Sudden bottle rejection in a 16 week old mix fed baby

[sioba]

Please help - My baby son is 16 weeks tomorrow and has always been mix fed. He had low blood sugars at birth so needed to be given formula right away - I worked really hard to get breastfeeding established but maintained a bedtime bottle in order to help him sleep a bit longer.

I had decided to slowly reduce breastfeeding for a number of reasons. I need more time away from him and really need more sleep - I feel broken and can't give him the best of me as I am always exhausted. I also have some personal stuff that I need to do which will take me away from him for a couple of days at a time.

Anyway I switched his mid-day feed to a bottle feed and for a day or two it seemed like all was well. Then 2 days ago he began refusing the bottle entirely - just will not take it - until he tires himself out crying then eventually will take enough to assuage his hunger.

I feel like the worst mother in the world allowing my son scream and scream when I could just breastfeed him and it would all stop. But I guess I'm just not a great mother - I can't keep up all the night wakenings and I need more time away from him for my sanity.

Any help would be really appreciated. I just don't know what to do:-

My options are try to breastfeed him exclusively but this has never worked for us. And I really do worry for my sanity if I take this option.

Stop breastfeeding cold turkey with the assumption that he will eventually take to the bottle again without all the screaming. But am terrified that this will lead to horrible meal times from now on.

Continue trying to mix feed - but feel that with this option he may never take to the bottle again. Am i better to just stop BF cold turkey?

Please help.

is he teething?

i know it sounds early but i remember buying bongela for ds very early on! rubbing that on just before a feed helped a lot and he soon settled to the bottle rather than faffing about with it.

alternatively maybe he can smell your milk and wants that instead.
can someone else do the bottle feeds just for a little while till he gets used o them?
try wearing one of dps stinky tshirts/ jumpers/ dressing gown etc to drown out the smell of mummy milk.

can't help you decide how quick to give up bf but if you go cold turkey be prepared for excess milk leaking - which might make things worse in the short term if it is the boob milk he can smell and wants.

i'd try the bongela as it's a quick fix.

then go for a stinky t shirt.

good luck!

Would say don't go cold turkey, regardless of your decision WRT continuing or stopping feeding; he is still very young and could dehydrate, and you could end up with problems yourself.

Offer him the bottle first, try and get him to take some, and then offer breast if he won't take it all. Gradually try and get him to take more and more of the bottle instead of coming back to you.

Who normally gives him is bottle?

Hi again,

I would not let him get dehydrated or go hungry - he does eventually take most of his bottles (170ml of 200ml).

Previously he took milk from whomever gave it to him no problems. Now my husband seems to have the most success with it - he has been trying to give him his breakfast bottle for about 45mins now - I'm hiding upstairs :-(

S

Hey sioba,

Having this problems myself, my son was quite happy feeding from me or the bottle for the first few months but now throws a hissy fit when ever the teat touches his lips!
I'm going to keep on trying though cos i think its important that other people can feed him when need be. Have bought a sippy cup too and he doesn't seem to mind this but it flows way too quick for him (he's 14 weeks today).
Hate hearing him cry when i know i could stop it by feeding him myself but i need the time out like you said.
let me know how he goes

I feel your pain, I have mixed-fed twins who became fussy feeders at about 14 weeks. For us it was the taste of the formula that bothered them, have you tasted your milk compared to the formula that you use? For us when it was EBM or mixed formula/EBM in a bottle they were much better.

I also switched from the fishy tasting formulas to the old-style HIPP (you can still buy it online) without the fish in it. Holle formula also tastes nice and sweet but it is a bit more expensive. Both DTs will now have full formula bottles happily as long as it tastes OK.

I wouldn't give up breast feeding, it can be a very emotional/upsetting thing to do and it might be hard to go back to if you change your mind.

Poor you, it sounds like you are having a really rough time Please don't beat yourself up - you aren't a bad mum for being exhausted, you're a normal mum who wants the best for her LO.

Babies get so much more than food from breastfeeding - a huge, huge part of it is the comfort, especially the skin-to-skin contact which releases all manner of happy hormones (true fact - whole books have been written about this!). So it doesn't surprise me that he is rejecting the bottle, as he is becoming more aware of things.

I wanted to throw a few ideas your way:

• Just because he's rejecting the bottle now doesn't mean he will never take a bottle. Most EBF babies will take a bottle from other people when their mums have to go away or back to work (mine did, after 6 months of EBF).

• Is expressing an option, if you need more time away from him?

• Have you considered other ways to get some sleep, even temporarily? The obvious one, which many MNers do, is co-sleeping (ie feeding lying down, while you sleep). It can take a few days to get used to but can be an absolute life-saver. It doesn't have to be a permanent thing if you don't want it to be.

• And lastly, do remember that you don't have to do this all on your own. Real-life comfort and support from others is crucial. Are others helping - DP, friends, family? Is it worth finding a nice support group, perhaps with other local BF mums?

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck - and do keep posting.