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?

Try lots of different teats and sippy cup spouts. I know it's an absolute pain in the frigging arse but they do often seem to have preferences. Maybe get friends to lend you theirs so you aren't having to buy a whole load to see if they work.

Also, is he more accepting of a bottle if you're not there in the room? That sometimes happens.

@ZaphodBeeblerox good luck to her tomorrow. I'm sure everything will be fine!
I've been using expressed milk for breakfast too.
The baby has no problems going to bed, as long as I BF before bed. He sleeps around 8ish, then up every 4h for a feed, sometimes 3h. It's exhausting though. I know I'm at home at the moment, but I'm so tired.

@WhatIsSleep123 It definitely won't matter in the future. Honestly my DS is the light of my life (he's my only child) and I love the bones of him

@AynRandTheObjectivist that's a good idea to borrow from friends. Will chat to other mums tomorrow.
The baby bluntly refused a bottle when DH was out with him over the weekend. He was definitely hungry as he didn't have a feed for 5h but wouldn't take a bottle. I was miles away!

@Athena51 awww bless him! I never had any problems before. My older DC were totally fine. Fingers crossed this one will be ok too!

We started on a soft spout cup around 7 months , but took out the bit that made him suck so it was free flow.

Ah, that's frustrating. Just that I know sometimes they are a bit more adventurous when the mother isn't around.

If you go to a baby group that has a Facebook page, see if you can put a call out that way for people to bring bottles and cups for you to try.

You could also try getting the milk into things like porridge if he'll eat it.

Also talk to the nursery/childminder. They'll definitely have seen this before and they'll have some suggestions.

Good luck. I know it's awful.

@WhatIsSleep123 I'm sorry, I wish I had a better suggestion. I need to chuck out the stash of breastmilk from the freezer to make space for milk from the new one, it's 18 months out of date.
When are you back at work? I found that the frequency of daytime feeds had already decreased a fair bit between 6 months and 8.5 months when I went back to work. I don't know how I got through the exhaustion but somehow I did. I went away for a work trip when DS was 13 months and left him with DH and they had no choice but to get through it, that's when he switched to cows milk and we stuck with it when I got back. He still woke 2 or 3 times a night but DH and I could then alternate and that's so much more do-able. DS just turned 2 and last night he slept through, I woke at 3am and panicked about whether he was OK!
In 6 weeks I'm about to start again, I must be insane....

Mine were both breastfed and a 6 months went straight on to a feeding cup. No bottle involved.

Had the best intention in the morning, but somehow didn't get to try any of the suggestions today. There is always tomorrow!
Thank you so much for all the suggestions, I've got a long list of things to try.

Both mine refused bottles. I think they let us consistency. Choose how you would like to feed them (bottle/soppy cup etc) and try it consistently at the same time every day for 10/15 mins. Then move on with no fuss. I did this with mine at about 6 months at their first feed of the day and they both eventually took the bottle.

Not sure of anyone else suggested but munchkin bottles with straws worked with us from 8months, which is when we first tried them. Before that we used about 15 different bottles and cups and none worked.

Mine was a bottle refused too. Eventuallybwe cracked it with later teats and being consistent in terms of regularly trying even if he just played with the teat in his mouth. Eventually he took and bottle and now will take silicone teats too.

Ugh, I feel your pain. My son refused to take a bottle, or a cup, and didn't want solid food until 9 months. And even then, he was very fussy and ate very little. I was so restricted in what I could do for ages! I tried everything, but he is someone who would starve rather than take a bottle or eat something he doesn't like.

Some success today. The baby had 2oz of freshly expressed milk in a bottle. He basically drank everything in it, but then started playing with the bottle when I topped up with more milk. I will add 3-4oz tomorrow and see how it goes.

@Areyoufree sounds just like mine. He would rather starve and scream the house down than take a bottle or try different food! He's very strong willed! Argh