My daughter got milk from me, straight from the tap, and formula in a bottle. I was a really truly low supplier. She never had any issues. We would actually do both in one feeding – eat from mommy first, and finish the feeding with 3-4 ounces of formula.

Another suggestion is to always have someone else give the bottle. If you aren’t the one there, they won’t expect Mom’s milk.

Finally – to “elizabeth” yes, is it absolutely possible to get your milk back. Look into “relactation” if your supply is completely gone. Many woman have done it!

I just got through that particular circle of hell -baby hates da bottle.
What I had to do was this:
I pumped and got a few ounces (3-4). Because of how frustrating it was to watch my breastmilk go down the drain, I broke up the milk into .25 ounces and put those bottles in the fridge. I had all different kinds of bottle/nipple combinations.

I would nurse my baby and an hour after I nursed I would warm up a bottle and let the baby just play with it. For a couple of weeks she just gnawed on them, sometimes she would cry, and mostly milk got everywhere but in her tummy. When she actually would put the nipple in her mouth and bite down and play and giggle, then I made the assumption that this was the nipple she would tolerate. From that point on I just used that nipple. Slowly but surely, day after day of this, and dumping milk down the drain, she finally one day sucked a little. Then the next day she sucked a little more and I heard a gulp. Finally, one day she just decided to suck suck suck and gulp gulp gulp. She still is no master bottle feeder but she will take it and I use it as part of the appetizer before our bedtime routine.

I have also heard people saying you could easily just have her go straight to a cup. I didn’t try that, because I couldn’t find any resources on how to do it, but you might want to give it a shot.

I also second the earlier comment on generic formula. While the government regulates what goes into formula, there’s something programmed in our brains that tells us we practically have to dumpster dive to collect coupons for Similac or Enfamil…but it’s just not worth it. After Similac recalled their powdered formula due to insect infestation, that’s when I realized I didn’t need to pay more for quality. I’ll take the store brand without the added protein please and thank you.

We’ve tried a couple of different brands of bottles – should we just keep trying? We don’t have that much time yet and I’m starting to panic that his day care is going to call me to pick him up and feed him my first day back.