Oh crap - my baby won't take a bottle!

[Iwasthefourthwiseman]

Dd2 is 3 months. She has taken a bottle twice but since then has refused any attempts to feed her with one. She didn't like the tommee tippee bottle but did take the avent one. That was after a hideous night when I tried to get a break and ended up being woken at 12.30 as she refused the bottle though she took it at 4am that morning.

Just been out for a couple of hours & for the second time she has refused to feed from the bottle. Dh then tried a cup but by then she was having none of it.

Help! I really want her to take a bottle! What can I do?

not sure if you have tried this but my ds likes the breastflow bottles, i think i got mine from mothercare and even though he is 7 months old he still likes the newborn teats, i think he likes it to come out slow. worth a shot.

Not tried breastflow yet. Tried TT, avent & nuk.

She just doesn't seem to know what to do with the teat, she won't suck.

If you have a TK Maxx near you they had 4 of the large size Breastflow bottles for £5 recently. They are very expensive in mothercare.

My DD won't take a bottle but is now happy to take ebm from a free flow SIPPY cup (just the basic tommee tippee ones that are a pound in tesco). Another friend of mine has had success with a Doidy cup. I started DD on a cup at 4 months and she took to it right away. Maybe just bypass the bottle stage - more hassle than it's worth IMO. Next baby I have will be getting an expressed bottle asap! I don't want to be stuck like this again, it's a right PITA.

Preparing to get flamed here. Old fashioned but effective remedy, out of fashion for obvious reasons. Sugar water on the teat. Just a little, just until they get the idea. Not ideal but beats the alternative!

To be honest I don't think different teats are going to make a difference, she will take it in her mouth but just doesn't know what to do with it and any milk that happens to come out gets spat out.

Dh and I are really fighting over this. He says he is fed up with seeing me miserable & that this is affecting my older dd1 (3). Feel even more awful now. I just feel everything I do is dictated by feeding the baby. When I sleep, when I wake up, when I go out. Feel like all my choices have been taken away from me :(

Totally feel for you wiseman - been there with dc3 (and that was after dc1 refused to bf, so originally I was sooo pleased to bf no.2 & 3!).

Anyway, the way we (eventually) got him to have a bottle was to give him it first thing in the morning after he'd not had a feed all night, kept offering it til he had it & didn't give in & bf (although we had to chuck the original bottle away and start a fresh one as it took so long). We then replaced all that day's feeds with bottles. It took several hours til he gave in for the first bottle but he took the rest pretty easily. We then carried on with one bottle every day so he was used to it.

Although it took ages to him to have the first bottle, he was older than yours so I'd guess yours would give in sooner. It also helped to squeeze some milk out of the teat whilst it was in his mouth, and he always had to have it pretty warm.

Please don't stress, I know it's really hard & tempers fray with babies crying and you feel so guilty about your other children etc. etc - but you can get dd to have a bottle and still carry on bf, and it will all work out, honest..! Good luck :)

do you warm the milk?

dd would only have warm body temperature milk.

Joy to the world! Dd took a bottle today! An avent one with the hole made bigger. I think she sucked by accident and realised milk came out.

Merry Christmas to me!

When dd does take one (hit and miss when she will) then the best ones are breastflow with the milk quite warm. Also she seems to take formula better than she does expressed breast milk. She will also take it better from dh rather than anyone else. Good luck.