Tip #36: Put a shirt around the bottle to help a breastfed baby take a bottle

Sometimes a breastfed baby has a hard time adjusting to a bottle when you decide to introduce (or re-introduce) one. One tip I've heard is to wrap mom's shirt (one that's been worn and smells like her) around the bottle while someone else gives it to them.

Source: Lactation Consultant

Bonus Funny Story: Hopefully, the person who told me this story won't mind if I share it here (it's anonymous right?). Her husband was having problems getting their baby to take a bottle and so she set a tank top out for him the night before for him to use to feed the baby her bottle in the morning. When Dad came back into the room in the morning, mom said "Why are you WEARING my tank top?" Dad said: "But you told me to use it when I gave her the bottle!"

Tip #11 - Use a dishwasher basket for hard toys and bottle parts

You can purchase dishwasher baskets to keep all those little bottle parts in one place while you sanitize them on the top shelf of your dishwasher. We actually have two, one is by the sink collecting dirty parts, while the other is getting washed and/or drying in the drying rack. This isn't an endorsement for a particular product, but here's an example at Babies R' Us. These baskets are also great for holding those small teething and hard plastic toys your baby loves to play with while they get sanitized on the top rack.

Source: Grandma set this up while she was here taking care of grandson.

Tip #4 - Keep your baby used to the bottle

If you breastfeed and decide to introduce the bottle at the recommended time (4-6 weeks, after breastfeeding is well established), make sure to keep your baby used to it by giving them the bottle every other day or so.

Source: Unknown, but I've met many moms now who introduced the bottle early and then dropped it, just to find at the end of their maternity leave they wouldn't take it anymore.