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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To beg for your tips with a bottle refusing baby

55 replies

Bottlepanic · 31/07/2018 20:19

Please help! Baby is 4 months old and EBF. We’ve been trying to introduce a bottle for about a month but it’s just met with chewing
/mouthing the teat and then screaming.

We’ve tried dr Brown; medela calmer; Tommee tippee; nuby, and we’ve tried numbers 1 and 2 teats, but he hates them all.

We know he’s perfectly capable of doing it, because he’s taken one bottle from me, and he happily guzzled 4oz from a bottle for my friend at the weekend. But apart from that one anomaly, for me or his dad - nothing.

I have to go back to work in about 6 weeks and I haven’t been able to leave for more than a couple of hours for the last few months; it’s driving me absolutely crazy.

Did anyone have a bottle refuser and manage to turn it around? I’m pulling out my hair here

OP posts:

DesignStatement · 31/07/2018 20:38

Mine never had bottles ~ went from breast feeding to baby cup.

JennyBlueWren · 31/07/2018 20:40

My son (now 3) struggled with bottles introduced at the same stage. I waited until he'd fed a,bit from breast before bottle so not desperately hungry. Also left the house when he did bottles and he wore or held my jumper. Lots of screaming but eventually took.

Have you tried a cup? Didn't work for us but I've heard of it.

Not helpful for you now (or me then) but HV advised that the best time to introduce bottles was at 4 weeks which we have done for DD and she (now 4months) is happy with them.

tinymeteor · 31/07/2018 20:41

I'm in exactly the same position, it's a nightmare! Currently trying Minbie bottles but no luck yet. She just gnaws on them, shouts a bit and then gets properly pissed off.

VanellopeVonSchweetz99 · 31/07/2018 20:41

There are some premmie teats, a bit specialist as I recall, v soft and weirdly 'warm' to the tocuh, v easy flow, was the only thing DD would take, wish someone had told us when DS was born.

Haypanky · 31/07/2018 20:42

My bottle refusing daughter eventually took a munchkin latch bottle at about 5mo. After about 5 weeks of trying every day. I think it was just a case of trying every single day though rather than a magic bottle. My poor mum used to come out of work every day to try, but in the end she took it from me. My son took a mam bottle, younger age, they're supposed to have a high success rate for combination feeding.

Stoveding · 31/07/2018 20:42

We never really managed.

In the end we did something I would not recommend. We went cold turkey so totally stopped the bf and had someone else offer bottles instead.

It contributed to a massive wham of pnd as my body must have thought my baby had died or something. It was horrific.

Sorry, just a little warning from experience.

VanellopeVonSchweetz99 · 31/07/2018 20:43

Found it! In an old email to a friend who was tearing her hair out, she swears it saved her and her DDs life ...

NUK Standard Neck (narrow neck) Latex Teat Size 1 Medium hole 2

WibblyWobblyWho · 31/07/2018 20:45

I second nuk.

Original poster

Bottlepanic · 31/07/2018 20:50

Thanks all - i’ll Order a nuk.

Thanks for the warning too; that must have been awful :(

What do the cups look like - are they called breast cups or sippy cups or something? Might be worth getting one of those in too so DH can try it. I never foresaw this stress; our older one just took the bottle immediately.

OP posts:

jazzyfizzles · 31/07/2018 20:52

How about using a nipple shield during feeding, to give the sensation of a teat, but not. Then try with a bottle intermittently, maybe when he's not starving hungry otherwise he'll get frustrated.

Offer water in a bottle in between feeds for fun

stuckficks · 31/07/2018 20:54

My bottle refuser only took the NUK latex teats and only from 6 months once we'd started weaning - I'd been back at work a couple of weeks before she took it. I offered the same formula (she refused expressed milk altogether), at the same time of day every day for about 8 weeks before she finally took 4oz!
My second is also a boob snob (ffs!!) and just chews the NUK latex teats and have had slightly more success with the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles though. I've decided to wait til I start weaning with her too.
You could try a free flow sippy cup, a doidy cup or syringe feeding if your caregiver gets desperate

Bambamber · 31/07/2018 20:56

We skipped bottles altogether and used a doidy cup

Seasawride · 31/07/2018 21:02

I stopped BF all of mine outright. I couldn’t be srsed with the stopping this feed and that. Was similar to daisy the cow and uncomfortable for 2 days and then all gone. Mine were slightly older then you wen I gave up so 6 months.

Do be careful using nipple shields. I did as had nipple thrush and then got mastitis. Agony.

None of my 6 had bottles all refused and went into sippy cups.

PurplePotatoes · 31/07/2018 21:03

A friend of mine had success with a Minbie bottle.

Aquamarine1029 · 31/07/2018 21:06

Neither of mine ever used a bottle. They were both using sippy cups at 4 months. Save yourself the aggravation and skip the bottle.

Trillis · 31/07/2018 21:08

We used the Avent easy sip cups with handles for our baby who wouldn't take a bottle. They had a soft, chewy spout. He was EBF, but we needed something from about 4 months when I wanted to be out occasionally, and he also was starting nursery at 6 months for full days, so needed him to be happy taking milk from something (this was years ago and mat leave was shorter than it is now). We went through a range of bottles/teats and he refused all, but he took to the easy sip cups straight away - maybe it helped that the sippy spout was so totally different from the breastfeeding he was used to. It wasn't long before he was using the handles to hold the cup himself - though I can't remember exactly how old he was when he was doing this, but definitely still little.

Teacherlikemisstrunchball · 31/07/2018 21:09

Ds refused bottles and so we went straight onto free flow sippy cups at about 8 months. (The cheapo Tommee tippee one’s in the bright colours that cost about £1.50 in any supermarket). I used to strap him in the pushchair after his naps and walk quickly into town with him facing away from me and him looking around at what was going on and he’d drink it before he even really realised what he was doing! He was a big baby with good head control and he could hold his own drink easily by that time. I couldn’t hold him and give him milk ever until I’d stopped BF completely at about 10mo.

DesignStatement · 31/07/2018 21:09

OP - just a normal non spill lidded baby cup with handles - no teat involved. They just sip out the little vent/spout. No bottle involved

VanellopeVonSchweetz99 · 31/07/2018 21:09

Good on you, get the NUK.
Word of warning: Once used to it baby will feed v fast & v likely chuck it all up again.
Ah, this takes me back ...

ElspethTascioni · 31/07/2018 21:11

Mam bottles worked here! But my DD never accepted any bottle ever. She went to nursery at six months and just went cold turkey during the day, had solids and water in a sippy cup and then BF as much as she could during evenings/nights/weekends to make up for it. She was fine!

DesignStatement · 31/07/2018 21:12

One like this

To beg for your tips with a bottle refusing baby

DesignStatement · 31/07/2018 21:13

This even

ThatsWotSheSaid · 31/07/2018 21:14

I managed to get dd to take a bottle by breast feeding first then switching to bottle after a few minutes. But trying to do it so she almost didn’t notice. It worked for us.

shinyredbus · 31/07/2018 21:16

Sorry I can’t help - we tried everything including the bottle that is shaped like a nipple and had a 30 day money back guarantee - we had to return the bottle. We just gave up in the end.... we went through every single bottle avaible to buy.

WonderTweek · 31/07/2018 21:16

A mum in my mums group had the same problem and the baby was due to start nursery at 5 months. The nursery just got him on a sippy cup and he was reasonably happy drinking breast milk out of it. They started weaning him at just before 6 months too and he was eating a decent amount of solids, so that and the breast milk in sippy cup worked for him when he was in nursery. Good luck!

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