August 28, 2008 03:54 Published by Geraldine Miskin 0 Comments

It is that time of the day, you are knackered having been on the run since 5am and want to go to bed. Wouldn’t it be great if dad could give the little one a feed and you could just crawl into bed? Well there is nothing stopping you, so let’s talk bottles!

Many health professionals believe the nipple teat confusion to be rampant and whilst I have come across it in my practice, I do find it quite rare. There is a line of thought that if baby is younger than 2 weeks, has a real need for sucking and is able to attain that elsewhere, she will be reluctant to feed from the breast. However, once your baby is 3 weeks and breastfeeding is going well, there is no reason why you should not offer a bottle feed.

Some mums find offering a bottle in the early days a real life saver if breastfeeding is not going well and they are on the brink of throwing in the towel – so for this reason, I support mums in combination feeding if necessary before the baby is 3 weeks old.

I have found the Dr Browns bottles to be most compatible with breastfeeding, granting that baby is encouraged to feed with the lower lip on the wide neck of the teat and the top lip on the skinny bit of the teat. The Medela Swing pump is absolutely fantastic and a lot less fussy than other popular brands! If you want to offer expressed breast milk, express after the first and second feed of the day and offer that to baby at the 10pm feed. You will need to express your breast at the 10pm feed to start with to avoid engorgement and tenderness. Some mums express at 9pm and hop into bed which is fine too. You can gradually reduce the amount of milk you express at this time and your breasts will learn not to produce milk for this feed.

Offering a bottle does not signal the end of breastfeeding, thankfully our babies are a lot brighter than we give them credit for. Happy feeding!

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