Getting BF baby to take bottle - really tired and fed up - please help!

[Mae34]

Hello - I know this has been done many times before but I sort of wanted to get a straw poll as to whether to keep trying as there's such a lot of experience on MN...:)

DD (7 months), breastfed, used to take a Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottle from about 6 wks to 3 months for the last evening feed (from DH) til in my infinite wisdom I decided to stop it and do bedtimes myself.
Since then on the odd occasion I've wanted to go out or get a break she's just rolled it round her mouth and grinned at me ...
I started weaning at 6 months but she's very slow and disinterested in solids so far.

I'm just really tired and fed up of being the only one doing night duties, day duties and not being able to leave DD for more than a couple of hours - I do want to carry on BF but am struggling. I have visions of still doing every bedtime feed for the next 2 years!

Is it even worth trying to get her back taking a bottle or am I just setting myself up for loads of stress?

Thannks...x

You can use a cup - should be easy at 7 mths :)

No point in stressing and fighting with a baby to take a bottle at this age.

Most babies of 7 mths can be left for more than a couple of hours - maybe you can work up to this, and teaching the use of the cup is part of it.

Hope this helps.

I think the only thing i can advise is that you don't give her the bottle - get your DH to do it. Lets face it, she's not going to want it from a bottle is she knows that she can get it straight from the source...

Good luck though - my DS3 is 12 months now and he has never taken a bottle. Ever. And it's not through want of trying!!

Hi, not sure if this is helpful but my DS is 8 months and at every meal time he drinks water from a sippy cup, now he will take milk from a sippy cup, so may be worth trying that instead of a bottle.

Am also BFing and have found in the last few weeks the food intake has increased and the BF has decreased, so hang in there, things will get easier...good luck!

I agree with using a sippy cup rather than a bottle.

We started giving DS a sippy cup with water with his solids when he was about 7 months and it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.

I could never be bothered to express so he didn't have milk from a cup before 12 months, but as soon as we introduced it he took to it really well.
I did keep doing bedtime and morning feeds myself until he was almost 2, but that was my choice and I'm sure that I could have weaned him off a lot sooner if I had chosen to.

Thanks guys - she wont take a beaker either but I did try a doidy cup and she takes a little water from that at meals, so maybe I should try again with milk...

And I'm hoping when the solids go up a bit that, as you have found veggiemama, the BF will ease off a bit!

Think its particularly hard at the mo' as she's ill so just BF loads and loads!

So I could potentially give her a bedtime feed in a cup if she would take one? (Sorry probably stupid question but first timer)...

ps any recommendations for best cups apart from the doidy?

Mae good plan to offer milk.

However, maybe leave it until she is no longer ill.

Not fair to make a poorly baby try to learn a new skill - imagine doing a driving lesson when you have a headache or a fever or even a heavy cold!

Oh gosh - no, I'm not even offering solids at the moment - I know she's miserable and coldy and just giving lots of BF and cuddles :)

I'm just going to wait a while and give her a cup, she's never taken a bottle. I already give her a tippee cup type thing to play with, she sticks it (and everything) else in her mouth quite happily so hopefully she will be comfortable with it when the time comes.

Agree re: cup, but just to add, you could try a different kind of bottle - ds took tommee tippee til he was 2/3 months then never since, even when changed teats etc, just tried him with avent and he seems to quite like it though he still hasn't quite got the hang of sucking action, if you get the teats with the slots, for thicker liquids it might work, I think babies don't want to work too hard (also why weaning group lady said to take the valve out of no-spill sippy cup).

If she's 7 months, she'll probably up her food intake over the next few weeks, and you might find the problem just goes away of its own accord?

Neither of my DDs would ever take a bottle, but from 6 months(ish) I only ever BF them morning and night (+ a dreamfeed at 11pm), and they had formula in a sippy cup mid-morning and mid-afternoon. They might not have drunk that much of it, but they still seemed to thrive. It helped that they were both good eaters and had a fair amount of dairy in their diet.

With DD2 I was determined not to be 'trapped' by BF in the way I felt I was with DD1, and I used to occasionally go out in the evening from about 6m and leave her with some formula in a sippy cup. She rarely drank it, but didn't seem to miss the BF so went to bed anyway. I would still dreamfeed her when I came in.

When I say 'sippy cup', I used to use Avent bottles with the magic spouts - starting with the white ones, then moving onto the green ones.

Let dh have a go - if I went to my children at night they always expected a BF, but my dh could get them back to sleep without anything. (They were slightly older)

Skip bottles

thanks guys - some useful suggestions...am definitely feeling a bit "trapped" as you said Bramshott :(