leaving baby who won't take full feed from a bottle?

[ginger2000]

hi - dd2 (10 weeks) is not very happy taking a bottle - she will take a little bit but i have to feed her after as she gets bored with the bttle/gives up! It doesn't matter whether its ebm or formula - just tried formula for the first time just to see if she would take that rather than ebm from a bottle.

i am meant to be taking dd1 out tonight - somewhere difficult to take baby and leaving dd2 with dh and a bottle of some description - plus I have some christmas nights out in the next few weeks. Question is - is it mean to leave DD2 knowing she might not take a full feed whilst I am out? OR is it likely that she might take more if its all that's on offer?

I can just see a lot of wasted milk, a lot of sterilising and an unhappy baby! I do want to go out without her though ( I know she is young but.......)

any advice?

How long are you leaving her for? If you feed her just before you go she might not need to take much from the bottle to keep her going til you get back.

tonight its for about 3 hours - next week all evening. she does usualy feed every 2 hours or more though!

Personally I think a full evening is a bit much, but really it's a decision you need to make with whoever will be looking after your baby. As they'll be the ones potentially dealing with a baby crying most of the night.

I'd imagine some people think it would be a good way of testing whether she's eat from a bottle if she was very hungry. However the evening went down, I guess you'll have your answer and know if evenings out in the future are a possibility.

I know that when I was a similar age and wouldn't take a bottle I was left to be spoon fed the milk... I understand that they can often lap from a cup (almost like a kitten) too.

It's slow, and messy, but better than a screaming baby maybe.

Has your DH fed her a bottle before?

When I try to feed my DD a bottle she sometimes refuses. I wonder if it's because she knows it's have boobs and she'd prefer them.

She takes a bottle from my mum no bother!

Just wondering if your DD would be the same?

well - it didn't go terribly well as DD2 refused the bottle and I cam home after an hour and a half! Oh well - you are right Climber - a full evening is probably too long expecially if she wants to cluster feed!

Still need to work on the bottle thing though as have to go back to work at 6 months - am sure it will all come good in the end!

From 4 months you can start trying a cup though, so it's not over yet. :)