Bottle refuser starting nursery!

[HelenThatsHisWilly]

Hi all, just wanted some advice please.

DD is just 10 months old. She starts nursery 1 day a week from next week. She has been a long term bottle refuser and we have tried lots of different bottles/teats with no success. She currently has breastfeeds at 6am, 12pm and 6pm and food in between. I can do the morning and evening feeds as usual but I'm worried about her missing the 12pm feed when she's at nursery.

She will take 1-2 sips of water from a beaker each time, but no more than that. She won't drink formula/breastmilk/cow's milk from a beaker. Help! Thanks

[LuckyLopez]

Will she not just have solids for lunch at 12pm instead?!

[HelenThatsHisWilly]

Hi lucky. Yes she's very good with solids so will eat lunch with nursery at 11.30ish. She'll probably have a few sips of water too. Is that enough until her bedtime feed? I'm a first time mum and not really sure about all of this!

[LuckyLopez]

Without the feed her appetite and thirst will increase and assuming she still has snacks and an evening meal, I think she will be fine. Maybe send a bottle of formula/expressed breast milk and allow the nursery staff to try. That would be my approach (I'm a childminder).

[Daisy17]

You'll be surprised what she'll do at nursery after a few days! My bottle refuser went into nursery full time at 5 months....I was beside myself with worry......by the end of day three he was guzzling bottles like a pro! She'll sort it out.

[PuppyMummy]

another bottle refuser here who gave in at nursery!

also took him 3 days! He goes full time as well. He has 2 3oz bottles of EBM during the day and eats and drinks water.

he eats more at nursery than when at home so must make up the BF He misses.

he was 7 months when he started.
I wouldn't worry if she won't have the milk on the one day, she will make it up with food and water.

[HelenThatsHisWilly]

Thanks all, you've made me feel a lot better. I'm sure she won't starve!

She hasn't long been sleeping all night, so hopefully she won't want to bf all night to make up for that missed feed

[agatha45]

I wouldn't worry...my DD started nursery full time at 11 months, had been exclusively bf- never took a bottle & didn't eat huge amounts ...but at nursery she was fine- gradually ate more and drank water. She was always very keen for milk when she got home... be prepared to sit down with her when you get home :-)