To ask for your tips on getting a BF baby to accept a bottle?

[Monkeynuts18]

Hi everyone

I’m sorry that this isn’t an AIBU but I’m a bit desperate and posting for traffic.

I’ve done plenty of Googling on this topic but have found with other things that often personal experience of others is often really helpful!

I’ve found out I need to have surgery next week so I need my 16 week old EBF baby to accept a bottle of EBM or formula.

We have tried a couple of different types of bottles (Medela and Tommee Tippee) but he just howls and howls!

Has anyone else been in a similar position and managed to persuade them to accept a bottle? Any advice/suggestions gratefully received. Thank you!

Mine never managed it either, will drink water out of a cup but not breastmilk or formula.

There's a group on Facebook called 'breastfeeding younger babies and beyond' which has a lot of very experienced breastfeeders on it- you might get some more advice there?

I tired a few different bottles until I tried the Tesco Value bottles as they tears are so soft. A few other people I know were only able to use these too.

Otherwise the calpol syringe a PP mentioned is a good idea (although takes a while)

Get dad or another adult the baby knows well to feed the baby when you aren't there. My LO was taken out for a walk, got hungry and was fed by my DP as I wasn't there.

Start with the cheapest bottles you can find and work up the price range. We started with the expensive ones we got given by friends as they hadn't used them but found our LO was happy with Boots or Asda ones.

I forgot to say don't pretend you aren't there. You simply mustn't be there.

Dd eventually took a munchkin latch from boots. I think the key is persistence rather than a particular kind of bottle being 'the one'. My mum came out of work early every day for a fortnight to try to get Dd to take a bottle for me to no avail, in the end she took it from me! Making it hotter than you would think is a good tip from a pp.

Agree with PP- DD wouldn't take the bottle from me, but would from DH or MIL. I had to not hold her or be near her for it to work.
Good luck.

I had one who loved a bottle and one who hated them. The bottle refuser liked his expressed milk in a bone china teacup. Ideally, he would be on his dad's lap getting some help to manage the cup and I should be sitting opposite drinking from a matching cup. Same child insisted on having the same cutlery as the rest of us for his first solid food meal!

Haven't rtft but our kids' breakthrough was making it really warm! They wouldn't touch it at 'normal' temperature but got straight on when it was as warm as we dared.

Still took a few weeks though, trying different positions etc.
Obvious but don't stress (easier said than done)

I have this problem with my second who is 9 months now. Currently trying to push a nuk beaker/bottle but not going well! I think she'll end up using a cup but we will see. I have various bottle I tried/was given which I'm happy to send you if you can cover postage? I also have a minbie 3 month+ bottle which I was about to try and sell if you're interested? I tried the 6+ months one but still no joy, and they're so expensive! Not meant to be a sales pitch sorry but just take the freebies if you would like to try

The only thing which worked for us was either a Doidy cup (quite messy in the beginning) and a Tommy Tippee First cup as there is no sucking involved.

We fully swapped to formula around 6 months and never used a bottle apart from preparing the feed.

Good luck.

Only MAM bottles worked for us, also our baby didn’t want my expressed milk- only took warm formula ( at first). Took me a week of daily battling ( 10-15 min of crying, 1-2 ounces at a time) to get her to take it happily though.

Mine refused bottles from 10 weeks onwards. He has drunk water and EBM out of a sippy cup since five months though.

I would leave dad with a feeding cup and plenty of EBM, then drink plenty of water after surgery and start feeding again asap. I shouldn’t think you’d be that dehydrated otherwise they’d be giving you IV fluid.

You won’t loose your supply by being nbm,
If you feed baby just before you go in and ask if you can go first, you might not even need to give a bottle.

Apart from forgetting it? I would try a little sippy cup instead. I'd say it's pretty impossible unless they are starving.

Honestly? I just stopped. I decided the day and time and from that point on didn’t offer any more bf. Cold turkey. DD refused bottle for a few hours but then I got a bottle and gently dropped some of the formula on her mouth. Poor thing must have been pretty thirsty by that point and so she took those drops and from then the bottle. All done on one day. I think the issue is when people continue to offer boob while introducing the bottle. Mixed messages don’t work with babies.

Heat it up. In the microwave. Hot, not burning and do be careful. Worked for us.

DH took Dd to his mums for 3 days without me. She had to take a bottle in the end as there really was nothing else. Very hard but it did the trick and she took a bottle. About a week later when I could bf again she switched straight back without any problem.

I found expressing slow so when I went out DH gave the pre made little bottles you get in packs from the supermarket think they were cow and gate they worked well - later on he would use a Tommee tippe if necessary- hope you find a solution and hope all goes well x

Mam bottles here as well.

Thanks so much fir all your replies! I’m pleased to say we’ve had some limited success today with some of the tips on here - cheap long thin teats from the chemist, making the EBM much much warmer, and me leaving the house completely. I can’t pretend he’s taking the bottle perfectly but he drank about 30ml from it this afternoon without howling which definitely feels like progress!

Thanks so much again for all the tips, I really appreciate them!!

Haven't read all the replies so not sure if somebody has already made this suggestion.

Try the Minbie bottle, read the reviews, it's amazing.

My first wouldn't take a bottle and I didn't want that again with my second. After talking to a few bottle feeders for advice, I bought cheapo Tesco bottles and the fastest flowing teats. Worked really well! Good luck op.

I'v used an avent 'closer' bottle, she took it well and didn't seem overwhelmed by the flow etc. Have you read up on how to offer it such as letting baby come to the bottle rather than putting it straight in their mouth etc. I do think there is a bit of luck as to whether babies will take bottles.

We're doing it third time round now. We've managed the other two and they have been generally difficult babies. Firstly keep at it, we now stop if he gets too stressy as once he's wailing he's not going to take it, or maybe he would eventually but you'll break first. Don't wait until he seems to need a feed as if he's hungry he'll just get upset at not being able to be filled up. Let him just play with the teat, chewing on it and stuff and some milk will come out so he gets a taste when he's not super hungry so isn't disgusted and horrified at it not being the "right" milk. Definitely make sure you're out of the room, if you're in there he's likely to glare at you like you're some kind of traitor and then start screaming (in my experience). Don't bother doing it yourself, all of mine have taken it from me but refused to take it from anyone else, which is pointless. Jiggle (baby and/or bottle), sing, chat, praise, standing up helps but most of all whoever is doing it needs to be chilled out. Good luck!

I highly recommend Minbie bottles. They have worked for both of our BF children.