Exclusively breastfed 5 month old refuses the bottle

[RSK]

Our 5 month old boy refuses to take the bottle! We have tried different bottles (Avent, Tommee Tippee, NUK), different milk (formula versus expressed), different people (myself, partner, my mum and friends) all to no avail. Has anyone else experienced this and can you suggested anything? I am desparate to get some sleep and a bit of space (we have not been separated for more than an hour or so for the last 5 months!). I am due to go back to work soon so that is also a worry. I have been told that he will eventually take a cup but when will that be?! I also don't want to stress him out too much with putting things in his mouth because we will start weaning him soon.

[casbie]

spoon,
cup,
syringe (if desperate)

the thing is unless you gave them a bottle regularly (once a week) since about 3 months, it's difficult for babies to accept.

i went back to work at 6 mths and had the same problem.

my hubby just to bear the brunt of it really - even though there was plenty of expressed milk for baby, she preferred au natural!

[Georgeous]

Hi there,

I'm afraid that I can't help you much, just sympathise. My DD is now 12 months and at 4 months she also refused to take a bottle, or just chewed the end of it without drinking anything. She was also exclusively breastfed and I was trying to give her expressed milk through a bottle so that I could go out for an hour or two. It never worked! Eventually I just gave up and let her continue to breastfeed exclusively. I was in a different position though, as I didn't have to go back to work, so not such an issue for me. My friend wanted to wean her exclusively breastfed baby off the breast at 6 months, and also had no luck. Her DD just refused to take the bottle. Our babies are now 12 months old and still breastfeeding, though now that they are eating three meals a day it is not so demanding. DD does drink a lot of water from a cup, and probably started doing this at about 6 months, but in the beginning didn't really take much.

When do you go back to work? You may find that when your baby is a little bit older and eating proper meals you can give breastfeeds morning and evening, and as long as baby is getting milk in their foods, such as yoghurt and cheese etc., it will be fine. At leat this is what the health visitor advised another friend of mine.

Good luck with it

[Flier]

We had this problem with dd, but, strangely, not with DS, he didn't care where his milk came from!

We tried everything too, and the only thing that worked was the medela feeder, its geared towards cleft palate and special needs babies, but it truly was the only thing that worked. expensive though!

www.mothercare.com/gp/product/B000JI1UAM/sr=1-4/qid=1192437246/ref=sr_1_4/026-8967247-7349210?ie=UTF 8&mcb=core

[RSK]

Thanks for all your messages - i had a look at the medela feeding bottle, looks worth a try! I guess the other reason i wanted to get him on a bottle was to help him sleep - i just don't think my breast milk is enough for him and i thought formula milk might help. Also, i reckon he could get more from a bottle than my boobs could hope to produce. He does not sleep well, either during the or at night, and is almost as sleep deprived as me! I have now postponed work till next year because i don't think we could cope - they were fine about this which is a relief.

I have started giving him a cup with a bit of expressed milk to play with so hopefully he will get the idea soon!