Tips For Weaning Baby To Formula Step By Step

If your baby is already, after only a few days, starting to breastfeed less it means that he eats enough other foods to be content. That is certainly not the case for many babies when starting with solids!

Your problem is that he doesn’t like the idea of switching from breastfeeding to (formula) bottle feeding. My first reaction is that all these changes at the same time might be a little bit too much for your baby. Starting to eat solid foods is a big step and weaning from the breast to the bottle (with formula) at exactly the same time might be a little bit tough.

A few things you can do to try to make him accept the bottle are:

 Start with feeding him breast milk in the bottle rather than formula.

 Offer him the bottle while he is in his chair (or on your lap) for his solid foods (so that he doesn’t expect the breast).

 Give him plenty of time to become familiar with the bottle – more like playing with it, although there is a little bit of formula or breast milk in it.

 Try different bottles and nipples. Refusing the bottle is quite common for breastfed babies – so common that there are baby bottles and bottle nipples specifically developed for breastfed babies.

 Relax! Decide for yourself that if he doesn’t accept formula, you have a plan B. I.e. breastfeeding and pumping and feeding him the milk in a bottle, or reconsidering breastfeeding in public. Babies often pick up our feelings and if you feel pressured and stressed about him not wanting the bottle, he will get nervous about it too.

All this said, it is entirely possible that your baby will continue to reject the bottle for a long time. In that case, you might want to consider a sippy cup if you really don’t want to breastfeed.

It may also be that he simply doesn’t like the taste of the formula. Experiment with different brands, and also try mixing an increasing share of formula in a bottle of breast milk if you manage to get him to accept the bottle with breast milk in it.

Some breastfed babies seem to prefer ready to feed formula – I have heard several other moms say the same. Maybe it is something with texture.

Ready to feed formulas are more expensive, but very convenient if they are only used as when traveling or at night.


Post time: Sep-26-2022