Starting daycare soon and need advice on how to transition older infant to bottles/cups for breastmilk!

[olivef63]

My son is 8.5 months old and I have pushed my hardest to stay home, but I am finally out of leave. He starts daycare next month and with that I am preparing him to drink breastmilk via not my breasts (lol). Since I thought I had more time, I never introduced him to bottles and I know babies should be weaned from them by 12-18 months. When I do offer him a bottle or have someone else offer him a bottle, he drinks some from it, but his latch is terrible and he chews at it and I’m worried that will cause him more harm than good (I’ve tried Dr. Brown’s regular bottles and their wide neck versions with the Level 1 Nipple, 0 months+ since he’s been EBF). Even with the bottle he doesn’t take too much milk at a time. I have practiced open cup and straw cup drinking since he was 6 months (from EZ PZ) and he somewhat does both with lots of assistance and never taking in too much at a time either. The daycare does not permit Sippy cups and I didn’t like the idea of one either. I have been struggling with what to do for him and it’s been easy to feel like I have failed at getting him ready for this big transition. Is there another option I don’t know about? Should I try a level 2 nipple for more milk flow? Should I just practice bottle feeding till his latch is better or try giving him a different type of straw cup? Obviously I’m in the gray area with bottles and his age and ideally wouldn’t want to have to introduce it if I could help it, but at the end of the day I need him to eat so any advice helps!

 

[thebrittschmitt]

@olivef63 I would try a faster bottle nipple. My baby would get frustrated with the level 1 because they were so much slower than straight from the breast but started taking a bottle when we got faster nipples. If he’s chewing on the nipple, that might be the issue.

 

[katrina2017]

@olivef63 The daycare doesn’t allow sippy cups? That is a very strange policy.

Fwiw my son despised the Dr Browns bottles, maybe trying another style or two of nipples is worth it, since 4-10 months is a long time in baby months!

 

[lotw]

@olivef63 We practiced with the open cup and straw cup early too, with little success. And then suddenly at nine or ten months he was pro with the straw. I think they might just need to reach a certain developmental stage. I would also try the level 2 nipples, that should help him stay motivated to keep at the bottle

edited to add- it's hard to go back to work, but we've been really luck to find a good fit with our daycare, he's actually probably learning more from them than from me