Unless you are exclusively breastfeeding and plan on being a stay-at-home Mom, at some point you will need your baby to take a bottle. Even then, it is good to have a bottle on standby in the event that you need someone else to feed your baby. Below are some tips that I learned when introducing a bottle to both of my children.

Tip #1 Try To Introduce A Bottle Between Weeks 2 & 4

With my first, we introduced a bottle very early…within the first two days of her being born. This was because she was losing weight more weight than the nurses liked, so she used a bottle from the very beginning. Once we left the hospital I mostly breastfed her until she started daycare at 12 weeks. For my son, he latched immediately and was putting on weight very quickly so I didn’t need to introduce a bottle right away. We decided to try to introduce a bottle around 4-5 weeks but really struggled initially. After doing some research, I realized I might have introduced a bottle a little late in the game and probably would have had an easier time had I introduced it a little earlier.

Tip #2 Have Someone Else Give The Baby A Bottle

As mentioned above, I struggled a bit with getting my son to take a bottle. It wasn’t until I physically left the house and had my husband give the bottle that my son started to accept a bottle. Our little ones know the sound of our voice and even our scent so sometimes that will distract them from taking a bottle, instead, they would rather have it straight from the tap.

Tip #3 Try Different Temperatures

This was another thing that impacted my son taking a bottle, the temperature of the milk. Some babies have no problem drinking milk straight out of the fridge or room temperature milk, that wasn’t my son. He wanted heated, warm milk. Another thing I learned was to warm up the nipple of the bottle, which also helped when it came time to give my son a bottle.

Tip #4 Try Different Nipple Levels (Flows)

Each bottle brand usually comes with a level 1 (zero) nipple, this is good for babies 0-3 months of age. However, you can buy other levels of nipples. Sometimes it is necessary to buy the premie level nipple, this nipple has the slowest flow and can help if your baby is having a hard time with how fast the milk is flowing. Another way to slow down the flow is to pace feed the baby. Pace feeding is simply feeding the baby while the baby is sitting up, this allows the baby to control the amount of milk flowing through the nipple.

Tip #5 If All Else Fails, Try Different Bottles

If all else fails, shop around for bottles. This is something I also did with my son, I tried 3 different bottles. When one wouldn’t work, I would return it and try another.