Bottle refusal - persist, or give DS a break?

[BakingBunty]

The title says it all really. Our 11 week old EBF DS just refuses to take a bottle of expressed milk, having happily taken one up until 7 weeks. We've tried all manner of teats, bottles, times, places and personnel. Sometimes he rolls the teat around his mouth, sometimes he yells and pushes it away. The health visitor has said to try every day and not to give up - but I'm worried we are making things worse by trying so frequently. Any advice or experience gratefully received!

Baking is there a reason that you want him to take a bottle? If it was me I would stop trying, unless you really need him too take one, and give yourself a break from the expressing and him a break from trying.

If you really need him to take one there are lots of bottle refusing threads in the MN archive.

Thanks Julie, I'm thinking the same... I don't need him to take a bottle as such, it would just be great to have a break every now and then! I'll give us both a break and try again in a week or two :)

If you don't really need him to take one then I think you are making the right decision. I know it can be overwhelming having them rely on you but you may find that he takes enough from a cup soon anyway.

You might also find that a BFC is able to give you much better information than your HV on bfing, is there a local BFing Support Group where you could ask or have you tried calling one of the Bfing Helplines?

Thought these links might help too here and here.