Ready to wean baby from the breast or add bottles to the feeding schedule? Here’s how to make it smooth for both of you.
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You enjoy breastfeeding, but you have also started dreaming about sleeping through the night again. Or going back to work. Maybe both.
That means one thing: It’s probably time to give your child her first baby bottle. Maybe the bottle will contain breast milk, or maybe you’ll be switching over to baby formula. Either way, you’ll need to wean your little one from breast-only feeding to taking a baby bottle -- a transition that is not always easy but does not have to be difficult.
To help you make that change, we asked pediatricians and parents on parenting message boards for their tips on easing the transition from breast to bottle feeding. Here’s what they had to say.
Bottle Feeding: The Key to the Transition
Weaning my baby to a bottle was easy as pie, says one parent.Getting the baby to take a bottle was a nightmare, says another. Most parents’ experience is probably somewhere in the middle.
“It’s true that weaning your baby to a bottle can be difficult,” says Laura Jana, MD, pediatrician and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality. “But I also like to start by pointing out that it isn't always.”
The key to making a smooth transition from breast to bottle feeding is to start early, but not too early..
When Should You Introduce Your Baby to Bottles?
Because every baby and situation is different, the answer is that there really is no standard time.
But there is a good rule of thumb: Introduce babies to the bottle when they are “fairly good at breastfeeding but not so used to it that they won’t do anything else,” says pediatrician Jennifer Shu, MD, co-author, with Jana, of Heading Home With Your Newborn, and Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed with Insight, Humor, and a Bottle of Ketchup.
Most babies are well adapted to breastfeeding in the first two to six weeks, Shu says. You’ll know breastfeeding is established when baby begins putting on weight, and can latch on easily to your nipple and feed until they’re done.
Why wait until baby is good at breastfeeding if you’re trying to introduce bottles? Because many moms “combination feed“ -- offering the breast perhaps first thing in the morning and last thing at night, with bottles of breast milk or baby formula the rest of the day.
Bottle Feeding: Deciding When Baby -- and Mom -- Are Ready
Not every baby is ready to make the transition to bottles by six weeks, so let baby tell you when the time is right. Like other milestones, such as walking and talking, your baby is the one to set the pace and tell you when she’s ready.
Two signs that your infant is ready to transition to a baby bottle:
- She sucks on your breast a few times and then stops nursing.
- Baby just starts losing interest in your breast.
Babies aren’t in this weaning thing alone, of course -- mom is also a big part of the picture. Sometimes a baby is ready to transition to the bottle, but mom isn’t so sure.
“It was so easy [weaning him to the bottle], I felt a little bad!” says Natalie, mom to Quentin, on the parenting boards. “I had hoped he'd put up a little fuss, wanting mommy more, but nope! He took it right away.”
It’s natural to be a little sad when you begin to breastfeed baby less, say the experts, but it can be a freeing time as well, with both you and your child becoming more independent. Each mom and baby must handle the transition in their own way.
“[Breastfeeding] was a very special bonding time,” says AllieGirl77, mother to Sarah Elizabeth. “I still hold her to me skin-to-skin from time to time just to bond and have her feel that comfort.”
Introducing Bottles: How to Wean Your Baby From Breastfeeding Only
Once you’re ready to supplement breastfeeding with bottle feeding or to wean your baby from the breast completely, parents and pediatricians all recommend taking it slow. Weaning baby gradually is best for her and for you.
You can start by dropping a feeding every five to seven days. “Try the bottle at the breastfeeding baby is least attached to,” suggests Shu. This not only keeps stress low, but “helps mom reduce her breast milk flow" -- stemming its production gradually to avoid uncomfortable breast engorgement.
“I highly recommend having Daddy give the bottles,” says mom Courtney, who weaned her daughter to the bottle at four weeks. “While introducing the first few bottles, Mommy should not be in the room, sometimes not even in the house! Babies are smart; why would they take a bottle when the source of the good stuff is right there?”
Getting fathers involved also gives them a new bonding time with baby. But what if you need to wean baby immediately and can’t take days and weeks to make the transition?
“Put breast milk in the bottle and make sure someone else besides mom feeds the baby,” Shu tells “Once the baby is hungry enough, he or she will take the bottle.”
To help relieve the engorgement of mom’s breasts, Shu says “cabbage leaves are one thing that people swear by.” Try slipping a cold leaf into each bra cup and leaving them on until they wilt. You can also try “cold packs, cool compresses, or a damp washcloth,” says Shu.
Expressing a little milk out of your breasts -- just enough to provide relief -- can also help with engorgement. But don’t pump or express too much or you’ll run the risk of keeping breast milk production going.
Bottle Feeding: What to Expect During the Transition
Once you begin the move to bottle feeding, how much breast milk or formula will baby need?
If your baby is a newborn, start with two or three ounces in a four-ounce bottle. For an older baby, one rule of thumb is to divide her weight by two and give her that many ounces of infant formula or breast milk per feeding. For example, if baby is 10 pounds, offer her five ounces at each feeding.
Don’t be concerned about feeding baby as much as she wants, but don’t force her to finish a baby bottle either. You’ll know baby’s getting plenty to eat when she is relaxed after eating and continues to gain weight.
Because infant formula takes longer to digest than breast milk, you may notice some changes during the transition to bottle-feeding. These include:
- Feeding frequency. Babies drinking infant formula may feed less often than breast-feeding babies, or they may go longer between feedings.
- Sleep. After they’re about two months old, bottle-fed babies may sleep longer at night, though breast-fed babies catch up at about 3 to 5 months.
- Bowel movements. Baby’s poop may change when she switches to baby formula from loose, yellow, and less odorous to darker, smellier stools.
Common Bottle Feeding Problems
“I waited until she was 3 weeks old to introduce [the bottle] for fear of nipple confusion. There was no confusion at all -- she wanted the breast and nothing else!” Jamie writes of her experience with the transition on the message boards.
Although this mom eventually solved her problem with ingenuity -- getting baby to accept a bottle while in a swing -- your solution may differ. Every parent making the transition from breastfeeding to bottle needs patience.
Waiting too long to introduce the bottle was definitely “one mistake we made,” says Morgan Griffin, Massachusetts writer and dad to Alice and Ada. With Griffin’s wife returning to work and 11-month-old Alice still not adapted to the bottle, “it was a couple of harrowing weeks. But we stuck with it, tried not to freak out, assumed she wouldn't starve, and she came around.”
Griffin’s main piece of advice is echoed by moms and dads on parenting board: Stay calm and keep trying. If baby won’t take one bottle, try a different brand or a different nipple. Try a nipple with a slower or faster flow. Or change baby formulas.
Sometimes, babies won’t take a bottle from their mothers because of the strong association between mom’s smell and the expectation of breastfeeding -- but they’ll take a bottle from dad or someone else. “I often suggest [trying] this if a baby is having bottle trouble,”
When you’re ready to make the move to baby bottles, these tips may help:
- Introduce the bottle before you need to. If you know you’re going back to work when baby is 6 weeks old, for example, try to bring in the bottle several weeks before, so you can deal with any challenges.
- Don’t introduce two things at once when you’re weaning baby. Put breast milk in the bottle at first, so she’s only getting used to the bottle -- not to the bottle and infant formula. One thing at a time!
- Angle the bottle somewhat up (not horizontally) when you feed baby to make sure she is getting only milk or formula, not air.
- Skip the bottle and go straight to a sippy cup if baby is 6-12 months old.
- Don’t try weaning baby during stressful times. If you’re moving, baby’s cutting a tooth, or you’re going to back to work tomorrow, hold off for a while.
- Defrost a bottle of frozen breast milk about 30 minutes before baby’s waiting in the wings, wailing to be fed.
- Offer your baby a bottle before breastfeeding. Some babies will take it, though others may need to nurse first.
- Bring bottles to a lukewarm temperature for baby, but don’t heat them in the microwave. Microwaves heat liquids unevenly, creating hot spots that can burn your baby’s mouth. To heat baby’s bottle, hold it under a warm running tap, or boil a cup of water in the microwave and then put the bottle into the cup for a minute or two. Always test liquids on your wrist before giving them to baby.
- Sterilize a new bottle or nipple in boiling water for about five minutes. Because tap water is more reliably clean than it used to be, you don’t need to sterilize these items after the first time.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that breastfed babies receive a vitamin D supplement: specifically, 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day.
Above all, hold and cuddle baby when you’re giving her a bottle just as much as you would if you were breastfeeding. You’ll make the transition much easier for both of you!
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