How do I introduce the bottle to a dedicated breastfeeder? My daughter Olivia is seven months and I would like to reduce breastfeeding and move to bottle feeding. Unfortunately the only advice in Gina’s book I didn’t listen to was to introduce a bottle early on in her life. Now Olivia will not take a bottle and I have to go back to work soon. She is 20lbs and is a gorgeously contented baby. She follows the routine to the letter and I have no other problems with her (she is prone to constipation from time to time). Thanks Louise. Getting an older baby to accept a bottle can be…

Will it be possible to breast feed my 5 month baby after a 48hr break I am having a MRI scan in three weeks. I have been told not to breast feed for 48hrs afterwards due to the contrast dyes used. I used to give Sonny 1 bottle a night using expressed milk but haven’t done so for over a month. He has also taken formula on the odd occasion. He enjoys breastfeeding and I am worried how he will take the 48hr abstinence. I have a few frozen feeds of breast milk but not enough to last the whole 2 days. He now consumes all the milk I produce…

Can a low-weight 18 week baby’s sleep be helped by feeding? We had our first baby, Evie, 18 weeks ago and generally she has settled into your routines, which we have been following since day one. She has always been small and has regularly gained only 4oz each week; she had 2 weeks where she gained 7oz and 1 week where she lost 1oz. Her birth weight was 7lb 1oz and she now weighs 12lb 1oz. I am breast-feeding, but my partner gives her formula at 10.30pm and again when she wakes in the night, around 5am (we introduced formula at 14 weeks). We do, however, have a few concerns.…

My 4 month baby is not interested in her milk by day, yet has begun to wake at night again Amelia weighs 15lbs 7oz and has been following the 3-4 month routine. A week ago she began to take less milk at 2.15pm (when she is bottle fed), stopping after 3.5 or 4ozs. Even if I wait 20 minutes she will not take any more milk and push the bottle away. I expressed milk at 11am a couple of days ago (when I normally breast feed) and found I only had 4ozs of milk. I am worried that she is not getting enough milk by day which is causing her…

My 4.5 month son seems to still need large top-ups after breast feeds As I had some problems with my latch-on in the early weeks of breastfeeding, my son had some problems gaining weight. As a result, we put him on formula top-ups twice a day to ensure he was getting enough to eat and to take some pressure off me. As he has grown, so has the amount of formula he can consume. Now I am worried that he is eating too much even though he is not gaining weight excessively. My friends are amazed when I tell them that Miles is capable of drinking nearly 240 ml of…

What is the best way to drop feeds for my 3 month baby without becoming engorged? I want to avoid painful, engorged breasts when I begin to stop breastfeeding, which I plan to do when Leo is around 4mths old (he is 3mths now). With my first child it took a long 2 or 3 months to give up, as I tried to drop feeds and only express a little to give relief. Leo has just started to go through the night and I am finding it painful just dropping this feed. I don’t want to start expressing milk in the night, but I am awake with pain in the…

My 3 month daughter’s weight gain is low, she feeds less, and does not like a bottle My 3-month-old daughter has been on Gina’s schedule since 2 weeks. She is generally a contented baby and sleeps well. I have 2 problems: the first relates to her low weight gain at about 4.7oz per week. She rarely seems hungry – even after sleeping through from 11pm to 6.30am. Since 12 weeks, she’s beginning to take shorter feeds on the breast (10mins) rather than in the past when it was closer to 15-20mins. She often seems uncomfortable and fussy during the feed (after 5 minutes) I have tried splitting the feed as…

What can I do to get my milk supply back for my 3-month-old? I think I am running out of milk. The past 2 nights at 10pm I have expressed and got less than 1 oz; I usually would get 4-9oz. I started to follow the increased supply routine yesterday; when I expressed at 2pm today I only managed barely 1oz, and when I had fed her she was still hungry. Initially I thought the problem was only there at the end of the day – until now. I have expressed since she was born so I know what to do and usually have no problems. My health visitor told…

How can I get my 15-week-old baby to take more milk? I am finding it difficult to get my daughter to feed more at each feed. She only drinks 2-3ozs at each feed, occasionally 4ozs if she really wants it. Her weight gain is dropping slowly. At present she weights 12lbs 2oz.The health visitor has advised me to demand feed her for a couple of days, but it has been terrible. She is very agitated at each feed and takes her time. I never know if she is really hungry this way or just distressed. On the routine she fed every 3-4 hrs, but would only have a small amount.…

When should I drop the 10.30pm feed for my 3.5 month baby? I would like advice as to when it is appropriate to stop the 10.30pm feed. My daughter who is now 3.5 months old has slept through the night from 9 weeks of age and continues to do so. I find it difficult to know how much milk she gets at 10.30pm and what she still needs. I suspect she only receives a small feed at this time of only 50-100ml as when I express the other side (if she only feeds from one breast) then I only manage to express 40ml (with great difficulty). I have received very…