bottle feeding advice needed for 15 wk bf baby

[LimesMum]

I've posted here a few times before but having big problems trying to get DD2 to take a bottle

She has been bf since birth but started taking a bottle at 4 weeks and would do so no problem. She then stared to refuse at around 7-8 weeks and tried loads of different ones until she eventually took a Minbie bottle (very expensive!!) but for the last 10 days she is REALLY REALLY adamant she isn't going to take the bottle anymore.

It's really stressing me out as DD1 was a refuser and I had to bf until she was 15 months which I really don't want to do this time.

I'm hopeful that someone will have some tips or know a bottle that will work???

I've tried doing at same time every day when I'm sure she's hungry. I've tried other people giving it, distracting her etc but nothing seems to work

Really hope someone can help me

[LimesMum]

Bump

[LimesMum]

Bump

[tiktok]

This might help, OP:

www.nct.org.uk/sites/default/files/related_documents/Bottle-feeding%20for%20breastfed%20babies%20FINAL%20WITHOUT%20BLEED.pdf

By six months most babies will use a cup with help at first.

If your baby is already cross and adamant about the bottle, then it would make sense to leave it a couple of weeks to help her 'forget' she doesn't like it.

Hope this helps.

[LimesMum]

Thanks for this article

Sadly I've tried everything it suggests

I've also tried a break from it but she is still adamant she doesn't want it

Have also tried formula now too....

[tiktok]

Best to wait a few weeks and start with the cup then:)

[Astro55]

Have you tried the really cheap brown bottle tops - really cheap and squishy?

Was recommended by a midwife as they flatten better in babies mouths

[Obsidian77]

DC3 is the same. She's 16 weeks, exclusively BF. I need to get her used to bottles but she's absolutely not interested. I'm giving it another couple of weeks before I try again. Sorry I can't be more help.

[BertieBotts]

Have you tried latex (brown) teats?

[FATEdestiny]

I've tried doing at same time every day when I'm sure she's hungry.

Try giving when she's not hungry. She s likely to be desperate and single minded about feeding when hungry, not the best time to learn a new skill.

So find times when she's not hungry, not tired and is quite happy/awake. She'll be in a better mood then.

When I was teaching my dd to take a teat (she also refused initially), I made the process about learning, not about actually feeding. Make it so it doesnt matter if she drinks the milk or how much she has, just that she is willing to have a go.

Another good ploy is the asleep feed. Giving a bottle (as you go to bed at night?) By lifting baby while sleeping and putting the year in her mouth. The hope is it develops a sleepy, dozing sucking reflex and adds to getting baby used to a teat.

[LimesMum]

Ok thanks for that advice - my mum suggested the same about just letting her get used to it and yesterday she sort of played with the test a bit rather than taking any milk.

I guess I find it frustrating as she had been taking it absolutely no problem so find it hard to think it's the learning a new skill but instead pure strong willed stubbornness!!

Had thought about the sleepy feed as a bottle but not actually tried through fear of waking her up into the huge meltdowns she has when we even show her a bottle!! But will definitely give that a go too

Thanks again all

[BertieBotts]

The thing is that babies don't really have a concept of refusing something for no reason at all. So it's unlikely to be stubbornness. It's quite common for them to change their minds about whether or not they'll take a bottle, often at around 3-4 months. I don't know if something changes physiologically for them at that time.

I agree with letting her explore and trying it that way or introducing it when she's not actually hungry. I wonder if part of it is that when they are very little they don't know when they're hungry or not, they just suck on instinct whatever you put in their mouth, breast, bottle, dummy, finger, they don't make the connection with being hungry or not. But once they're older, they have made the association that their usual feeding method leads to satisfying that particular hungry feeling and if it isn't quite what they were expecting they'll reject it because they don't understand that it's the milk which is satiating their hunger, they are looking for the whole experience - the texture of skin, the smell of your sweat/hormones/milk combined, the temperature of the milk, even the way they're being held. They don't know which of those things is the right thing that satiates hunger so to be safe, they hold out until they get all of it.

Some babies who are happier to switch between breast and bottle are perhaps a little less exact, a bit more laid back, or they have correctly identified the milk as being the right thing so they aren't as bothered by the method of delivery. But for your baby, she has just slightly misidentified, it would be like if you landed on an alien planet and were really hungry and people kept trying to give you a drink, you'd be frustrated and saying no, that isn't what I want, I need solid food that I can eat, not a drink! Later it turns out that this is some kind of futuristic food in liquid form, but you couldn't understand anybody's explanation of this, you just felt frustrated and so hungry that you didn't want to try the drink.

So the solution is either to trick her into feeling that the bottle experience is close enough to breastfeeding that she broadens the connection a bit (apparently latex is much closer to the natural texture/temperature of skin than silicone) or to let her explore the experience of the bottle when she's not desperately hungry, to give her the chance to discover that this is also another method for alleviating hunger.

[LimesMum]

Thanks - that all makes sense (although I do think she's stubborn!!! As was her sister!!)


I managed to get a few drops of milk into her today - this was formula and she just tasted it really but didn't go utterly mad like previously - but I really didn't push it at all

She gagged a fair bit when I put the teat in too much so I just held it right at her lips and let her sip a bit.

Most leaked out of her mouth tho!! She definitely didn't latch on as such!!

I've tried so many different bottles and cups now that I'm just sticking to the minbie which I know she has previously taken no problem ....

May have to leave her for a few hours this weekend and just see what happens when she is hungry and I'm not around?!

Really stressful!! Thanks again for advice so far - any other tips very welcome!!!