier and earlier into breastfeeds (although every bit the chest isn't just nutrient, they will oft be happy to return to information technology afterwards).  Others in this situation will refuse a canteen outright too, just ultimately the key is resolving the initial problem, the canteen is a symptom.

Although more and more than bottles are claiming to be "similar the breast", realistically to infant they are still poles apart.  No bottle can evangelize the smell, sounds and scents of mum (think Heston Blumenthal style dining). None are made of the same substance every bit nipples or let down in milk ejections equally the breast does.

This tin crusade some to become impatient waiting for the breast to "letdown", which is why mums are ofttimes advised to utilize the slowest flow teat and encourage sucking without milk beforehand, with regular pauses during the feed.

For an babe refining his breastfeeding technique, I like an analogy Lisa at Everyday Miracle uses.  Imagine you are just learning to use a knife and fork, but at some feeds these are swapped for chopsticks - something that requires a totally different activity and technique.

The added difference however is that the bottle requires far less effort than the breast, and the babe may endeavour out techniques that work on the bottle when at the chest:

"When bottle feeding occurs, just the buccinator muscles and the orbicular muscle(southward) of the mouth are exerted without stimulating other muscles. They concluded sucking only during breastfeeding promotes correct muscle activity, and thus proper development of the oral motor structures" (1)

Information technology's important to note nevertheless....

That giving a bottle doesn't hateful infant wont exist able to breastfeed effectively again.  I get asked quite ofttimes whether its worth persisting with breastfeeding if babe has had a bottle, could learning this wrong action permanently hinder skills at the breast and be the cause of their problems?

Dig a little deeper nevertheless and a lot of mums experiencing issues now, who introduced a canteen in the early weeks when trying to institute feeding, did then because they were experiencing a problem; pain, baby that wouldn't leave the breast and settle, dull weight gain - whatever.  So we always accept to question what came first, the chicken or the egg?

Fifty-fifty after a canteen baby can yet refine, improve and develop their technique at the breast. Conversely some mums never demand or want to utilize one and that's fine likewise :)

1) The relationship of bottle feeding and other sucking behaviors with speech disorder in Patagonian preschoolers BMC Pediatrics 2009, nine:66 doi:10.1186/1471-2431-ix-66

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Source: http://www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2013/08/when-to-introduce-bottle-to-breastfed.html