My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Infant feeding

How did you get your boob monster to take a bottle??

22 replies

PrincessChick · 23/09/2013 12:07

DD (3mo) and I have a great BF relationship. She feeds really well, is happy and thriving. I posted last week about wanting to introduce the occasional bottle of expressed milk so I can have some time off. Last week we had jabs, colds and relentless feeding plus terrible nights and baby and me crying and strung out. This has passed and we're back to normal with much more sleep although she's still snotty and uncomfortable and needy in the morning when she wakes up. I got loads of support from you lovely ladies about introducing a bottle and not to feeling guilty about doing this as I had thought that DH didn't support the bottle. Turns out I misread his comments and he's now on board. So I've expressed some milk over the past few days and given DH the bottle to give her. We've tried it when she's partially fed and awake, fully fed and in the mood to play, tired, cranky and hungry and just hungry. She's taken a pathetic half ounce over 3 days from a bottle. She'll lick it, like it's a new toy, get some milk, enjoy the milk and then head butt and root to the side of the bottle like she's looking for a nipple. She'll repeat this with annoyed cries in between until she gets really upset at which point I've given her the boob. At this point she looks really relieved, gets on the boob big time, closes eyes, hums, strokes, holds my hair. It's like we've traumatised her and she thought the boob had gone away forever!

I can't cope with her crying and I can't be tough on her. But I need a break sometimes and although Dh is very happy to play with her, take her for walks, look after her while I have a bath etc I can't fully relax because I don't know when I'll be needed again. She feeds SO much (1.5 - 2 hours max, sometimes more, apart from at night where she'll go up to 6 hours). I've always had to drink a lot and get thirsty often, so I guess she just takes after me.

How do we get here to take the bottle without her getting upset? Just keep trying? Different teat? Is there something I'm missing?

I don't want her to be unhappy because she is a dream in all other respects. I also have this nagging voice telling me (along with M & mil who had the same experiences with my sisters and DH) that it's too late, she's a booby baby and I just have to get on with it. I don't want to force it on her because this is for me to have time off and not I her best interest.

So far we've tried the avent bottle that comes with the manual pump and Dr. Brown bottles. We've warmed the milk to various temps and tried straight from the boob, freshly expressed. I wondered if I should try NUK or Tommy Tippee bottles?

OP posts:
Report
duende · 23/09/2013 12:21

Hi Princess. No advise but in the same boat with DD who is 6 weeks. I'd like her to take a bottle so that I can go out maybe once a week, take DS to the cinema or go to the dentist. She feeds as often as your DD during the day. We have tried the dr brown's bottle today and the calma which comes with the medela breast pump. She behaved exactly the same as your DD.
Will be trying this afternoon with a AT&T. Good luck!

Report
duende · 23/09/2013 12:25

Sorry, will be trying with a Tommie tippee bottle (however that's spelled).

Report
DoudousDoor · 23/09/2013 12:28

I don't know about so young but at 5 months I got DS to take formula with a free-flowing sippy cup (soft not hard plastic). He refused about 6 different brands of bottles and teats so this was a last resort as I was going back to work!

It as a bit messy at first but he got used to it fairly quickly.

Report
Bluetinkerbell · 23/09/2013 12:30

You could always try feeding from a Doidy cup?
Not to be discouraging, but my DD3 was a complete bottle refuser!

Report
tomatoplantproject · 23/09/2013 12:32

I'm really sorry this wont be what you want to here, but dd never took a bottle - I spent a fortune on different bottles and it was a total waste of money. Dd eventually took a sippy cup at 6 mo and that's what we now use. I didn't have the heart to starve her and so in her first few months I only went out in the evening a couple of times and close by so I could get back easily.

All the advice I had was that I would have to leave her and let her get hungry enough to take the bottle.

Report
ColdTeaAgain · 23/09/2013 14:48

Hi PrincessChick, are you me?? Seriously, could have written your post to the letter a week or so ago! We are going through exact same situation. We first tried the Calma bottle that came with the medula pump, total refusal! So then tried the Tommy Tippee (sp?) closer to nature bottles after advice from friends who combine breast and bottle. No luck to start with, then a bit of playing/ mouthing. Now she will take up to 2 ounces from with no complaints. But its very slow going, lots of patience needed and lots of expressed milk going down the sink!

We have let her lead the way with it, if she gets upset I give her the boob, no point stressing her out and making her dislike the bottle even more! We just keep offering the bottle at the first signs of hunger at least a couple of times a day, sometimes she'll refuse and sometimes she'll give it a go. Gradually I think we're getting there. I've seen lots posts about trying every type of bottle on the market but I'd say when you find one that looks promising, just keep trying with it. Switching bottles all the time isn't going to help them learn!

Report
ScrambledSmegs · 23/09/2013 15:15

You are me, 6 months ago wow I'm going to make a fortune from this time machine. DD2 is a complete boob-monster, I tried to give her bottles of expressed milk from an early age but she's never had any of it. My kitchen cupboards are full of different types of bottles and teats, including Medela, Tommee Tippee, Avent etc. What a waste of money. Bottles and dummies are total failures with her, she's just gives them an experimental chew then drops them Sad

Luckily she loves drinking from a sippy cup (one of the basic Tommee Tippee free-flow cups) and so I'm hoping that will do when it comes to starting nursery soon.

There is one bottle that a friend with another determined ebf baby recommended, said it was brilliant and the only one her baby would take happily. I think I'm nearly past the bottle stage now and no need to buy it, but might be worth a try. Playtex Drop-In bottle. No idea where to buy it from though.

Report
TwerkingNineToFive · 23/09/2013 15:19

Playtex drop in bottle with latex teat. I think you can only buy them online.
It was so amazing my dd wouldn't touch a bottle till I tried those. Good luck.

Report
emsyj · 23/09/2013 15:24

I think 3 months is a particularly 'fussy' time tbh - that's my experience, anyway. DD1 was a bottle refuser although I only tried 2 or 3 different bottles and I wasn't especially arsed persistent. However, I did want DD2 to be able to switch as I wanted to be able to have a break etc so I gave her a bottle of expressed milk from a MAM bottle every day from 3 weeks. At 10 weeks she decided she didn't like bottles any more and refused them whenever offered (tried Tommee Tippee, Medela, NUK, Breastflow... not interested) in the same way you describe.

However, when she hit about 5 months, I thought I would give it one more go - and she took a bit! So I carried on and she will now take a bottle about 50% of the time, although never in the evening/around bedtime, only in the day. She generally prefers it if someone other than me gives it to her, although she has taken a bottle from me on occasion - when sitting in the pushchair or high chair, rather than when I'm holding her, when she tends to just turn and root.

So I would say - leave it for now, and try again in a few weeks.

Report
PicnicPie · 23/09/2013 15:57

I've had recent success, but my DD is older and has been weaned onto solids. I religiously gave DD a bottle once a day and at 4 months she point blank refused so I gave up. Due to my impending return to work I had to get her to take a bottle. Someone suggested putting something sweet on the teat so I used a bit of jam and that worked. I also tried different bottles, Medela, TT and MAM but in the end it was the jam that worked for me!

Report
PicnicPie · 23/09/2013 15:58

Forgot to say my DD is 9 months.

Report
PrincessChick · 23/09/2013 17:26

So it either ain't gonna happen or it's going to take a long time. I'm going to stick with the bottles I've got and give it a couple of weeks of trying every day. I got her to take just over an ounce in one sitting today buy sitting her up, waving her favourite in front of her and keeping the bottle in as she shook her head around. She didn't seem to mind so much today and even held the bottle when sucking and then pushing away when she had too much. It felt like progress but she had been fed properly half an hour before and we finished up with a boob feed when she was fed up if the bottle. It took 30 mins to get an ounce in. Still better than nothing!

Thanks for all the free back. I may try the playtex bottle if we don't make any head way over the next couple of weeks. Failing that I'll give her a doidy cup in a couple of months' time.

OP posts:
Report
Notquitegrownup · 23/09/2013 17:31

I failed to get either of my boob monsters onto bottles, but didn't persist very hard to be honest. We did have some success getting ds1 to take a bottle from dh, as long as I was out of the house, however. Had I been serious about introducing bottles, that's the way I would have gone, leaving them to it for one feed a day, so that the lo got used to it from someone who didn't smell of milk!

Report
emsyj · 23/09/2013 19:56

You can use a doidy cup now if you want OP - I think the packaging said from 2 or 3 months on mine. DD2 took to it straight away, although there was quite a lot of spillage, and I never tried to use it as a 'meal replacement', just an emergency measure if I left DD2 between feeds and she got desperate.

Report
tombliboouun · 23/09/2013 20:00

Nuk with a latex teat. A silicon teat is too hard/unsatisfying for the breastfed baby. Try medium & fast flow teats.

Report
Thesebootsweremadeforwalking · 24/09/2013 04:30

DS was using doidy and tommee tippee (basic, without valve) cups at 4 months, he never did take a bottle. I'm not even bothering to try DD.

Report
cazzilla · 25/09/2013 09:03

dr browns bottles are the only ones my 9 month old will take, the teats are longer and softer.

Report
blueshoes · 25/09/2013 10:08

Same as tomatoplant. I never got dd to take a bottle. Dd wanted the boob and there was no confusion in her mind that a rubber teat (ANY teat) is not the same.

The light at the end of the tunnel is that once your dd is reasonably weaned (just a few months away), she can take purees and drink water instead. You might find she is more willing to take that than milk from a rubber teat. That way, you can leave her with others. The boob was too loaded (haha!) for my dd to accept a substitute.

Report
Orchardbeck · 26/09/2013 16:08

I am having exactly the same problem with my 9 week old - from 3 weeks she was fine taking the odd bottle, we even left her at 5 weeks for a full day with my parents whilst went to a wedding and she took 3 full feeds from them then the breast from me in the night.

Then she got a cold, I didn't bother giving her a bottle for about three days, and she won't take one at all now.

I first tried her on the Tommee Tippee bottles at 3!weeks which she hated, so tried the little medela one (normal teat, not Calma) that came with the pump - she would take this one so we bought a few more and that was fine.

Since the bottle strike I have tried Avent Classic, some teacup standard neck silicon ones, a sainsburys cheapo latex one, medela calma, Nuk - wide and standard, latex and silicon and she has gone from gagging and screaming to just playing with them - the Nuk ones and Medela ones seem to be the only ones she'll play with as the rest are very thick. I'm waiting on some of the Medela wide base teats to come from America (can't seem to get them here) and I'm hoping they are going to put an end to this - don't know what I'll do if they don't though!

Report
veryberrybug · 26/09/2013 16:33

my DDs are well past bottles (9 & 12 yrs!) but it's all coming back to me as last week i started looking after friend of a friend's DS (14 weeks old). mum is going back to work and dad had partial to no success with bottle, so they were obviously worried i'd have to hang about at her work with him or she'd have to work from home. then when i gave him the bottle he took it no bother. my suggestion: get someone else to give the bottle & you leave the room! the baby i watch was used to dad playing, changing & cuddling & then handing over for feed to mum. but when it was just me he had no confusion. since taking bottle from me he's been better with bottles fe dad & still happy on the boob Smile so maybe a different adult just until she gets the hang of it. (bottle was a short fat one with wide teat, & i walked around with him until he took it to distract him from the usual sitting BFing routine. i just stroked his lower lip with it at due feeding time until he took it into his mouth himself). hope this helps!

Report
3birthdaybunnies · 26/09/2013 16:44

I had another baby - by which time she was 2 and thought it would be fun trying a bottle, baby obviously showed no interest. We used beakers - in fact still using one - it is now ds's fav hot chocolate cup and v pink - the feminism board would be proud of me!

Report
PrincessChick · 27/09/2013 20:36

Thank you all for your excellent advice. She did it tonight ! A whole 4oz with DH in one sitting, whilst I was having a rest upstairs. So happy could do a little dance. In case anyone was wondering, it was one if the Dr Brown bottles. However, I think she would have taken anything :)

OP posts:
Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.