Help! Baby won’t take a bottle

[Hifromhere]

Help and advice please! 🙏
My little one is nearly 5 months and EBF. I am really proud of this achievement and love feeding him but I’m thinking ahead of work and just generally having more freedom (hair appointments etc..). He simply won’t take a bottle. He’s drank maybe 6-7 oz from a bottle in his entire life (over a number of feeds). We have to give him gaviscon via a syringe as he won’t take his bottle.

For reference, he’s never taken a dummy and we’ve tried the Mam bottle and the Tommy Tipee ones. I’ve tried the milk at different temperatures and I’ve tried numerous times through the day. Others have tried to feed him as I know they don’t tend to take to the BF parent feeding them but still with little success and the truth is there’s not often someone around who can just practice feeding with him.

any advice would be so helpful :)

At that age I wouldn’t bother. That doesn’t mean you can’t leave them though. Try and get them used to a cup and remember that BF babies at this age only take 25 Floz on 24 hours so a feed of 1 or 2 Floz is a full feed

Dr browns bottles / dummy’s worked for us and a few of my friends too! I wouldn’t just keep trying as often as you can. It will happen :)

Keep trying
Personal experience I just gave up I wish I didn’t I wish I was more consistent with it.
Pick a feed or a time in the day and just offer the bottle every day.
if baby doesn’t want it it’s ok move on try again next day
let them see it’s part of a new routine almost x

I found that totally ignoring the advice worked well for me.

I set my son up on his feeding pillow with my boob right there, and just subbed the bottle in.

Otherwise, you should be able to get a bit more freedom when weaning kicks in. Schedule an appointment during a usual naptime and send dad out with the pram, with something interesting for wake up like strawberries or banana.

Thanks for all the advice. Still not taking a bottle regularly but hoping he will transition to a sippy cup in time for nursery :)

Just an update for anyone in a similar position. Little one in nearly 8 months and finally takes bottles. We have been very consistent and offered one everyday. He struggles if he’s tired but I think that’s more because he’s wanting the comfort of BF. He’s also doing really well with learning how to use an open cup