7 month old won't take bottle and i have to stop breastfeeding

[Tarabear]

hi, i'm a bit desperate. my seven month old is exclusively breast fed. i have rheumatoid arthritis and have been told to go back on the meds by the consultant. they don't recommend breast feeding on the meds and i feel at seven months i'd rather stop than risk any side effects for little jasper. anyway, he will not take the bottle. i've tried avent, tommee tippee closer to nature and nuk. he goes from a placid baby to a screaming, fighting one as soon as the bottle goes near him.

any tips? has anyone weaned a fighter? i'm desperate!!!! thanks, TARA

[soremummy]

I feel for you I struggled with bottles as well and at 15mths old now Im struggling even to get her to take a sippy cup don't mean to dishearten you but I tried all the bottles you did and never got anywhere. I do know of some children that will go straight to cup instead of bottle have you tried that? Also have you asked about different meds that would be ok to b/f whilst taking them?
Good luck Im sure someone else will come along with some ideas and sucess stories for you.

[poshtottie]

It took me months to get ds to take a bottle and when eventually he did it had to be from someone else. I think at 7 months I would try him with a cup.

[Flier]

Poor you. as others suggest, it may be best to go straight to cup. Is there someone else who can feed him? If so you should try to take yourself away for a couple of hours.
good luck,

[Olihan]

I would get in touch with one of the bfing organisations and ask about your meds - they are often much better informed of the reasearch into drug safety in bfing. At least if you have accurate info about how safe your drugs are it may take the pressure off having to wean quickly, or even at all, if you don't want to stop.

Have you tried getting someone else to give him a bottle while you're not in the room, or even in the house? My ds2 was a bit of a bottle refusnik and would point blank reject a bottle from me, or dh if he knew I was around to give a bf. However, he did take it from MIL if I'd been out for a while and he was really hungry. A few days of having a bottle from someone else may reassure him that it's okay and he gets food from it!

The only bottle ds2 would take was the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature but I know lots of people have had success with the First Years BF style bottle. Can't remember the actual name of it but I know Mothercare stock it. Quite a few MNers trialled it and most of their babies took it.

[StealthPolarBear]

double check the meds - HCPs often err on the side of extreme caution and drop the breastfeeding as it doesn't matter anyway!
Not saying they're wrong just...check.

[pickie]

I had this with DD, she point blank refused the bottle (we tried all sorts including a breast shaped bottle) and finally at 8 months DH warmed up a bottle warmer then normal and she drunk it without crying and seemed to prefer that from that day on.

Difficult one though!

[VictorianSqualor]

Is your medication listed here?
Call the BfN drug helpline 0844 412 4665.

If you still want to stop have you tried starting a breastfeed and slipping the bottle in? It's what I had to do to get DS2 to take one.

[ketchupkisses]

Tarabear. I suggest you phone one of the breastfeeding helplines. There have been lots of cases on mumsnet where it has turned out that it is ok to feed whilst taking medication. Only a tiny amount gets through to the milk, so on balance, breastmilk is still the best option (particularly if your baby is refusing formula).

Otherwise, all mine have refused a bottle and we only finally cracked it by me going out for the day. My husband held ds facing outwards on his knee (so different to normal feeding position) and elder brother sang to him as a distraction. Good luck.

[ketchupkisses]

Just to add, drugs companies are not required by law to test their drugs for suitability for breastfeeding mothers.

[katch]

It's true, you should contact a bf counsellor or your gp. I was told by a dentist that I couldn't bf due to some meds for a gum infection - gp said it was ok.

Also, a lot of women take anti-depressants (as I did briefly). It's obviously not the ideal situation, you'd rather everything was pure and perfect, but you have to look after yourself - just don't see it as necessarily the end of bf (which. btw, you're doing a great job of).

[vicky11]

I had the same problem!! One day after trying every bottle possible, I tried SMA instead of another brand and she wolfed it down!! Could have been coincidence but I was convinced it was the milk that
worked!!!!!!

[elmoandella]

my son was same age and fighting it. we just went cold turkey. he refused the milk all day. just taking his solids and water from cup.

by night time though he caved and drank a bottle. but we also switched to the follow on milk instead of infant formula for this last feed.

we tried him several times with the infant formula for the following days. but he still kept refusing.

so our method was a combination of cold turkey, and discovereing he prefered the follow on milk.

[Tarabear]

Thanks for all the advice! I've bought one of those nuk cup/bottles today and will try him with that. I've had conflicting advice about breastfeeding and medication. It's probably not so bad if I do take the pills and feed, but it's preferable not too. the consultant at Queen Charlotte's hospital advises not too if you can help it, so now that Jasper is 7 months I do feel that he's had all the benefits of breastfeeding.

I'll try heating up the milk a bit more too. we're off to stay with my mum for a week, so fingers crossed she'll get him going.

thanks so much for the tips. you've all really cheered me up!

love tara x

[merryberry]

these teats huge help with my bf babies taking bottles. from MAM. they fit fine in my avent bottles, didn't need to also get the (fiddly) mam bottles. they are much flatter these teats, more like the shape your nipples goes when feeding. HTH a little as well. good luck

[cookinmama]

Have had a similar prob with my dd refusing a bottle, ended up leaving her with MIL for the day and she eventually took one. Someone did suggest trying to feed with a nipple sheild though to get her used to the different texture of the bottle teat, I didn't try it but it sounded like a good thing to try if the day with MIL had failed.

[MissisBoot]

DD really refused a bottle but as I went back to work when she was 6 months I needed to get her to take something else.

What I did was slowly introduce a bottle half way through her first feed of the day - so that she wasn't starving but also there was no pressure for her to have it - at first she would only take 1/2 an oz but this slowly grew and after a fortnight or so she was taking about 5 oz in the morning, I then slowly dropped some of teh breastfeeds and replaced them with part bottle part bf.

HTH's?

[Romy7]

had to go cold turkey at 10 months with ds. he refused about 15 types of bottle/ teat/ cup/ ebm/ formula/ water/ juice, we even had a HV failing to spoon feed him anything (ok - not strictly true - she fought with him for 45 minutes and 1/2 oz of ebm had disappeared - i suspect over them both, rather than in him. syringe was tried too...

we went cold turkey and he had to go straight onto cow's milk (yes, yes, i know). dh had to do it but within 3 days it was all over and he's been fine since. (he had RSV at 11 weeks and had to be nebulised 5 times a day - since that point he wouldn't tolerate plastic anywhere near his face - he was a lot of fun as a baby. not.)

i totally feel for you - i had a rota of 'helpers' who would routinely take him away and try and feed him (inc HV) and he wasn't having any of it. we lived o'seas and it was over 30 every day - he fed 2 hourly, little sod. he's still as stubborn, but at least drinks out of a cup! good luck xx