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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Bottles/Teats for reluctant EBF baby please?

13 replies

midori1999 · 01/09/2011 11:12

My DD is 2 1/2 months old. She took a bottle of EBM at a week old and has had a few bottles of EBM since then, with varying success. Lately she just won't take a bottle at all. She doesn't seem to like the feel of the teat in her mouth and although I don't force her at all, sometimes gags on it.

We have tried DH feeding her, my DM feeding her, both with me in and out of the house, me feeding her and feeding both when she is fully awake/sleepy and very hungry/not very hungry. I have also tried a faster flow teat. (Avent bottles)

I don't want to spent a fortune on bottles and teats to no avail, so if anyone has any suggestions they'd be appreciated. It's not essential she takes a bottle, but it would be handy to have some freedom to pop out for a bit longer if I need to. (I would really like to get my hair coloured, for example!)

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 01/09/2011 11:15

Try the latex (brown) teats rather than the clear silicon ones, they feel much different and more like skin than something unnatural like plastic. They're very cheap to buy as well - try just in a local chemist!

StrikeUpTheBand · 01/09/2011 11:18

Avent are good using the newborn teat. Otherwise, MAM are also very good (slow flow).

lilham · 01/09/2011 11:38

This is probably not what you want to hear. Your DD sounded like mine. she's taken bottles since week 4. I have tried three brands and different teats of each. I finally gave up around 4 mo to give her a bottle coz its stressing everyone. And expressing is hard work when they all go down the drain.

What I want to say is. You can go out even if she won't take a bottle. Ive been out twice in the evenings after I put her to sleep. Done my hair on sat morning. And have done a few lunch dates. I found my DD can easily go 4 hours without a feed in the day, if my DH is there to cuddle and play with her. And once she's put to sleep at 630 she will stay asleep till after midnight if she's not woken for a dreamfeed.

My DD is 5mo atm. I'm just saying there's an alternative to trying to force a bottle if all you wanted is a few hours me time.

BertieBotts · 01/09/2011 12:58

Totally agree with lilham as well :) Though might be a month or two before you can reliably do that.

NormaStanleyFletcher · 01/09/2011 13:01

The only ones I found that worked on DD were Nuk (but all babies are different)

Marabou · 01/09/2011 15:18

Have you tried the Medela Calma or the Breastflow bottles, which have teats that feel like the breast and the baby sucks on them much like she would suck on the breast? These made a big difference for us (I use the Breastflow bottle, because it's slightly more affordable)...

SarahScot · 01/09/2011 18:09

My DD is 5 months old and I've been back at work for 3 weeks. We've tried Avent, Tomee Tippee, Nuby and Breastflow. Got Nuk on order. She refuses them all and goes some days without taking any milk at all then keeps me up all night breastfeeding. If she's starving she'll sometimes take 2oz but no more.

I really hope someone has a magic answer as I'm at my wits end and feel like I'm about to have some sort of breakdown. Sad

eastmidlandsnightnanny · 01/09/2011 21:09

hello my 12mth old was a bottle refuser and I tried every brand other than the one I am currently using with twins in my night nanny job and wish I had it cost £20 and is the medela one where you squeeze the teat to fill with milk from the bottle and has a very long nipple like teat and it has 3 different flows to it.

eastmidlandsnightnanny · 01/09/2011 21:10

I have a couple of unused breastflow bottles if any use to you not sure where you are send me a private message.

Kiwiinkits · 02/09/2011 02:50

NUK

joruth · 02/09/2011 03:02

have any of you tried cup feeding?...none of mine (4 ) would tolerate a bottle but my grandma ( now91!!!) remembered expressing breast milk and feeding prem babies from a sterilised thin china egg cup after her 3rd child was still born....she showed me and it was really, really easy to pick up....midwife or health visitor might know about it and be able to help...i think they still cup or spoon feed on SCBU. Also we tend to keep up bottle feeding for milk but there are lots of cups out there that can be used from 4 months....

Original poster
Midori1999 · 03/09/2011 23:20

Thankyou.

I've bought the NUK bottle today and tried it this evening. DD did accept the teat in her mouth better than the Avent one and did have a little play with/suck on it. She wasn't really hungry though and maybe because of that found the flow a little fast. (it seems with the Avent she has to really suck to get any milk out) I'm going to persevere with it and try daily.

I looked at the Medela Calma, which looks very different to any other. The teat seems quite firm though and it's very expensive. Does any milk come out unless they actually suck? I think maybe we'd try that next if the NUK don't work. We'll keep trying with them for a while though.

OP posts:
chipmonkey · 04/09/2011 00:07

2 suggestions.
The one that worked for us was the Playtex Latex teat on this page but unfortunately you have to get the whole "system" which is a bottle holder with disposable liners. I found these hard to get and ended up getting liners and teats from the US on occasion which was expensive!

The other suggestion is not one we had to resort to but apparently the Medela Haberman or special needs feeder which was designed for babies with cleft palate is also good for bottle refusers.

Ones which didn't work at all for us were Avent, Nuk and Adiri. I say this because I tried every bottle on the market for ds3, these were recommended but we didn't find them any good.

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