Giving a bottle to bf baba? Is it too late ??

Cecilia - posted on 02/22/2013

"there is no evidence to suggest that breastmilk with increased lactic acid levels harms a baby in any way."

https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/exercise-and-breastfeeding

I know because I had the same situation. Really the most important thing to know is keep up your water intake. I think that is why some women see a decrease in milk.

As far as the bottles go, if you don't need to don't. I was one who did both bottle and breast (for medical reasons)

Georgena - posted on 02/22/2013

Hey, you didnt fail, dont say that, 4 months is a lot better than no months!!

Elizabeth - posted on 02/22/2013

Now that you mentioned it that hormone thing sounds kind of right... but I am not sure. I know that too much exercise can strain your milk supply. I remember diving right into exercise as soon as I felt a little better, and my breast feeding coach told me that the more calories I burn the less milk I produce.

I was only able to breast feed for four months, it was one of the many things I seem to have failed at.

Dove - posted on 02/21/2013

I breastfed anywhere from 15 months to 3 years... depending on which kid. My older two had a handful of bottles in the first couple of months (due to my exhaustion in the middle of the night), but they were kids who would suck on ANYTHING (quite literally) that would go near their mouths. My littlest one.... I tried to give him a bottle once. He looked at me like I was crazy and started screaming til I gave him the breast. lol I never had a reason to try again.

I do not know much about the exercise thing... sorry.

Georgena - posted on 02/21/2013

Thanks for all the advise ladies, just moved countries ( at 8 months preggers) and dont have any kind of support group so I really appreciate it!! Will give it all some thought, how long did you all breast feed for? Did anyof you eventually give the bottle? How did it go?
And yep, i need to do some more research on the excercise thing, id heard that your body releases hormones into your milk that aren't good for baba?? Maybe i will start a new thread about that one!

Elizabeth - posted on 02/20/2013

An hour after what, exercise related work? Let me tell you, if you're a nursing mom with a healthy milk supply, you will want to nurse ASAP after physical activity. It gets hard to even make it through a work out with full breasts, let alone wait an hour afterwards! If that's what you're worried about, don't use the bottle. If you are available to nurse, then nurse. You're very lucky if that is the case and you have job that allows you to be with your baby after sessions.

Don't use the bottle as a bonding tool, Dove is right. Use the bottle because you have to. For instance I work all the time and just simply was not available to nurse except for at night, pretty soon my daughter forgot how to latch all together and she really liked her bottles. It does interfere with your milk supply if you cannot pump every two hours, but in my case, I actually had to start off pumping just to stimulate my milk supply.

Georgena - posted on 02/19/2013

The thing im most worried about is when i start teaching again, im a dance teacher and fitness instructor and read that you should wait for at least an hour after so i thought that then i might need to give her the bottle?? Does anyone know anything about this?? Thanks for your help ladies!!

Dove - posted on 02/19/2013

Personally speaking.... I'd skip the bottle and have him bond in another way. Unless you have another reason for NEEDING her to be on a bottle.... they are just an unnecessary hassle that can interfere with your milk supply.

If you really want her to take a bottle though.... leave them alone together for a few hours. If she gets hungry enough she'll 'probably' take it, but not if you are around cuz she'd rather have the good stuff straight from the tap.

Then again... I know a baby who would not eat for 8 hours straight because mom was at work and he flat out refused the bottle... permanently.

Elizabeth - posted on 02/19/2013

Start only expressing milk into bottles. She will get used to it. I did that with my daughter from the beginning. I expressed my milk and gave her bottles until time constraints at my job caused my milk to dry up because I couldn't pump often enough. The switch to formula was easy because she was already used to the bottle and it made my life easy because anyone could feed her, which is great because even though you want to be, moms can't always be available, things do come up.