How do I get my baby to take a bottle?

[Bonbonbon]

Can anyone give me advice on how to get my 10 month old to take a bottle?

It would be nice if dad could look after her for more than 2-3 hours! Also I'd like to reduce bf with a view to stop at around 1 year old when she will start daycare. At the very least she should be able to drink milk while she's there and I could bf in evening.
Stopping completely is more complicated as the bf is very much tied into sleeping. (BF to sleep for naps and at night with waking every 1.5hr -that's another discussion!)

We tried various teats, bottles and sippy cups. She doesn't really drink much water either, but currently favours the Ikea sippy cup with handles for this.
At around 4.5 months we had a period of trying hard to get her to take a bottle with expressed milk. She seemed to just not understand what to do.
Now she does, as I've seen her drink water from both bottle and sippy cup. Today I gave her some formula in a sippy cup. I guess she thought it was water as she drank a mouthful but then batted it away when I tried to give her more. Bottles she tends to bat away or just chew on/play with.

So where do I go from here? When/how would be best to try? Should I refuse breast until she gives in? That doesn't sound great and she's very stubborn so not sure it would work anyway! Should dad do it instead of me? Any tips, tricks, advice or stories would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I'm not looking to start a discussion on the benefits of bf beyond a year, though I respect those who wish to do so.

Tbh if you baby is able to use a sippy cup, I wouldn't pursue the bottle not at 10 months. I would continue to bf until 12 months as you have been reducing the feeds slowly and replacing feeds with the cup.

You did great to feed for this long :-)

Formula milk is pretty rank, you may be better trying her on normal cows milk from a sippy cup.

2 of my four DC gave up milk pretty much altogether around this age, just weren't bothered!

Does she eat much food?

Oh that's an interesting thought, @knaffedoff ? Do toddlers not have a bottle before/at bedtime? Or is that just another thing to wean them off further down the line?

@RandomMess yes it is, yuck! But I thought they couldn't have cow's milk till 1year old? She's only just 10m. I feel like I'm completely clueless and missing something here.... Don't they rely on milk to make up a large part of their diet until they're ..... 2 or 3?!
My lo is an ok eater but is still very reliant on milk

It depends on what else they eat etc.

Thing is it is a comfort thing as well. I would try and break the feeding to sleep if that is what you are doing. Feed to drowsy but not actually asleep and so on.

You may find at nursery baby just copes without milk during the day and catches up in the evening/night...

One of mine was a bottle addict and was disgusted when they disappeared around 2.5 and replaced with a cup only!!!

My eldest was bottle fed from birth and like I said gave up milk altogether for years around 11 months! The younger three were breastfed but their interest in having a feed was all very different by a year old - babies are weird!

I wouldn't bother introducing a bottle now, as other posters have said.

Mine never had bottles - when I went back to work at a year they had morning and evening breastfeeds (continued up till two) and during the day just food and water in a sippy cup. They were absolutely fine.

If you want to stop breastfeeding you could just replace with cows milk from 12mo in a soppy cup.

I remember leaving my eldest for a whole day at ten months and she must have been fine with food and water from a cup.

Thanks for your replies, ladies. Really interesting to hear your experiences. I guess I'll not bother with a bottle then.

Sorry bonbon just seen your reply. The recommendations were to wean from the bottle at 12 months. Glad you made your decision!

I agree with PPs. My DD is 11 months. I went back to work 2 months ago. She has food and water in the day, plus some milk in cereal. I was told that at 9 months they need 2-3 milk feeds in 24 hours to get the nutrition needed. This is a minimum, more is fine. So if you are breastfeeding twice (sounds like you are doing a lot more!) then you can give food/water in the day. In practise, she might get cross at this though, depending on how much she loves her food.

In terms of bedtime, you can transition to a cup once you stop breastfeeding. As previously mentioned, it is advised to wean off bottles fairly early. That can be hard to do so it is worth skipping bottles all together if they aren't taking one by this age.

Also, we have a doidy cup, an open cup on a slant and DD loves that. It needs supervision(!) but she 'gets it' more than sippy cups etc.