9 week old refusing bottle!

[liney80]

I'm exclusively breastfeeding our 9 week old. He took expressed milk from a bottle earlier on a handful of times but we haven't tried it for a few weeks and now he's refusing all efforts! Me, my husband and mum have all tried. Expressing is going really well but I'm having to freeze everything to (hopefully) use in the near future. Looked online at tips and trying them all. Does anyone have experience of this and did they overcome it by persevering?! I just want to know it's worth trying the bottle everyday and enduring the crying that goes with it!!

[RaspberryBunny]

What teats are you using? My 14 week old ds will happily take expressed or formula from mam teats and several friends have had success with them when dealing with bottle refusal too.

[GreatJoanUmber]

You could try lots of different bottles/teats, or you could try DH offering a bottle whilst you are out of the house, so there's no alternative.

That said, all three of mine refused bottles and I never managed to make it work or just couldn't be arsed to make more of an effort but instead I introduced sippy cups at 6 months, and they were all fine with them.

[bearwithspecs]

Persevere. Do not be anywhere near at feeding times - babies can smell mummy a mile off!

[Heatherbell1978]

You have to persevere. We started DS1 on bottles at 3 wks, he is now 16 wks. It took a long time to get him comfortable with it and there were a few times I wanted to give up when I heard him screaming when DH wS trying. We tried every brand, every teat, spent a fortune.....and he finally settled on Dr Browns. But the thing that made a huge difference was making the milk really warm, warmer than you'd think. It was actually me that got him on the bottle eventually as I am obviously around a lot more; he's not fussed about taking a bottle from me. Now he happily takes a dream feed every day from DH which means I get a decent kip (in theory...) as I don't feed until 5am after his bedtime feed. And my mum took him for a night last week...bliss..... It really depends how much you want/need him to take a bottle, we have so many friends who said there's didn't take one but they didn't persevere for the amount of time we did

[liney80]

Thanks everyone. It sounds like persevering is the answer! I just wanted to know it's possible to change his mind in order to tolerate the crying and upset (for all of us!!)

[PoshPenny]

I have to say we tried every bottle, every teat, and she refused the whole damn lot. Until she was 10 months old. As far as she was concerned milk came from mummys breast not a bottle. Best of luck and hope you succeed where I failed.

[TittyBojangles]

Everyone's circumstances are different but I spent a lot of effort (and money on different bottles/tests) and heartache trying to get ds to take a bottle and in the end I'd forgotten why I was doing it. So I stopped trying. It was never a problem. I think I just thought it was the fine thing to get baby to take a bottle but actually it served no purpose for us.

[liney80]

One more question! If we take milk out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature for 30-60 mins and then he won't take it, is it okay to put it back in the fridge for next time? I hate chucking away expressed milk!!

[TittyBojangles]

*done thing not fine thing.

[TakesTwoToTango]

Lonely, it should be okay until it's been out for a few hours (google the time - about 4 I think) unless he has drunk from it, then strictly speaking you should throw the whole bottle as it is contaminated with saliva (which contains enzymes that will start to digest it in the bottle), so don't put much in until you know he's going to take it more reliably.

Also, if you are trying to feed an ebf baby expressed milk at room temp then that might be the root of your problem - it needs to be much warmer than that (it comes out of you at 37 degrees, room temp will be 21 at best).

[TakesTwoToTango]

liney apologies for the auto correct

[TeenageMutantNinjaTurtle]

how are you holding her? mine totally refused a bottle until we tried it holding her in an upright sitting position, holding the bottle horizontally near her mouth and letting her totally control it. she was about 4 months old so able to use her hands to grab at the bottle. she's happy to take one in any position now!

[Stubbed]

Don't bother. No luck here with my two until they were about 12 months. Hours of worry and stress.

[liney80]

Great tips about the temperature! We warmed the milk a lot more last night and he drank it all! We're going to keep this up everyday now in the hope he really gets used to it.

[Mamab33]

Well done. That must be a relief!
Interested to know if it affects his BF technique? Mine is a clamper and sometimes causes pain and injury with it. I want to avoid any problems with BF as the bottle won't complain!

[Heatherbell1978]

liney80 the temperature thing was the turning point for us; up to that point it was all very hit and miss but since then we've never had any issues. Good luck!

[liney80]

Success again today with warmer milk! Mamab33 he'd been clamping a bit lately I think before we started trying the bottle so not sure if it's just a natural phase. A HV said if they clamp, say 'ouch' loudly and flinch and they should learn not to do it!!

Heatherbell1978 thanks for a life saving tip! I'm going out for a Christmas dinner with friends tomorrow so me and my husband are more relaxed about that now!

[squizita]

Ah yes wad gonna say warm it! Also (if others are reading) sometimes counter to the marketing of pricy bottles ebf babies prefer a really soft cheapo teat!!

[TakesTwoToTango]

Liney that's great news! Well done baby liney - keep it up!