Advice please on persuading a 6 month old to take a bottle

[Alocin]

Hi, I have a fabulous bouncing sturdy 6 month old girl who is a dream happy baby and sleeps through the night. She has been exclusively breastfed which was never my intention, her bro was very versatile and would quite happily take a bottle of formula as and when needed. She is happily starting on baby porridge, pear, sweet potato etc, but I would like the option of being away from her for a few hours in the day (back to work in a couple of months) and she will not take a bottle or cup. Have tried 2 types of bottle and 3 types of sucky cup (with and w/o valves) and a doidy cup, plus a few different types of formula. I think it's the delivery method not the taste iykwim and I'm not interested in expressing. Any ideas/advice appreciated!

[ZuleikaD]

Generally, if a baby isn't used to bottles by this point then you will have no luck getting them to take one. It needs to be done from an early age, and with reasonable consistency. But at 6m you can persist with the cup.

[BettyStogs]

Are you giving her the bottle/cup or is your DP or someone else? Maybe if you're there she knows that boobs are available so she'll hold out. Have you tried leaving her with someone else to try offering a cup?

DS is 16 mo and will happily drink milk from a cup at nursery or when DH is looking after him but even now if I'm there he definitely prefers bf.

[heymammy]

Conversely, ds refused to take a bottle until I started weaning just before six months. He was getting used to new textures and flavours and sipping water from a sippy cup so I thought I'd try a bottle as just another new thing and amazingly he went for it...and loved it strangely enough. Whenever he sees a bottle now he gets all excited .

Sorry, no real advice but I have found that he likes the teat on the Medela breast pump bottles as they are softer and go right to the back of his tongue.

[SanneSannes]

No real advice unfortunately but just a word of encouragement-my DS had not seen a bottle until he was 6 months old and I was told by many that it was now too late to introduce it. I tried anyway and had no issues...your child might just need a bit of time to get used to it, but thought I'd let you know that it's not impossible at that age.

[Boop33]

Have you tried AVENT natural teat ?? just a thought ..........?? x

[clorna]

I am very sympathetic my two youngest DD's never took a bottle, I did try a few times but they point blank refused and they just always drank from a sippy cup. Maybe you will have to get her to have a cup during the day and still bf morning and night?! I hope you can get something sorted before you go back to work. Not very helpful I admit as I didn't have to go to work and had no intention of stopping bf until after a year.

[Alocin]

Hi, thanks all. Yes, have tried avent natural and 'normal' avent and its whoever tries her with bottle/cup that she doesn't want to take it from not just me! I've read something about a 'breast flow' bottle having a teat preferred by bf babies, can anyone recommend? Thanks!

[Paintyourbox]

I feel your pain, DD (7 months) was a seasoned bottle refuser even though we tried every type of teat, bottle and formula available.

I am now back at work and she will take 1-2 ounces from the childminder over the course of the day. We ended up having to look at other ways of getting milk into her- making up baby porridge with milk, giving her (gasp!) yoghurt as a snack.

She just regulates herself and has a massive feed before I drop her off and a huge feed as soon as she gets home.

[Victoria2002]

Yep breastflow bottle works for my ebf 5m old where "closer to nature" failed. Was recommend to me by a b/f peer supporter. They are expensive, but you can buy just 1 on Amazon to try.

[spanky2]

My friend had exactly the same problem and went to a cup with a spout.

[spanky2]

Her milk dried up as she was very ill with an over active thyroid and was rushed to hospital .

[Bedat10]

I have a EBF 6 month old who wont take a bottle either. My older child swapped between bottle and breast no prob so I was also unprepared for this.
I tried about 5 different bottles (various tommy tippee, avent, medela, nuk), doidy, sippy cups etc. I have finally had a bit of success with a latex nuk teat - baby will now take this at about 10.30pm when she is basically asleep. Hoping she will get used to it while sleepy then we can try and introduce it during the day.

[Alocin]

Thanks all, have ordered a breast flow bottle fingers crossed!