Breast milk and the bottle?

Question

Is it okay to feed breast milk from the bottle? Because I'll have to go to work and my fiancee will be a stay at home dad, and I'd like to avoid nipple confusion. So would breast milk from the bottle be okay? And I'd like to never ever give my baby formula... So that being said, how soon after they are born can I pump? How soon after birth do babies need to eat?

Answer 1

I started the next day.  My son was in the NIC unit for a week so it was the only way I could "breast feed" him in the beginning.  Once we got home I did both because like you I was going to have to return to work and wanted to make sure there would be no problems with him using a bottle when I was not there and he did fine.  In the beginning I would pump after every feeding to drain my b*****s, freezing the excess, and eventually went straight to pumping.

Answer 2

you baby will want to nurse son after birth, at that point its colostrum, not milk. Colostrum is very important, it helps to clear the meconium from the babies bowels, it boosts the babies immune system, and it is all the food your baby needs in the first few days of life. When your milk comes in your baby will want to eat every few hours for the first few weeks, and then  you will settle into a routine. I have always fed my babies on demand. Most lactation consultants recommend waiting until 6 weeks to introcude a bottle to avoid nipple confusion.  You can start to pump before then, but I would wait until 2-3 weeks, once you are past the worst of the engorgement and sore nipple stage!

Its great that you are so committed to giving the best to your baby, and that you have a partner who is caring enough to be a stay at home daddy! Good luck!

Answer 3

Its best not to offer a bottle until 4-8 weeks, if ever.  Just because you aren't home doesn't mean breastmilk has to be given in a bottle.  Most of the world doesn't know what baby bottles are and they manage.  The paladai is actually one of the best ways to feed both breastfed and premature infants.  It won't cause nipple confusion, won't cause ear infections, won't cause jaw and tooth problems, won't cause stress during feeding, etc.

Babies should be offered the breast immediately after birth, most will nurse within 2 hours.  They should not be disturbed until they do, and this means no baths, no weighing, no shots, no eye drops, N O T H I N G except being lightly dried most on the back and legs and left on moms naked chest.

Pumping & Bottle Feeding

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/index...

Breastfeeding—Starting Out Right

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/01startin...

Information is Your Ally in preparing to breastfeed:

10 Tips for Success

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/start/prepare...

Answer 4

Babies should be (ideally) put on the breast within an hour or so of being born.  This helps to encourage the milk to come in, and gets the baby the colostrum (a very rich immunity boosting yellowish milk), also called "liquid gold".

It's better to wait a few weeks to get breastfeeding well established before introducing a foreign nipple.  If you can't wait, you'll just have to do what you have to and hope for the best.  

Absolutely it's okay to feed breastmilk from a bottle!  In fact, it's the second best way of feeding a child.  Your breastmilk is better for the child than anything else.

If you're going to work full-time, you're going to need a good pump.  The Medela Pump In Style (PIS) gets rave reviews from everyone, and it's the one my sister used to work full-time and feed her TWINS breastmilk (not a drop of formula).  

You can pump as soon as your milk comes in, which is usually a few days after the birth.  Before that, it's still colostrum, and your baby needs that NOW, and it's present in such small amounts that trying to pump it would be fruitless.  You might get a couple of drops.

The best idea is to breastfeed and pump as much as you can before you have to go back to work and stockpile the milk in the freezer.  It can stay fresh in the freezer for months.

Once you go back to work, you need to pump as often as your baby would eat...every 2-4 hours. Once you know from your fiancee exactly how much your baby is drinking, you'll know how much you need to pump out. (Always try to pump a little extra...babies needs change and they go through growth spurts where they drink more).

Each night, take a few bottles out of the freezer to begin defrosting.  Heat them in a pan of warm water.  

Tell the fiancee to NEVER heat breastmilk in the microwave, it can cause hot spots and it also destroys the antibodies in it.  Also, don't boil it...again it destroys the antibodies.

Good luck, you can do it!  If my sister could work full time and feed the TWINS only breastmilk, I'm sure you can do it!

Answer 5

I know that many "doctors" have written that babies have nipple confusion-but on the real-the baby will be so happy to get the milk-they will not fuss and will drink from the bottle.

My suggestion to you though-is to feed the baby also with the bottle before you are to return to work. This gets the baby ready and relaxed even when Mommy gives a bottle and not her breast.

I have breastfed all 3 of my children (I have a 4 month old breastfeeding now) I also gave each of my children a pacifier, a bottle of breast-milk, and my breast withing 3-5 days of birth-and there have been no problems.

God Bless to you and the baby and I hope that all works well-just try it.

Also-be firm with the staff at the hospital that your baby will be strictly breastfed-(some will try to push formula on you-especially if the baby doesn't latch on immediately) And whomever will care for baby (of course Daddy knows) but others will assume.

Answer 6

That is what I am doing. I am pumping breast milk and giving it to my daughter in a bottle. The recovery rooms in the hospitals have a breast pump. So you can start pumping every 2 to 3 hours. You might not get any results soon. But be patient and keep pumping at that interval. That action will tell your b*****s to produce milk. It took me 3 days to produce milk. I had`to give formula for that time. But now my baby gets expressed breast milk only.

Answer 7

Of course you can give breastmilk from a bottle.  However, it's best for baby to nurse directly as much as possible.  So, assuming you will have some maternity leave, you would nurse directly at the breast until 1-2 weeks before you have to return to work. At that point you could introduce a bottle once a day, to get baby accustomed to it.  Once you are back at work, your fiance would bottle feed pumped milk as baby requires, and you would continue to nurse while at home.

Depending on your maternity leave, I would try to wait 3-4 weeks to start pumping.  Baby will be nursing VERY often at first, and the last thing you want to be doing is pumping between feedings -- better to be resting or taking care of yourself.  I would probably start to pump a couple of times a day (again, depending on your specific needs) 3-4 weeks before you go back to work.  This will allow you to build a freezer stash for days when you can't pump quite enough, and of course get you comfortable and familiar with the pump.

Babies usually start to nurse within a few minutes to a few hours of birth. (Depending on hospital policy, your condition, and baby's condition.)  They don't get much at first, but the nursing provides small amounts of colostrum and stimualtes your milk supply so when the milk DOES come in (usually around day 5), you have plenty.  Again, I would not be pumping this early unless there is some specific need (like a sick baby in the NICU who can't nurse).  

Answer 8

For the first few days (up to a week) the baby will be drinking your colostrum.  It's a yellowy discharge full of antibodies that you yourself have developed.  After about a week your milk will come in.  

To avoid nipple confusion it is best to wait until breast feeding has been well established before introducing the bottle, that's six weeks at least.

But you are able to feed your baby breastmilk exclusively with a bottle, it just takes a lot of time and patience.

Good luck!