Help! My breastfed 3month baby suddenly is refusing to take a bottle.

[Hillbilly]

My 3month ds is breastfed apart from one feed at 11pm at which time I fed him formula froma bottle. About a week ago he suddenly refused the bottle and has not had it since. I was using Avent bottles and have tried switching to TommyTippee and Nuk but no luck. Admittedly he never took much from the bottle, only betweem 2-4oz, but at least he was not refusing it.

I want to stop breastfeeding at 6 months as I did with my dd, which means starting to drop feeds at 5 months, but at the moment I don't see how that will be possible with him refusing the bottle so adamantly.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Bump - someone must have some tips!!

start to get him to play with a cup with a spout. it is fairly common for bfing babies to start to refuse bottles.

by the time he is 6 mos he can know how to use a cup on his own.

the tommee tippee cups for about a £1 or 2 with no valve and one whole it its spout works the best for this ime.

I had similar problems with DS after a few weeks of not giving him the bottle (he was entirely bf but I wanted him to take the bottle for flexibility).

After 4 weeks of trying different things I found what worked was NUK bottles, really warm milk, and positioning him exactly as he was for breastfeeding (lying on his side on a pillow). At the time I was using expressed milk so I didn't have the complication of whether he wasn't happy having formula.

Other bottles I tried (and which didn't work) were Tommee Tippee, Dr Browns, Mothercare teats and the rediculous plastic "breast" that some baby shops do!

Looking back at my diaries of the time, it was agonising: creating so much stress, and pouring away so much expressed milk, and for the first time, resenting my son for not allowing me some freedom.

Good luck, I'm sure your son is just exerting some independence!

Exactly the same thing happened to me...only person who managed to get milk in a bottle down DD was my mother in law...while I was at a doctors appt so therefore unavailable to feed.

I cut the breastfeeds at 6 months to morning and night only and she still refused all bottles so straight to a cup! And ALWAYS best and easier if DH offered it...if I was there she sort of hung out for...guess what?
I never fed at any time other than morning or night and she got the hint...took 5 days for her to work it out and accept alternatives to breast but she never took a bottle again.

...went straight onto a cup with expressed breast milk or water...never got formula down her again or cows milk...

Thanks for the tips!

Funnily enough, I managed to get him to take formula from the NUK bottle this morning - I think when I tried last night with it, I had the teat the wrong way around.

A cup sounds like a good idea too - I know that is what is recommended over bottles.

So.....I have the NUK ready for this evening and will hope for the best!

Thanks!