I am desperate to stop breast feeding!

[kettles0]

My daughter is nearly 8 months old and has had severe reflux since birth. This is now being controlled by lots of medication and solids have certainly helped. However, my dd refuses to take any liquids from anything but my boobs! I am offering her 3 feeds during the day but she rarely has anything much. She would rather wait until the night and drink her milk then! I'm knackered and desperate to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. I know that she has associated feeding with pain because of the reflux and I think this is why she doesn't feed well in the day. At night, she is sleepy so just gets on with it. She is great with solids although I can't tempt her with breakfast most of the time (milk or solids). Any advice on getting her to take a bottle would be appreciated - she doesn't even attempt to suck, just rolls the teat around. And how do I get her to stop feeding at night? HELP!!!

[belgo]

This is a hard one. Can you get your dd's father to give her a bottle?

[kettles0]

I have tried cups, different bottles, different people giving her the bottle, formula and expressed milk etc etc. AAAHHH!

[AntandBee]

I'm with cathcart on the cup. My 8 month daughter has steadfastly refused bottles since 8 weeks, but glugs it back from a beaker (no lid). Good luck.

[kettles0]

I have tried putting some in the lid of the bottle and that did go down a bit...although it was rather messy! Will give an open cup a go tomorrow. Thanks.

[AntandBee]

Lots of sympathy with trying everything. My husb even tried sticking the bottle in his armpit as a fake boob after we read about it in a book . She didn't fall for it.

[AntandBee]

It took a couple of weeks to get the hang of the cup, a lot went down her front first. Hope it goes well with you.

[kettles0]

Am laughing about the boob armpit! May try getting husband to wear a bra....not sure dd will fall for that but it'd look hilarious.

[whomovedmychocolate]

Have you tried a supplementary feeding system? Basically it's a set of tubes which feeds formula via the nipple, so your baby gets used to a different taste. Oooh do try it on your DH, ripping off the tape afterwards will be hilarious!

We also found that DD would only drink from a boob or an adult cup (she's weird). Eschews sippies and bottles.

[PavlovtheCat]

My 10 month old DD refused a bottle end of story,k until about 3 weeks ago. We got a sainsbury's grippy bottle which she can 'hold' herself, and she loves it (typical after trying all the expensive ones!). Now she drinks from it as long as she can control how, when. ie, she likes to stand up, and usually do something else whilst drinking. Not sure if its the same for your LO, but my DD is very independent, and it seems that she has decided to take the bottle now she has some control over it. Of course she cannot completely feed herself, but I just hold the bottle and she fidgets around like anything whilse drinking. She was like this with food too, we did mostly blw for a while as she refused anything that she did not eat herself. Now she eats solids well when fed to her, as long as she has finger food too. If she has nothing to feed herself with, she wont take it.

I had pretty much given up, but needed to get her taking a bottle as I was going back to work and it was a right royal pain having to feed her during the day at work/take breaks each time.

Not sure if this is the reason for your LO not taking bottle, but might well be to keep trying and she will take it when she is ready?