Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

My DS is 4 weeks now and BF is well established, so we want to start a bottle as well so he will take one. My question is how often should I give him one so he doesn't forget how to take one? Once a day? Every few days?
We really only bottle feed when I have to be out running errands or on a date with DH or something. And obviously its more work to pump, but I want to make sure he will take one. TIA!
The bottles I have are Born Free, Playtex drop in & medela. Any experience with any of them? My DS #1 never took a bottle well, so I am trying to do this right this time!

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

We use drop ins. DD started taking a pumped bottle once every few days when I was getting ready to go back to work. I was prepared for issues but she did great.

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

We started DS on a bottle at about 5 weeks. He took a Medela one, no problem - it was the first one we tried. My only advice is to be consistent and give it to the baby on a regular basis. To be honest, I would get in the habit of doing it every day because it's so easy to get lazy with it. We thought he was fine with it and didn't keep it up. Now at 5 1/2 months I really want to go out and he won't take it.

You might also want to try to give the baby formula just to make sure he'll take it. Takes the pressure off of having to pump if you want to go out on the spur of the moment or if there's an emergency.

Good luck!

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

I can't remember, but I think that we started giving ds a bottle once a day at about 5w as well. I would feed him at about 7pm or 8pm (depending on when he was hungry) & would then go to bed. My dh would stay up & then feed him w/the bottle for his next feeding & I'd have a chance to get about 4 or 5 hours of solid sleep. We did this until I went back to work after 10w - I wasn't pumping enough a day to cover that extra nighttime bottle + the daily bottles, so we dropped that nighttime bottle when I did & I just bf him myself.

In desperation, we introduced the bottle & a pacifier in the same week and were fortunate enough to not have any probs with the bottle or the breast. We started with the Medela bottles & he took right to them, but we eventually switched to Dr. Brown's in an effort to reduce his gas (it helped a lot). HTH

Message edited 1/18/2010 8:30:11 AM.

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

HOnestly, I gave him a bottle every few days.. or weeks.. LOL.. around 2 months. He didn't like them at first.. but, he got used to them. (as long as I wasn't the one feeding him). It wasn't a big struggle to give it to him. He takes them everyday at daycare now and doesn't have an issue at all.

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

I started a bottle after a wk b/c she wasnt latching but now at 8 wks she takes both with no problem. I have all three bottles and she doesn't prefer one over the other. Just have DH or other family member bottle feed her first. Sometime BF babies won't take the bottle from their mommies b/c they want breast.

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

Re: Questions about starting a bottle in a BF baby

We started ds on a bottle once a week at 3 weeks. He had no issues taking it at all. We used Playtex dropins.
Now with dd I have been bad/lazy. She is 4 months old and still has not had a bottle. I pump every morning so I have over 300oz of milk and have no idea if she will drink it.