Introducing a Bottle to Your Breastfed Baby: 5 Top Tips
If you are planning to transition your breastfed baby to bottle feeding or are wanting to offer your baby a combination of both breast and bottle feeding, it’s ideal to introduce a bottle to your baby sometime between 6-10 weeks after they are born. This timeframe offers a window of opportunity where breastfeeding is usually well established, and your baby is less likely to refuse feeding from a bottle - which can be unexpected yet common amongst older babies.
Rest assured, if your baby is older than 10 weeks, you can still introduce bottle feeding with success. For some babies, it may just take a little practice and patience.
Regardless of your baby’s age when you choose to introduce bottles, there are strategies you can implement to help keep it a positive experience for the whole family.
Here are 5 helpful tips for introducing bottles to a breastfed baby:
#1. Begin with a slow flow teat
Most breastfed babies are used to a slower flow of milk than the steady flow that easily comes from a bottle. The slower flow of milk from the breast is just the way Mother Nature intended - allowing for comfortable digestion for a small tummy and an immature digestive system.
Using a slow flow or ‘newborn’ sized teat (even if your baby is no longer a newborn) encourages stimulation of the orofacial muscles used to breastfeed. This can make it easier when transitioning from exclusive breastfeeding to bottle feeding, or to switch between the two methods of feeding.
#2. Choose an optimal teat shape
Bottle teats are available in a wide range of shapes and sizes. Choosing a bottle teat with a gradually sloped design encourages your baby to open their mouth wide and latch deeply.
If you use a bottle teat that has a dramatic change in shape from a narrow tip to wide base, your baby is more likely to suck only from the tip of the teat. This results in poor mouth posture and a shallow latch.
When your baby breastfeeds, they attach to the breast with a wide mouth and deep latch. This is not only important for comfort and effective milk removal, but also for optimal oral development.
#3. Start with small volumes
Initially offering your baby just a small amount of milk from a bottle helps take the pressure off everybody to feel a bottle feed was ‘successful’ or not. You might like to try offering 20ml of milk in a bottle either before or after a breastfeed. Offering the bottle in conjunction with a breastfeed provides your baby with a sense of safety and security from being close to their primary caregiver.
Once your baby begins to accept small volumes from a bottle, you can increase the amount of milk offered and have other caregivers practice giving your baby a bottle feed.
#4. Expect it to take some time
Some breastfed babies take to bottle feeding straight away, while others take a little more time to become accustomed to the differences between breastfeeding and bottle feeding.
Remember that introducing your breastfed baby to a bottle is teaching them a new skill they have not yet learned- and mastering any new skill can take time.
It is ideal to practice bottle feeding daily but can be useful to set a time limit for 5-10 minutes for each bottle feed (regardless of how much milk you baby takes). This helps prevent you or your baby becoming frustrated and keeps the whole experience positive.
#5. Seek professional help
If your baby has been refusing bottles for an extended period, you have implemented the above steps and your breastfed baby is still not accepting a bottle, seek professional help.
An infant feeding specialist such as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) will be able to assess your baby’s oral anatomy and feeding patterns to devise a plan to suit your child’s needs.
Written by Emily Brittingham, IBCLC
Melbourne Lactation Consulting
