EBF 8 week old rejecting bottle. Help!

[Itsjustme1]

Hi guys,

I've got a work event coming up next Friday which I really don't want to miss, but my 8 week old EBF DS isn't taking well to a bottle.

It's the first time we've tried it and my OH attempted to give him some expressed milk, DS just ended up crying so we stopped and I fed him myself.

Trying tomee tipee closer to nature bottles.

Anyone got any advice? My older DS took to it no problem.

TIA Xx

Hi

My EBF baby was just the same. It took a lot of patience and perseverance! I tried several times throughout the day over a period of weeks for my little one to get used to it.

I had to warm the teet up, rub some breast milk on it so my little one could taste something familiar too.

It did take a few weeks though, some of my friends babies caught on much quicker and some took months unfortunately.

Try not to pressure yourself with it though, if your little one won't take it then don't force it. I had to to do little and often. Only put a little bit of expressed milk into the bottle as you'll find you'll be throwing your liquid gold down the sink if they won't have it!!

I found gently putting bottle to babies lips worked. Some say rubbing the teet down their nose helps, turning the teet into their mouth can also help.

My little one will now take different tests, have warm or cold milk and enjoys having a bottle but still loves being BF. Good luck, I hope it works out for you. Try to stay relaxed and know it may take some time. If your little one won't take it don't feel guilty if you can't attend work event, your little one is still teeny tiny.

I agree with disney, don't try to do a whole feed with the bottle until baby has got the hang of it. I found that my daughter would take a bottle from my mum (who was confident as my sister was bottle fed from 4 weeks due to bad tongue tie), but only if I was out of sight so she didn't want the alternative. Once she'd taken one from my mum a couple of times (we did it every two days), she'd then take one from my husband and will now take one from me, but she still wants a breastfeed afterwards if I'm around. You being absent might well be the key to it working. The first day I went back to work, my daughter refused her first bottle even from my mum, but then she was absolutely fine after that and took the others and no trouble even with the first one the second day.