Oh shit-refusing to take bottle :(

[SeaShellsDreamingOfSummer]

Dd is 4mths, ebf. I got her on a bottle at 4weeks and we were doing really well. Around new year I started only giving her a bottle a couple of times a week, then I've been really ill the last few weeks so stopped expressing altogether.

She has refused a bottle last night and tonight and it's really stressing me out :(

I need her to take a bottle. Ds never did but I took 12 mths maternity leave and I fed him until he was one, but I hated being tied.

I have hen dos and concerts booked as i thought I'd cracked it.

I'm having to return to work earlier, and again I thought that was fine as I thought we were fine.

It's really upsetting me (and dh who just spent 40mins trying to feed a screaming baby)

Please tell me it will be ok and how I go about it!

Sorry no advice but sympathy. My ds is 6 months old and refuses to take a bottle. We have tried many different teats.

Will be watching this thread.

Same here (ie no advice just sympathy sorry!). Like you I DS2 is almost 4 months and I gave him the odd bottle from 4 weeks or so, just every now and then. A few weeks ago I realised I hadn't done so for about 6 weeks and hey presto, he doesn't want one anymore. Unlike you though I have nothing planned. Have you tried someone else giving the bottle? Waiting until really really hungry? Would it be better to do it in the day when not so tired?

I am sure it won't take too long.

Dh tried this evening. I think she was over tired, as she fell asleep at the breast, which is unusual.

I'm so cross with myself. I had pnd with Ds, and his refusal to take a bottle slowed my recovery. I was determined for it not to happen again, and here we go....

Sympathy to you both-it looks the easiest thing in the world, but when it doesn't work it's such a challenge. Hopefully someone will be along with some advice soon.

my dd is 4 months and like you, had the odd bottle right up until christmas, then total refusal. I have just managed to get her to take a bottle the last two days in a row after weeks of trying and failing.

I tried at the lunchtime feed - she usually goes about 3 hours before wanting to feed again in the mornings, so knew she was hungry. There was lots of crying, but have sussed out that if I set her on my knee and pat her back she calms down. I did this, then lent her back and although there was some more crying she started to take the bottle and took 3 oz of expressed milk ; milk was at room temp, bottle was an avent type, but I think i will try to tommy tippee next as she wants to put the whole teat in her mouth.

I am so pleased that i've had success and now know she can do it.... just need to continue doing this everyday so she gets used to it without any upset.....hope this is helpful as I understand how important it can be!!! good luck!!

I use avent too- we has fewer tears this am. I think your right to try during the day. She didn't freak when it was in her mouth, and took about 1oz in 20mins, so not great but better.

She needs it warm it seems.

I'm in same boat - been reading with interest. My DD is 4months too, exclusively BF for past 2months more or less and last had a bottle of formula at Christmas.

She refused a bottle of formula a month ago - I stupidly didn't express before leaving her for the evening with DP - I had to come home early as she was screaming so much.

My plan was/is to express. So far I've tried Tommee Tippee with two different-sized teats, Avent and recently bought Dr Browns. She's refused them all (and dummies too). It's becoming a real stress. I'm not intending to go back to work soon but would like to have the flexibility of EBF.

A health visitor told me she'll never take a bottle now! Surely that's not right?!

I'll try Avent again today, see how we go. Can you tell she's my first? Never thought it'd be this hard to get a baby to take a bottle!

Good luck ladies!

Some babies take the bottle better from people other than their mums.

And there are sippy cups on the market that are usable from 4 months, afaik, which might be worth a go?

Much sympathy, it's frustrating and difficult when they won't do what you want and need them to do ... might be worth trying to avoid making a fight of it, though, as that often doesn't work well with babies (or anyone!).

It's funny isn't it.

Ds was my pfb, and he refused a dummy and the bottle. After 6mths it was much easier as he took a sippy cup and could eat dairy, but up to then it was tough.

Dd I was determined not to get stuck again-but she took to eerythibg so easily. She needed and took a dummy for sleep only. She took a bottle straight away with no faffing with different brands...

....hence why I got lulled into a false sense of security!!

Glad I'm not alone in this :)

That should have read "everything", not gobblygook

We had success with bottle refusal with our exc. bf DS (at five months) with the following:

• Mam teats on Avent bottles
• feeding him while standing up and rocking him and singing nursery rhymes loudly while avoiding eye contact

When I say 'we', I mean that our wonderful nanny cracked it with the following. He continued to bf until 18 months but was happy to take a bottle from her/DH and sometimes me - took about a four days of trying with this method. Mam teats plus rocking and loud singing was the key

Fingers crossed for you

Hi, you really have my sympathies. I also had to go through this with DD but finally cracked it, as I had to go back to work FT when she was 5.5 months old. It was hell though, I don't deny it.

She was EBF until 14 weeks when I thought I should try offering her a bottle of expressed milk to start getting her used to the idea, well before I went back to work. She wanted none of it - we tried various bottles (Avent, Tommee Tippee, Born Free etc etc), tried with DH (with me out of the house), tried with Nan - none of it worked. She was so stubborn.

Eventually I got desperate so 2 weeks later after much googling, I bought some Nuk bottle/ teats and just sat it out with a screaming, hungry baby until she was hungry enough to try the bottle. It took about 3 hours - it was pure hell and a day of screaming but I had to go back to work so needed to crack it.

From that day on she took milk in a bottle with minimal fuss but has only ever taken milk from the Nuk brand bottles. Within a couple of days there was literally no fight....

So my only suggestion is maybe try a couple of brands of bottles that are known to be more accepted by EBF babies. Ideally, I would have liked to introduce the bottle/ cup more gently but ultimately I had no time to do so.

Expecting DS in June and planning to introduce a bottle of expressed milk a day once BF established so I don't run into the same problem again....wish me luck!

Argh, dh away and she refused completely from me again.

Oh well, it was frozen milk so will express tonight an try again tomorrow morning when dh is back.

I'm tempted to try to fund Nuk teats. Do they fit avent bottles? Where can I get them from?

Henstooth-good luck to you too!

Think I've posted this already elsewhere- but my DS was EBF till 5 months and although I struggled to get him to take a bottle, he has been taking a bottle for now 3 feeds a day (touching wood all around me). The first few times when he refused I put a drop of infacol on the end (whcih he likes the taste of). let him suck the infacol syringe then quickly replaced it with the bottle, he continued sucking and now takes the bottle without the infacol on the end. May have been pot luck but worth a go maybe?

We got 4 Oz expressed milk in this afternoon :) I really have to pick my moments though-not hungry enough and we get nowhere, too hungry and she screams! It also has to be warm.

I hope everyone is getting a bit of progress. We are trying every daytime feed atm

smereldina, that was how we got ds3 to take a bottle! Facing away from me, singing loudly and rocking.

I have also say before on here and I'll say it again, that the bottle he finally took was the Playtex NaturalLatch latex teat but tbh, I would never really say that one bottle was better than another because all babies are different and what works for one may not work for another. I found Avent teats very hard for ds3 but this was after I successfully fed ds1 and ds2 with them. Before ds3 I couldn't understand babies who refused bottles. I got my come-uppance with ds3!

I think we are getting there-another 4oz yesterday :)

How is everyone else doing?

Hi, was just going to start a thread on this, but pleased (for my sake, not yours!) to see that I'm not the only one with this problem. DS is 4.5months old, exclusively BF, and I have been expressing and freezing milk for about 6 weeks. Have hen dos and a wedding coming up at which I am bridesmaid so wanted to be able to leave DS with DH. We first tried beaker with soft teat, as wanted to see if we could avoid bottles altogether, but no go. So tried bottle of freshly expressed milk a few weeks ago and he took it fine. Then at weekend, thought we should try letting DH give feeds during day, so defrosted a load of my precious milk, and DS absolutely refused to take it. Tries 2 different bottles, several times, me out of room, in quiet place...all to no avail. Was SO upset as it seemed such a waste of milk i spent hours pumping, and could see me having to cancel hen dos etc. However, this morning, I tried some milk expressed last night, kept in fridge overnight, rather than defrosted frozen stuff, and lo and behold it went down fine, no fuss whatsoever. So I'm wondering whether it could be the freezing/defrosting process making the milk taste funny? Is this a thing? I will try again later maybe with some more fresh milk. The annoying thing is, if it is that, I have loads of frozen stuff that will go to waste!! All those hours pumping..! And if I go away for the weekend, it will take days to pump enough new milk to keep in the fridge, as only seem to manage a couple of ounces at a time. Argh. Who knew this was going to be a problem?!

Actually I might start a new thread anyway, just on the freezing/defrosting thing and whether it affects the taste.

Good luck SeaShells, it sounds like you might be cracking it at least! I agree that next time round, will def introduce a bottle of EBM earlier!

I'd be really interests in the responses you get re freezing milk, as one of the bottles she refused outright was defrosted milk-she took a gulp then the whole lot came back up and that was it! It did smell slightly different-not off, just different.

I hope you get there soon-ditto hen dos etc for me too, and as most of the group are child free, they really don't get why I'm stressed by it!!

I think you are right, we are slowly getting there, just formula to try in a week or so.

My HV suggested mixing the frozen with fresh and gradually increasing the amount of frozen, sought try that too.

Hi, d.d 7 months refused bottle from 2 months, then when i started weaning, i put a bottle of formula on the high chair table and she picked it up and started to drink, i just have to hold the bottle at the end and she will happily drink. i think because she was busy trying different tastes and textures she just saw the bottle as something new to try and "forgot" that she'd been refusing it for months on end. Probably helps because she is not lying down so does'nt auotmatically think "where are the boobs?"!

SEASHELLS and ladies- how's the bottle feeding going? I gave up for for a while due to having visitors staying but come Monday I'll be back on the milk mission! Dreading it though.

Hope it's going well for everyone.

Hi Lellie!

Doing well :) I have not tried formula again, but she is taking a bottle from dh and I :)

We tried every day before she got really hungry as she got overly stressed. She is getting warm bm, but we are hoping to start a bottle
Of formula, then try cold. I need to stop expressing as with 2 dc there is no time other than the evening, and I find myself having to stay up just to get enough for a feed!!

Good luck, I hope it goes well.

Dixie you might have a problem with lipase which means your milk tastes soapy if stored for too long.

It is a PITA but you can get round it by heating your freshly expressee milk to nearly boiling, then cooling and freezing. When defrosted it tastes normal. It does damage the milk somewhat but is still better than formula.

If you google kellymom and lipase you get the exact method.