I have a two-month-old baby girl who is currently nursing. I will be returning to school and would like to start weaning her onto breast milk in the bottle. What type of nipple and bottle do you suggest?
Nuk brand promotes its nipples as the ones most similar to the breast. Nevertheless, all babies have different preferences. Any nipple and any bottle will probably work just fine, as long as you find one your baby likes. I advise trial and error.
If your baby is two months old and has never drunk from a bottle before, she may not be willing to do so, particularly if you are the one to offer the bottle. She knows that from mom, she gets the breast, not the bottle. Try to have someone else help her learn to drink from the bottle.
Babies suck from the breast differently than they suck from the bottle: a nursing infant uses her tongue, positioned below the nipple, to rhythmically draw milk from her mother’s breast. The larger, more inflexible, artificial nipple prevents the tongue from using its usual rhythmic action.
In general, the best time to introduce a breastfed baby to a bottle is at about age three weeks — once breastfeeding is well-established, but before she is set in her ways.
