You may be more comfortable if your baby knows how to take a bottle. By the time he is 4 to 6 weeks old you will both be good at breastfeeding. Teaching him to suck from the bottle won’t confuse him about breastfeeding.
Plan on at least 10 practice sessions before your baby takes even a few swallows. He has a lot to learn. The rubber nipple doesn’t feel like a breast nipple. To make the rubber nipple work, he has to suck and swallow in a whole different way. If there is formula in the bottle, it tastes different from breastmilk.
Here’s how to get ready for the lesson:
- Put a small amount of breastmilk or formula in the bottle. Let a little drip onto the nipple.
- Pick out one type of nipple, formula, and bottle and use them all the time. Don’t switch around. Each switch requires more learning.
- Have someone besides Mom offer the bottle. If Mom is there, your baby will expect to breastfeed.
- Have your baby be kind of hungry but not so hungry he is desperate to eat.
Here’s what to do at each lesson:
- Touch the nipple to his cheek or lip and let him open his mouth.
- If he doesn’t open his mouth, wait to try again later.
- After he opens his mouth, place the nipple gently in his mouth. Let him decide what to do with it. Don’t wiggle it.
- He might not do anything. He might close his mouth around the nipple. He might try to suck. He might give you his signs for stopping.
- Do what he wants. Stop right away when he shows you he wants to stop.
- Each time, he will do a little more with the nipple.
Don’t get pushy or it will slow his learning. After a few lessons, he will get something out of the nipple. After a while, he will learn to suck, swallow, and take enough from the bottle to at least get by until Mom gets home.
