20 week old won't take bottle

[surprisenumber3]

Have BF DD since she was born, she is 20 weeks. she sleeps 12 hours, then is awake 12 hours (no naps), almost like clockwork. she feeds about every 90 mins in the day and then I have to express at night because I get so uncomfortable (donate it to NICU). I have 2 other DC's and occasionally now have to go out for an hour or two without her. But she won't take a bottle and it is causing dreadful problems. Have tried different teats, bottles etc but she seems to hate teats. Also would never have a dummy. Put a teat in her mouth and she looks like she's sucking a lemon!

Because of the feeding situation, over the last few weeks she has started to cry if she can't see me, even if her dad or her nan are there. She cries until she sees me again. The other night I went to parents evening and was out a total of one hour. She cried for a total of one hour. DH thought she was ill, but she stopped the second I walked in.

I know there is no magic solution but if anyone else has experienced this I would appreciate anything that would help.

[mumblecrumble]

No ideas... but there will be someone here with sam problem.

Sorry for your nightmare, Congrats on breast feeding so long!

Bump for you

[MrsShrekTheThird]

oh lordy, all mine were the same... gagged on teats, couldn't stand them in their mouth, didn't have dummies either. we just cut out the bottle idea altogether and went straight for a cup - although I am making that sound way more simple than it actually was, ds1 liked the tommee tippee cups and the anyway up ones, ds2 and dd both liked these things. All took several goes with various cups ....errr, d'you want a bag full.... (actually I'm serious, I cleared out the cupboard last week!)

[MrsShrekTheThird]

and, err, a life-size cut-out of you?

btw, my dc all liked their expressed / milk from a cup, very warm, don't know if that has anything to do with it

[woodvine]

same problem with my 20 wk princess- screams if she sees the bottle. just begining to win with a training cup from asda- looks like bottle with flat teat but used hot needle to open hole so milk flows freeley as she can't work out how to suck! at least yours sleeps at night- we are still on 2hrly feeds 24/7!!

[deliakate]

Who has offered her the bottle so far? I have heard they won't take it from mummy - even if she's in the same room they can reject it.... has your dh tried it?

[shootfromthehip]

Sorry but both of mine were like this- I gave up in the end and they went on to solid food and then I gave up bf completely. DS eventually took a bottle at about 7 mths but only one a day- DD NEVER took one. I used a sippy cup for liquids with formula in but neither drank much from it. The Tommy Tippy beakers were good too.

[surprisenumber3]

thanks everyone.
I have tried her with the Tommy tippy cups and she doesn't mind that, but she doesn't take enough from it to be a substantial feed IYSWIM.

Shrek - when she has taken sips of milk, it has had to be very warm, yes.

delia - we have tried DH giving it her, but she won't do that either

breakthrough though...she stayed with DH for almost an hour today even though she couldn't see me

[MrsShrekTheThird]

yay! progress! Never said this was easy, wishing you lots of luck

[BertieBotts]

At 20 weeks I would have thought she'd be ok for an hour or 2 without milk, and if not she will be starting on solids in a couple of months, (increasing the amount of time between feeds) so I wouldn't worry too much. Just feed her before you go

[surprisenumber3]

thanks Bertie, but she cries when she can't see me. she has been a bit better with her daddy this weekend but we tried a bottle again today when she was happy and she just screamed the second she saw the bottle