going back to work in 2 weeks and cant get him off the boob

[vis]

oh oh -

1. 5 1/2 mths. used to take a bottle on/off in the evenings from 6weeks- now has refused for a month- meltdown screaming.
2. Start work and just don't know what to do.

3.Have tried doidy/sippy cup/bottle. managed to sneak 5 oz into him from bottle after last night bath time...the room was dark and i think i managed to fool him into thinkig it was my boob??!!

sooo
he started nursery- and thats another thread since in there desire to get him the bottle- i sae them feeding him whilst he was flat on his back on the play mat.

soo has anyone tried the no boob and wait till there hungry to take bottle??? since i have run out of ideas.

( have started puree stuff last couple of days )

[mehdismummy]

what hours to you have to work? My sil dd would not take bottle from mum but would from me. They think why should i take it from bottle when mummy is here. Have you tried baby rice?

[vis]

yeh he does love his baby rice, last coupel of days..but he will be in nursery from 830 to 6 some days so needs to take fluid ( even water ) some how....

[clareyooo]

My DD would not take bottle at this age. in the end I just had to be harsh and leave her till hungry. She got on better with the soft beaker type lids ( that fit avent bottles) and has never ever drunk ou t of a teat. SYMPATHY! it makes life so much eaSIERif they will...

[mehdismummy]

yes avent beaker good. I was lucky went back to work when ds ten months and only work nights. Will only drink out of empty fruit shoot bottles! Loves his water

[vis]

well this is strange- afetr his bath just now and i took in a bottle ( he did have 5 oz last night at the same time )- and what! he took 4 oz no compliant....and thats after today of total meltdown to the point me and dh just sitting in lounge crying........is it the relaxed after bath thing??

anyway thanks will look up the avent beaker.....

[Lottiedotsmum]

I have a 3 month daughter who refuses to take a bottle of expressed milk. How do you do it? I only need it for day feeds not evening or nightime, and not for everyday. I've tried avent and breastflow bottles and teats, sneaking it in while she's feeding, when she's hungry, not hungry. But she's not interested. I never had any dificulty with my older girls (who are now 13 & 10) so I naively thought it would be straight forward this time, was I ever wrong!!I need help please, any suggestions, all comments and tips welcome

[mehdismummy]

is it you giving her the bottle?

[nannynz]

I'm a nanny and really had to perservere with one of my charges when mother went back to work. He would quite happily go 10 hours with nothing going in his mouth. I basically tried everything, even having a few tears of myself.

He did better on a NUK bottle

EBM had to be quite warm

When I first started I fed him in car seat, bouncy seat, pram, while he watched DVD - as long as he was facing away from me

Then when i started holding him I did not look at him or hold him tightly, he basically lay propped on pillow on my lap

I would hold nipple on his lips, if he fussed I would move it away, and continue doing this for up to an hour or sooner if he got distressed. It didn't worry the mother or me if he did not eat as he didn't lose any weight and made up in the night for it.

After six weeks he started taking bottle consistently, there was still times occasionlly he would not take it but really it's not the end of the world as babies won't starve them selves.

He was three months when I started. Be consistent and try not to worry to much as they will pick up on it.

I think of it this way if for some reason a solely BF baby could not be fed by mother because of accident etc the baby would eventually have to drink from bottle. Babies don't have nipple confusion they have nipple preference and if baby knows there's mummy's milk why would they want to drink out of a plastic thing!

[mehdismummy]

is it you giving her the bottle?

[hobbsy]

i have been having the same problem with my DD 2 1/2 months. She has been taking one bottle feed regularly but has started to reject it which is causing alot of tears and frustration. There is a chapter in 'what to expect when you're breastfeeding...and what if you can't' by clare byam cook, about bottle rejection and she offers advice as to how to slve the problem. Haven't tried it as not in any hurry to stop breast feeding but may need to take her advice when i'm nearer to going back to work.
Good luck

[choolie]

took us a long while to get DS to take a bottle, best thing is to try not to get stressed at they so pick up on that. Keep offering, keep offering, different settings, different positions etc. DS needed no distraction or noise whatsoever, some babies prefer something going on around to take mind off the btl itself. we too found the after bath time good, but basically offered at all time of the day, but only offered once or twice (be prepared to pour loads away at the beginning! - are you trying EBM or formula? - obviously easier if formula as does not run out, EBM usually more limited to how much you have in store!) found doidy cup useful too, and little spoonfuls.
Tommee tippee closer to nature worked for us, but I know they've not worked for others.

But also, DS actually stopped wanting to feed so much in the day at this age also, as too much intersting stuff going on around him, so you could always try to catch him just before or straight after nap time when sleepy?

[nannynz]

hobbsy - have you tried a faster flow of nipple - another one of my charges started to fuss and not take bottle but when we changed flow she started drinking them again.

[vis]

yeh choolie- i think the no noise or distraction thing may work- and when he doesnt want to fight!

nannynz- i agree that he will come to no harm since when he gets back into my arms after work the feeding will begin ( if he has refused in nursery ) BUT since not co-sleeping , if he feeds more thru the night that will really ruin sleep...

it is an awfull thing to have to go thru long with the emotions of going back to work- i am just keeping my head above water...anyway good to talk..

[morocco]

if it is reassuring, lots of mums are quite happy for their babies to go 12 hours without fluids at that age, it's just that it's at night time . sorry - I know that is a bit flippant but I'm hoping you will see what I'm trying to say. what I mean is, even if he does refuse a bottle/cup/straw completely he will probably make up for lost time when he sees you again in the evening and turn night into day if that makes sense? not ideal for you if he does a lot of night time feeds but also not a health concern for him. a few weeks is a long time for a baby, maybe give it a miss with the bottles and let the nursery try in a few weeks when he's forgotten the stress that is building up around getting him to have a bottle/cup. he could have sloppy foods with lots of liquids in at nursery for his meals and might take some water even if it's not milk
(the feeeding on back thing doesn't sound great though)

[hobbsy]

i'll definately try that but there are also times when the bottle hasn't got to her mouth before she starts sceaming...an absolute belter this evening!

[vis]

hobby i know what you mean..
its got to a point that i think i am positively rewarding by offering a boob after a good scream....ie scream lots at this plastic bottle and your prize is a lovely boob and cuddle!

i agree with choolie, after offering a couple of times you know if its going to happen- or not and hence sticking to 2 goes at a time may avoid meltdown.

my hubby mentioned the real sloppy food for liquid intake whilst at nursery.....still want to make a go of it....going into town to find more 'magic' plastic things t sick into his poor mouth...

[nannynz]

vis - the baby I mentioned above did wake more time during the night(the mother was not co sleeping and still I'm not sure how she had the energy to feed 3 -4 times at night and work all day) BUT it was a short term solution. I slept trained him(took one night of crying for 15 minutes)at 5.5 months, he's now 17 months and still sleeping well and adjusted well to nursary with others giving bottle after I left.

With him the best solution was for him not to become upset, it took a lot of paitence to get drips of EBM in his mouth until he took a whole bottle.

Other's that I talked to said they would just hold bottle in mouth until baby drank it.

I also think the reason it only lasted 6 weeks is that the mother was not there during the day so he had no other option. So really he wasn't rewarded by BF if he did not drink the bottle, BUT he still got the BF at other times of day when he wanted.

Keep trying, it'll take time.

[Princesspowersparkle]

Hello

To get my DD to take the bottle we put aside a weekend and offered her nothing but the bottle. By the end of the first day she was guzzling from it!
It was hard to hear her crying but as my DH was there to help we managed to persevere with it. We would try for a few minutes with her and if she got too distressed we'd put the bottle away and try again in an hour or 2. It worked for us and she will still take a bottle now, even though I don't give her one everyday.

Good luck xx

[vis]

princesspowersparkle...how old was dd???

[BirdyArms]

My ds2 was 6.5 mths when I went back to work and I tried every suggestion around but the thing that eventually worked was withdrawing the boob completely. First of all tried not feeding him for a day - he went quite happily for around 10 hours then was grumpy for an hour or so then took a couple of ounces. Then breastfed him again which with hindsight was a big mistake - was totally back to square one and repeated the same pattern the next day. I was getting worried that he was going to start going all day without milk whilst I was at work then feed all night so I stopped feeding him at all, for 3 days I think, and expressed until he was taking a bottle happily then reintroduced the morning and evening feeds.

I did this in desperation but it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Didn't involve any screaming but a couple of hours of jiggling to stop him crying when he was hungry and refusing to take a bottle.

Good luck!

[vis]

birdy in arms
yep with head in hands and a guilty heart we have begun the same process.

thanks for the the tip to prevent going back to square one....i was going to do as i meant to carry on, ie feed at night and bottle by day ..but won't do until he gets the bottle..

.

[vis]

An update
boob feed at 7am...then refused bottle untill 2pm- took 6oz ( formula). then next at 6pm took 8oz ( breast milk ) . !!!! so thru the night we shall still do bottles and see how the day goes tomorrow.........................interesting his np times etc have not chnaged.
now i am left with what do i do with the nursery ( another thread! )

[mandymac]

My DD was the same going to nursery at just over 6 months. I tried some boots training beakers with a soft flat spout a few weeks before hand (she had refused bottle since about 6 weeks old). I first let her get used to drinking a little water out of it (holding it her self as it has handles either side), then when she was happy taking water, I put a bit of EBM in. This was literally the week before she started nursery. She was fine and when nursery offered the beakers, but she always fed herself.

[BirdyArms]

Well done vis, sounds like you've cracked it. When I did similar I was surprised that ds2's nap times didn't change - we get used to thinking that they are completely dependent on regular milk feeds but at that age I guess they aren't.

[vis]

yeh birdyarms..i suppose some of those books i have been reading about food not realted to sleep may be right??!

he took 7am bottle 5oz breast and 11am bottle8 oz breast !!

now we need to get him to take it from hubby then the nursery !!