Bottle or Not?

Based on Poonam's other thread, which had a query on bottling, am reviving the discussion here.

Poonam, Rekha,
Even I keep thinking about bottles often... Just in the same way as Rekha had mentioned. For my elder DD, I decided I would never bottle her, but later fell terribly sick, hositalised and mom was struggling to get her into bottles. After 2days of crying, DD accepted bottles. But now, I think, I have already 3months, some 3more months, I can introduce sippy, why bottling then? In the other thread in Toddlers forum on sippy cups, Vanathi has reassured that we have a strong culture of bottling,which makes us think that way.

Only the below point keeps me away from bottling,
After 6months, I wud introduce sippy cups and practise drinking my expressed milk too with it, say weekly once or twice. Whenever I have to be away from LO, like DD falling sick, i got to attend to her etc, LO can take my milk thru sippy cups or spoons. Otherwise I dont really have the need of bottles. Not going to work. Which means, I wont be away from LO on daily basis. So I have concluded that bottling is a bad idea.
I do still think what if something happens in these 3months, but I keep my fingers crossed!!!

Others, who have not started bottling, and thinking about bottling, please share your thoughts.:cheers

 

Great shock for me..
Is it real? Kids avoiding bottles and asking for B's?? My bad.. am planning to join back to work when Rithik is around 2.5months old.. Right now he is on bottles but it is my milk.. I have not started to put him on my B also.. dh insisting me to do that atleast once in a day.. somehow due to more work i couldnt do that.. i sleep from 6.30am till 1pm and need to refresh and rithiks 3.30pm feed will be up so my dad will feed him... then 6.30pm i feed thru bottles becoz he takes bath around 6pm and immediatedly he will cry a lot for milk so no time to take him to B and practice and all.. like this time runs.. then slowly 9.30pm feed dh likes to do.. then 12.30 & 3.30am feeds i get tired and no B feeding and only bottles.. this is how my schedule is going

 

Anitha, you are lucky ;-) Sometimes I used to think it will be a good idea to introduce bottles as someone else can feed her ;-) Ramya is right, my DD also doesnt like bottles we are trying it once in a while. Yesterday my mom tried to feed her through bottle and she struggled with it. She is used to spoon, because I give her 7-8ml of medicine two times a day with spoon.

 

Anitha, the longer you wait the more likely it is that your child forgets how to suckle from a breast. Exclusive pumping, mommies who have done this here will attest, can be very tiring. It is great you have family to help you with the feeding, Choose a session you know he is not going to be very hungry - perhaps immediately before he goes to sleep, it is ok if it is an hour or so after he has been bottle fed and try latching on.
Rekha, have you tried Dr Brown's level 1 wideneck teats and fully vented bottles. A lot of mothers who want to return to work swear by it and this is the closest bottles come to breastfeeding.
Ramya, usually the advice it have someone other than mom feed the baby with the bottle/spoon. DS would flatly refuse to take preemie formula from me but will with DH. When he is really hungry too, he will crazily try to latch on when I was feeding formula. For whatever strange reason he would take the bottle from me when he was very young, but outright rejected bottle with everyone around 4 months - when I was ready to return to work ;-P

 

Ramya, I stopped writing between 4 months and 15 months - DS would not be separated from me at all and refused to feed from anything else till 8 months when he took to sippy cups. He would not take more than 1 oz from the bottle - so we ended up pumping not more than 3 oz and store it in 1 oz bottles and use only as top up for long till he took to sippy cups, then he would drink from the cup with some help. He also took bm in the place of water with meals.

 

Hi Ramya,

It is late in introducing bottles after three months. Once the baby gets to know of the bottle, he/she might stop BF completely. It is you who will be at loss. My baby threw a fuss when I changed from bottle to bowl and spoon initially, but I stuck to the same routine and DD complied. Now its a win win situation as I have lost nothing.
Bottles graduate to bowl and spoon/ sippy cup not vice versa. While BF is not the only tension, even getting a baby used to semi solids is another tension. Early weaning to the correct medium will save you a million headaches in the long run. I see a five year old having bottle in the hand, not a very pleasant sight, also that you mentioned that your baby thumb sucks so then bottle should not be the next addiction.