When to Introduce a Bottle and How Often

Hey C.,
My heart goes out to you. I had to go back to work when my daughter was 3 months old. I had been giving her a bottle a couple of times a week to give myself a break. I would suggest trying to see if she will take formula every once in a while for emergencies. Don't worry too much about all of the "rules." Your body will adjust to what you need to do. Pump when you can at work and let the baby nurse as often as possible while you are home. If you don't produce enough, one bottle of formula a day is not a sin. I had to finally realize that I was still a good mom if she had a little formula. Good luck, enjoy breastfeeding and don't worry too much about the details. It will all work out!!

Hi C.,
If I could do it all over again I would have given my son one bottle a day of breast milk. Intially I let him try a bottle every once in a while and he did great until around 4 months. At 4months old he completely rejected the bottle. I even tried diff. types of bottles. He knew the difference between breast and bottle very early. He never accepted formula this late too.
Good luck and congrats:)

If she already took the bottle with no problem, I would just do one a week. It would be different if she didn't like it and you needed to try and get her used to it. Good luck!

Get started ASAP! Try doing a bottle once every other day. My daughter is over 4 months, and she stopped taking the breast, even though I only gave her one bottle a day since 2 weeks. She just one day started screaming at me. Anyway, I bought these new bottles, but they seem like they'd work GREAT for BF moms, b/c the nipple is most like you. Sassy MAM ultivent bottles. You can get them at Walmart (not here in Austin, but site-to-store) and at some HEBs :)

I think it just depends on the child. I was at home for 3 months with my daughter and breastfeed her for 15 months because she would never take formula. She also would never take a bottle from me, but I didn't have a problem when leaving her with the babysitter for my 12 hour shift job that I worked 3 days a week. I did find that she preferred the Playtex nursers over other brands. If you daughter will take a bottle from you now, I think you are on the right track.

I agree with Nickie. I would give her a bottle every day at least. She is most likely going to like nursing no matter what but taking the bottle could be a problem. I know some babies have no problem going back and forth, but my little girl (5 months) will not take one and it's very frustrating. I have tried everything. She took bottles of pumped breast milk from Dad or Grandma in the beginning but we stopped for a few weeks because breastfeeding got so good and easy and she never has been able to take a bottle easily again. I have had friends with this issue to and I've read a lot about it. So I would say every day. You don't have to go crazy pumping, just pump when someone is giving her the bottle to keep up your supply. Just my opinion. I am sure you'l get lots of good advice : ) Have fun with your baby girl!

Congrats on your baby girl!!! My hubby is at home w/ our now 2 yr old son & I started pumping about 3 weeks before returning to work full time & stored the milk in freezer bags. I would get up at 5/5:30 to nurse, pump 2X at work, then be ready to nurse when I got home. MOST of the time that was the schedule, but my hubby would use my milk from the previous day that I pumped for that day & any extra he would use the frozen milk. I didn't quite produce enough as he started getting older, so we supplemented w/ formula, but I nursed for 13 months. I too would encourage someone other than yourself feeding your sweet girl so she gets used to someone else feeding her, but knows only mama has the breast :) It's a 2-fold deal-you get a 'break' & your baby gets used to being fed by someone else. I would do the bottle at least once a day since she'll need to eat at least once a day while your gone. Start w/ the level 1 flow - it's slower & she'll have to work to get the milk out just like at the breast. Because I wanted to nurse as long as I could, I used the slow flow bottle nipples (we used Avent) until about 6 or 8 months (I didn't follow the suggested time frame to upgrade to faster flows purposefully-so he wouldn't get used to not having to work to get milk & prefer the bottle over breast). By around 9/10 months, I was pumping exclusively & putting it in bottles b/c he wouldn't sit still long enough to nurse, but he still got the best milk!! Hope this helps!! Good luck & enjoy your baby girl!!!

C.,

I'm sorry to jump in since I'm not a working mom or consultant but I did encounter one thing that you might come across. I noticed you said your daughter gulped down 3 oz and then wanted more. Babies are pros at getting more out your breast than a pump will so there is no way to judge how much she is really getting. I came across this when I had to move to using a bottle for medical reasons. I was shocked as to how much she really ate. She was eating 4 oz bottles by the time she was 3 weeks for me so my advice is to make sure you leave a little extra at home so she's is able to get full. You probably already figured this out. I was told not to limit her to how much the charts say she "should" be eating according to her weight. When she's hungry she was hungry and that was it.

Good luck to you!

The 1 bottle a day suggestion would probably work best. I think that's what I did and then the last couple of weeks before I went back to work, I added in a 2nd and then 3rd bottle and made sure all of her bottles were given to her at the time of day she would be getting her bottle while I was at work. And then a few weeks after I went back to work when my daughter was used to the bottle during the week, I dropped the bottles on the weekend and went back to nursing on demand to help keep my supply up (and for the extra cuddle time I missed during the week). Good luck on keeping it up when you return to work - it's tough be definitely well worth it!

First, way to go! You have really gotten to a good point in your breast feeding regime, and you will probably be fine no matter how you decide to do it. When I went back to work with my oldest, we started giving a couple bottles in the middle of the day to get her used to it. She never had any trouble going back and forth from breast to bottle, so it was more an issue of getting her used to the idea someone else would be feeding her in the daytime. I returned to work when she was 8 weeks old and we started getting her used to a bottle at about week 6, so you are on the right track. Good luck!

I don't know what your work situation is going to be, but I'll tell you what worked for us. I was lucky enough to be working nights when I went back to work, also at 12 weeks, so my daughter slept through most of my shift - I was working part-time, 7:30 to midnight, so I could nurse her before work, and then got home in time for the 2am feeding. I knew that she would need at least one bottle while I was gone, though, and at about the same time every night. It was helpful to us for my husband to start giving her that bottle every day even when I was home, because children get into routines so easily, even at that young. Claire just got used to the bedtime feeding being a bottle from her daddy. (It helped that he sat in the same chair I was fond of while nursing - I can only imagine she thought it was the "eating chair.") I know you won't want to have your husband give your daughter all her daily bottles, but pick one you KNOW he'll have to give her every day (I notice you said you'd be working part-time). Also, it helped us for me to not be in the room when hubby was feeding the little one; she knows where the good stuff is.

I don't know about anyone else, but my daughter had no problem with a bottle even after several weeks w/o having one at all. She did come to a point (a few days really) when she refused to eat at all while I was working and would wait until I came home at night (particularly worrisome b/c it meant that she was going about 14 hrs but like I said it was only a couple of days) and it didn't have anything to do w/ the bottle. In my experience bottle feeding wasn't something that had to be maintained regularly while I was able to be home with her. And BTW I also went back when mine was about 3 mos old.

Hi C.. I think it depends on the baby. I have two children. I nursed my son for 14 mos and I am still nursing my now 14 month old daughter. Both gave up the bottle at about 4 months of age. They learned to hate it! My husband was only giving them a bottle about once a week when that happend. I think one every day would have kept them going. It is very stressful when they won't take a bottle and you need them to. They both eventually took one again (after a lot of stress, practice and wasted milk). So, even if your baby girl decides she wants nothing to do with it when you go back to work, she'll pick it up again before starving herself. :) It will just create a lot of stress for you! Good luck!

I agree..way to go on your regime with the breast and the bottle. I didn't go back to work as I worked from home, but I introduced a bottle a little earlier than 4weeks. However, it took awhile for her to adjust. But after 4.5 weeks it was fine. When my husband got home from work, I would have a breast & formula bottle ready (mix the formula w/my breast milk) and he would feed her before we put her down for bed. I let him have that time with her alone so they could try and bond too. This also allowed me to catch up on sleep, etc. Even during the night he got up and would feed her with a bottle, however that only happpened a handful of times but it was usually around 10 or 11pm. She took just fine and with what you're doing now, I think your little one will be fine too! You will still bond and don't feel stressed if it takes some time. And, I think you need to what feels right and what is right for you and your baby-not what other moms say. I added my milk to formula because I knew she wasn't getting enough from me and when I pumped I didn't get that much out either. I nursed for a year but I think after 6mo it was more for comfort than nutritional purposes. Forumla is just fine so again, don't get stressed or feel you need to be exclusive w/breast milk because the main goal is to nourish and feed your child! Good luck!