Bellamy’s Organic baby formula. How to go from breast to bottle.

In response to a recent question on how to get a baby to move from breast to bottle, I thought it might be useful to look at a couple of things that mums might try. Whether you want to express breast milk for bottle feeding or using a baby formula, move to full time bottle feeding or would just like your baby to take a bottle on some occasions because it’s more convenient for both of you, here are some tips to help give your baby the nutrition it needs.

Sometimes babies just don’t want the bottle! This could be because they don’t like the feel of the teat in their mouths at first, or the flow from that teat might not be what they’re used to. So the first thing is to try a couple of different shaped teats and to ask for teats with different flow rates. The difficulty with the later is that different manufacturers have different rates, so “slow” for one may not be the same for another.

Remember also that the taste of formula is different to breast milk. Breast milk is a living liquid and the taste and texture of formula is different. You might like to try expressing some breast milk and making the first bottle feeds with what your baby is used to. At Bellamy’s, we’ve had a lot of mothers tell us that trying Bellamy’s Organic Baby Formula tastes good, but that won’t work for everyone.

At the first session, make sure you and baby are relaxed, in a comfortable position holding your baby close to your chest (as you would in a breast feed). Some Mums also offer some skin contact as a way of connecting to your baby.

Tilt the bottle and gently slide the teat of the bottle across your babies mouth, stimulating her to open her mouth. Hopefully, baby will latch on, and learn to suck from a teat. If it does not work first time, relax, and start again.

If you are using formula, toward the end of the bottle you may see some froth. This is perfectly normal, but you should stop feeding at the point where there is no liquid left for your baby to drink.

Finally, from personal experience we know you have to persevere with some of these changes. Obviously there is a high comfort factor in breastfeeding and not so much from a bottle, so with some babies you have to just keep trying!

On the other hand some babies take really well to a bottle, because it can be less work for them. Just remember bottle feeding can make it really hard for baby to go back to the breast as it does require a different mouth action, so consider the move to a bottle carefully and understand the implications.

If you’d like to know more about Bellamy’s Organic baby formula, cereals and our other products for older children click on this link. It will take you straight to our on-line store http://www.bellamysorganic.com.au/catalogue

Important Notice

Thanks for reading our blog about bottle feeding. We hope you found this information useful as it helps both breast feeding and formula feeding babies and mums.

But we’d like to remind you that breastfeeding is best for your baby.

Having a balanced diet when breastfeeding is also important. Baby formulas should only be used after you’ve sought advice from a doctor or health practitioner.

A decision not to breastfeed can be difficult to reverse and introducing partial bottle feeding will reduce the supply of breast milk. It is also wise to consider the cost of infant formula.

If you use infant formula, all preparation and feeding instructions must be followed as per the manufacturer’s instructions. This is important for your baby’s health.