aarghhhhh! dd refuses milk unless directly from source!

[SqueakdeSqueak]

Hi all I'm hoping for some wise mn advice

My DD is 7 months old, she is breast fed along with some solids, and its all going well, except that she refuses to take expressed milk in any form. I have tried bottles, teaspoons and sippy cups/free flow cups .

I am starting my keeping in touch days in two weeks and my employer has kindly agreed that I can split these into two half days a week (for ten weeks), what I would like to ask is 1) Is this normal?(the refusing I mean not the kit days!) 2) Will she be ok with not having milk for a five hour stretch a couple of times a week (wow writing this down makes me feel like a pfb nutter )

Also I am due back to work f/t over 4 days mid July when dd will be approx 11 months old will she be ok not having milk all day and just breast fed morning and evening/night if she has other calcium rich foods like yogurt and cheese etc?

Apologies for grammar and any typos as I'm on my phone and feeding

Lots of questions!

my employer has kindly agreed that I can split these into two half days a week (for ten weeks)

• you need to check the law on this, I understood that any time spent at work on a given day = 1 KIT day regardless of how many hours you work.

2. Will she be ok with not having milk for a five hour stretch a couple of times a week How much solids does she eat versus the amount of milk feeds she had. Mine was still very milk dependant and not interested in solids so would have struggled to be away from me so long (DD didn't really get probably established on solids until 9 months). Can you test it out at the weekend and go out for the day (maybe not too far from home in case you need to get back quickly) see how dad gets on? Babies can sometimes be better at taking milk from other sources if mum is not around. He may also be able to distract her with other foods if she won't take the milk.

I can't express and my DD would not drink formula ever and started nursery at 11 months. She would drink cows milk out of a cup. Backup plan if she refused the milk was that she would be offered yoghurt (our nursery had done this with another breast fed baby who would not take any other milk). Yoghurt was never needed as she did drink cows milk there.

A lot could happen between the ages of 7 - 11 months though!

Good luck.

Hi littone,

Have already checked with HR so that's definitely not an issue, dd is bf on demand (quite a lot and currently every 2 hours at night!!)and has 3 solid meals a day although she doesn't eat a great deal its more that I'm getting her used to having food at those times and will up the quantities slowly over time.

We had a trial run today as mil will be looking after dd whilst I am at work and she was fine , ate all her solids (I bf before she left and immediately on return) but would not drink her milk (she has been to mil a few times but only for 3 hours at most as she wouldn't take bottle) Today I thought we'd try the free flow cup as she drinks water out of that quite happily but to no avail.

I can express, but only ever get a couple of ounces at a time so to throw it away as she won't drink it is really frustrating but I don't want my supply to be affected so I guess I'll carry on expressing whether or not she takes it.

See these are the things that you wouldn't even think to worry about before you have a baby!

Squeak your HR may be wrong - I agree with littone, any time spent at work counts as a KIT day so it sounds like you're going to do double - I got a days pay for a 2 hour meeting (and they let me take DD in, but I think that was for baby hugs for the office). Also KIT days are optional - you don't have to do any if you don't want.

As for milk, I'd just keep offering she should be ok without for half a day.

Glad to hear the trial run went well! I can't express either so didn't bother! You never know she may take to milk from the cup eventually!

You may want to show HR this link just to be sure:

www.workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/parents-and-carers/rights-during-pregnancy-and-maternity-leave/working-for-your-employer-during-maternity-leave

Sorry I can't help with the bottle refusing thing, but your HR are most definitely wrong.
I went in for a 2 hr meeting and was told 'just come in for a few hours next week and I'll sign off a full day' ilooked at her like this and told her that she needed to sign off the 2 hours as a day, and if I come in next week she'll be signing off another day.
Absolutely definitely no matter how long you're in for, it's a full day. They're not 'doing you a favour' by letting you split your days. And you don't have to take them if you don't want, but the money is handy

Thanks for all the replies I didn't realise that about work, thought they were being too nice about it!!

Yes the money will certainly come in handy as I'm now on smp only

I will keep up the expressing as you're right, she may take it eventually but glad to know I won't be doing her irreparable damage if she doesn't and I guess by the time I go back f/t she will have dropped some feeds so will be ok with first thing and evening/ night feeds etc (although I am kind of praying she'll be sleeping through by then as feeding every couple of hours still is exhausting and of course all my friends who bottle feed have babies that sleep right through so they think i'm crazy)

Thanks again, will check in tomorrow to see if anyone else has a refuser that they managed to turn around

When ds refused to take milk from a bottle, dh had the bright idea of wrapping a bra I'd worn round it. Worked like a treat - ds's face looked exactly as if he was thinking, 'why didn't you TELL me it was milk in there?'. Once he'd had that first bottle, he was happy to take milk from either.

ds was a bit younger than your dd, but might be worth a try.

my DD is now 22 months old and we are still BF. She started nursery at 11 months and took milk out of a cup as needed then. By the time she moved to the next room at 16 months she had dropped the cups of milk (except at breakfast and snacktime when offered to all). She goes to nursery 4 days per week and feeds on demand the rest of the time (including at night - yawn!)