Is six months too late?

[Madcat22]

My EBF DD is refusing a bottle. She has had a few in the past (most recently about five weeks ago) and accepts the bottle in her mouth but doesn't suck anymore. HV said that she now won't ever accept a bottle because she's too old. Am desperate but am I flogging a dead horse? Has anyone else got experience of switching after six months?

[leedy]

Would you try a cup instead? DS2 refused any and all bottles from 4 months but got the hang of a Doidy cup and then a soft spout sippy really quickly.

[showtunesgirl]

Forget the bottle and go to cup. DD was a bottle refuser but was happy to drink BM from a Doidy cup.

[showtunesgirl]

Snap!

[airplanesandsun]

A friend of mine persuaded her 7 mth to eventually - when he was starving enough and with DH when she was not in the house - they won't take if if you there and they can smell breast

[NorahBone]

Try sippy cups or beakers with straws. I recently went back to work and my husband gives our previously stubborn (7.5m) bottle refuser a bottle every day. I'm afraid I have no idea what his secret was, unless it was because the baby was old enough to feed himself. When ds was about 5 months old I had to return from a party to feed him because he was screaming the place down.

[Ludways]

My dd refused a bottle but would take it off a spoon, that was just great fun, lol

[Midori1999]

I don't think it's too old if you're persistent. What is the reason you feel desperate? My DS is 8 months old and won't take a bottle. I haven't bothered to keep trying, but I can leave hi quite happily with my DH and he just has solids and sips of water when I'm not there.

[IntellectualLlama]

I tried a bottle at six months: complete refusal. Tried again at eight months and it was fine. Though DD was drinking water well from a sippy cup by that point so I started giving her milk in that too and now at ten months she doesn't have bottles at all, all formula and water from a cup (and one breastfeed in the middle of the night, as it is easier).

[ch1134]

Oh dear, I'm back at work next week and have only breastfed. Over the past month I've tried bottles and cups in preparation with no success. dreading leaving the baby, and even more so if he can't feed! He's 5 and 1/2 months. I'm a teacher so had to go back in July to get paid over Summer. Hoping by September, at 7 and 1/2 months, it will somehow be easier? Help! (sorry to jump on OP's thread - I am sharing your woes!)

[MrsGoslingWannabe]

Don't you get 9 months mat leave ch1134?

[ch1134]

Yes but if I go back now I get full pay over summer which I have to do financially as I missed out on OMP by a few weeks.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

I went back to work FT when DS was 8 months old and a total bottle refuser. Would occasionally moisten his lips from a cup and that was it. Nursery just fed him extra yoghurts and put expressed milk into his food for a while and then he'd feed from me all bloody night. We're both still alive

[ch1134]

Just to share in case it encourages. My son just drained a bottle for the first time (he's 5 and 1/2 months). No fussing, no crying, no vomit. We've been trying for weeks but I guess this time he was hungry! There is hope... phew!