Bottle refusal..advice/experiences needed!!!!

[Fifilottie]

HI all,

My DD is now 4 and a half months. She was four weeks early and so was bottle fed while in hospital and then BF once home. She has since been breast fed apart from a few formaula top ups on hard days. She has had expressed breast milk in a bottle at midnight...like a dream feed and she was always ok with this.But, in the past week or so she starting waking up during the feed and kind of fogetting how to take from the bottle...THis doesn't matter now as we decided to see if she would go through and she now sleeps all night and has been fine. However have been testing out if she can still take a bottle of expressed breast milk and she just screams and screams....have done all the tricks(not hungry/Dp gives it I go out the room etc...) She just wont take it. It is a shmae cos I haven't had an evening off since she was born but know that she will need me for a Bf always. Is there anything I can do? Should she have some kind of cup or something(obviously she couldn't yet hold herself....any advice much appreciated as would love a night off and/or Dp to give the night feed and do bedtimes at sometimes...thank you all(and sorry for waffling))

I am in a similar bind!

My son is five months old. He is 19 pounds and has been on solids since 18 weeks as he is so big.

He is an enthusiastic breastfeeder and won't take a bottle. He took an occasional bottle from my mother at 3-4 weeks but has refused since then.

I have tried the following:

• three different types of bottles (Avent, Nuk, Tommee Tippee) with slow, medium and fast teats

-Expressed milk and three different types of formula (SMA, Aptamil, Cow & Gate)

• Waiting until he's hungry
• Other caregiver giving milk while I'm out of the room/away
• Spoon feeding milk (he will eat anything I offer him: cereal, fruit, veg)
• Milk at different temperature (warm, lukewarm, cold)

I am going back to work next month and at the end of my rope. I haven't been away from him for more than 2-3 hours at a time and am losing my mind.

Please, please help.

Sorry don't have any advice but will be watching with interest as I've just started expressing and trying to get my 9wk baby to take a bottle a day from her dad. She's not happy about taking a bottle as she loves being BF but I want her to be able to take a bottle in case I need someone else to look after her for a couple of hours and also think it will be a great bonding experience for her and her dad.

We had the same problem, and I'm sorry to say, DD (also prem, 8wks) never learned to take the bottle. The only thing that has ever worked is the Nuby cup. She's now over 1 year, and I still have to feed her, but she drinks from the cup the rest of the time.

Had some limited success today with the following:

• One part apple juice, two parts water and a teaspoon of formula in a bottle
• Warm expressed breast milk in a sippy cup

Will keep trying!!

Neither of mine ever took a bottle; both were quite proficient with simple Tommee tippee flip top cup from about 5.5 months (they could also do open cup, but I couldn't stand the mess.....)

I will keep trying too! Keep pumping still and am freezing the milk just in case. I presume I have to just breast feed until DD can use a cup to feed herself. Ignorant as this sounds I presume they can't use a cup until they can actually hold it and feed themselves, right???Sorry to sound stupid!!...HOwever she loves her sleepy evening breast feed as they send her to sleep so are quite useful for us really(not when I want a night off though). What cups are best for the younger babies?Above I can see tommee tippee flip top(but messy??) and nuby cup..will google it! THanks everyone btw, this is such a common problem isn't it?

Of course you can use a cup before she can feed herself, just hold onto it. I still BF for the sleepiness at night, and first thing when I can't be bothered to get out of bed, but cup the rest of the time.
I would definitely recommend the Nuby cup, which they have to bite to get liquid out, so is more like BF than a bottle / sippy cup. We've tried LOADS of different cups - now she's fine with any but when she was little the Nuby was the only one that she could use.

Thank you loopyloops...bet I sound ignorant!! But am glad to hear that she might be able to try it now. I am definitely going to get one...Cheers all, lets hope it works!!

I couldn't breastfeed in sufficient quantity and used a sippy cup in hospital at 4 days old (was in severe denial and didn't want to use a bottle at first because I was hoping my milk would arrive eventually). No problem at all (but severe hunger may have been a motivating factor! )

You can be as messy or not as you like. I started with 20mls of formula and chased every last drop into the baby ... then midwife came to "help" for the second cup feed and basically poured milk all over him ... looked like a milk-based waterboarding ... he loved it either way.

I suspect your daughter will want control of whatever cup you use so something closed? Be interested to hear how you get on as my son (now 16w) now wants to hold his own bottle, sometimes bats my hands away, and I'm wondering if it'd be good to let him try a cup.

I'll let you know. Can't believe how stupid I was to think that babies couldn't use a cup til they could hold it. haha

Loopyloops- I am just doing an internet search for the nuby cups..where do I start(boots, mothercare don't have them and the nuby site have loads of different types), what kind do you use???DD is four and half months? Thanks for any advice...

THey all seem to 6 months plus...does it really matter?

Yeah, Boots do them. It doesn't matter at all (I think they say 4 months on the ones I got but it really doesn't matter either way). You don't sound ignorant or stupid, there is so much that we're expected to know/do/not do that it's hard to ever decide!
Good luck, let me know how you get on.

Just looked on Boots website and can't see them but that's where I got mine from. this is what they look like, FYI

My DS did full on bottle refusal at about 4 months - I guess it's a developmental stage where they realise the difference!
We've now got the Breastflow bottles - and the different teat makes a huge difference. It's much more like latching on to the boob than sucking from a teat - every so often I try him back on the Tommy Tippee ones, and he still refuses them or just chew on the teat. If you want to try Breastflow, worth looking in TK Maxx if you have one near - or they're cheapish on Amazon.
The Doidy cups are also good - my DS (now 6 mo)is more than happy to slurp from them (though it's a bit of a slow process for giving milk - great for a bit of water though).

I am in the US for the summer and have had good luck with the Munchkin sippy cup, which is like the Nuby cup. He is taking warmed breastmilk from it. He also wants to try and use it himself, which makes the process longer but at least he's keen to try and it makes a change from the agonising bottle refusal.

Also had some good luck with the Nuk orthodontic bottle with the water/splash of apple juice/ounce of formula trick. The juice sweetens the formula and makes it taste more like the good stuff.

Am much more cautiously optimistic than yesterday and will keep an eye here for more tips. So good to know I'm not the only one and thanks for the advice!

Will she drink from a bottle if you sit her in a bouncy chair? That's the only way my DD will do it so far, hoping once she's got the hang of bottles she will let me hold her to feed her because I'm fed up of carting the chair around! Might be worth a try!

Cheers potatoes will try that(she has a relaxer chair that she loves so might try it while she is sitting in there, good idea).

Glad you have got somewhere sorchaocleirgh...that is reassuring for me, I think is is lovely that your DS is trying to use the cup himself..that's really cute!!) Haven't attempted anything yet. It seems I have a shopping list of breast flow bottle and cups to buy. I don't mind...it will be worth it for those little breaks..