BF baby won't take bottle

[WhatIsSleep123]

Posting here for traffic. NC as I need some help to get my 6 month old baby to sleep more and drink milk from a bottle.

What I don't understand is: although he's never had formula before, he had expressed milk from a bottle before and it was fine. Now he totally refuses it, takes ages to have 10-20ml of expressed milk from a bottle. I'm going back to work soon and don't know what to do. My other DC didn't have any problems.

Please help. Did you DC refuse to take a bottle? What did you do?

Both of mine did. DS1 took a bottle happily at 3 months and refused at 6 months. We over straight to sippy cups. DS2 always refused and again sippy cups were the option.

DD never took a bottle but around 6 months suddenly decided that she would drink out of a soft spout sippy cup (she liked the MAM ones).
I also made the decision to stop trying to express and just made her formula. I’m sure I’ll get shot down on here but it was just one more stress that I didn’t need! I made it slightly warmer than I would’ve done with DS (would was bottle fed) and that seemed to help.
I hope you find something that works xx

As above, plus he'll be eating food soon so he won't starve when you leave him! My 6 month old would always eat a fromage frais from a spoon.

@DelurkingAJ maybe something happens at 6 months then?!
I tried a sippy cup today and it didn't work. He didn't suck any milk at all from it. Then I tried a free flowing cup and he would close his mouth and refuse it as soon as milk came out of it! Argh!

Yes. Mine had bottles of expressed milk up to three months then point blank refused. We started introducing a free flow sippy cup at six months and he was pretty good with it in a couple of weeks.
I went to work at that point and he never drank the volume of milk some babies do but thrived anyway. Slept through from 10 months and stopped bf entirely at 13mo.

Hi, I had the same dilemma. I just kept trying, and used lots of different recepticles (bottles, Tommy tippee, glass). In the end she took from a glass first, then we moved to a bottle as that had less spillage. I tried to use freshly expressed milk as I thought she would accept that better (apparently it can taste funny after being in the fridge). Also getting my partner to try helped too (she knew she could get the real deal from me!). This worked for solids too.

If you find put how to make them sleep let me know . Mines a year.
Good luck!

Should add ds was a control freak and needed to have the cup entirely himself no adult helping. He was the same with food / spoons too.

@LoopyLou1981 I have a soft one, I think it's a nuby cup. He needs to suck to get milk out, but he is not interested at all. I've tried giving him formula, but it makes him cry. Maybe it smells differently to my milk?!
I have lots of expressed milk in the freezer, they might even go out of date if he doesn't start drinking it soon! Argh!

My second didn’t have bottles. She only drank from a straw cup when she started weaning and was having water.

I went back at 9 months - she had milk in the morning and evenings/nights from me.

My first had a bottle - made no difference to sleep.

@RedHelenB The baby is having some solids, but not much. He seems to be very fussy. My first DC was a walk in the park, would eat anything.

Mine totally refused, wasted hours sitting in the nursing room at work expressing - just reverse cycled, had food and a little water from a sippy cup at nursery then a feed when I got home, one at bedtime, two or three overnight and one in the morning. He was just great, I was on my knees with exhaustion! At 12 months he was perfectly happy to have a cup of fridge cold cows milk instead! I wish we’d tried the 360 cup earlier, he seemed to hate everything with a teat or spout.

Have you tried dipping the spout in the milk first so that he can taste it and (hopefully) work out that he’ll get more if he sucks?x

@museumum it seems to be a pattern with refusing bottles, interesting!
I will keep trying the free flow cup and hopefully he should take it soon.
He was sleeping through at 4 months, but now wakes up 2-3 times for a feed during the night.

Hi, I have a seven month old and was told by the health visitor to replace one feed at roughly the same time with bottle or sippy cup, she said babies often will hate anything you give them because it's different to what they're used to but to be patient and persist. It worked for us so I hope you have some luck too, very difficult at first but much easier after a couple of weeks.

DS wouldn't take a bottle at all. When I went back to work after 7 months (this was back in the mid 90s when maternity leave was less generous) I carried on feeding him morning and evening until he was over a year but he happily used a sippy cup.

Mine liked the milk far hotter than I would have ever chosen to serve it! Used to warm tear upside down in the neck of the bottle so that got warmed up in the steam too.

@EveHen we have tried so many different bottles. Not much luck!
Interesting about the freshly expressed milk, will try that tomorrow.
The baby seems to take the bottle better with me, he doesn't stop crying when DH tries to feed him with a bottle.

We got this for DD

Also have you tasted the expressed milk? Sometimes it’s weird - soap like.

Also my dd was fussy with food - she has intolerances and mild allergies

@Believeitornot I'm planning on carrying on BF when I go back to work, but would like the baby to have milk from a bottle while I'm out during the day.

I had the same, but it was formula she was refusing. Heating up to hot was the only thing that worked. Now 15 months and still insists on her cows milk being warmed before she drinks!

@DrWhy I'm running out of storage space in the freezer. At this rate, it will all go to waste anyway. I can't be feeding at night when I go back to work, I'm so tired as it is!

mine did the same. I spent ages trying lots of different bottles & then found it was better to pick one and just be consistent - offer the bottle at the same time of day (no other snacks within an hour or so) every day for a week. And then they will take it,.

@LoopyLou1981 I'm trying the tomorrow. Will put milk all over the cup to see if the baby drinks any. Thank you.

I had this with my little one. I breastfed for 7 months but she refused point blank to take ANY sort of bottle or cup. It was so frustrating. In the end I had a huge weekend away planned which I almost cancelled but with the support of my partner and mother i went anyway and she took the bottle almost from the moment I left! No problem. She knew I wasn't even in the house to feed her. So maybe someone else could help you out.