Help please! Need EBF baby to take bottle in 6 days

[vvviola]

DD is 8 months old and EBF. We tried her on bottles a few times - just to check that she would. We finally settled on one type (nuby - I think) and she took a bottle happily enough a few times. Last time was in January.

Fast forward to today. I'm going out on Saturday afternoon. Not for too long (3 and a half hours in total max), or too far away. And in theory it's possible that DD could come with me - although I haven't checked that with the organisers. But DH is happy to wrangle both DDs to let me go and do this by myself (it's part of my hobby). We decided to do a dry run with the bottle today. And she was having none of it.

Wanted to hold the bottle, chew it, play with it. Anything but drink from it. We tried different temperatures, positions. DH tried, I tried. No luck. And to top it all off, when I breastfed her a while later - she started to chew on me for a minute first (two sharp little teeth - ouch ouch!)

Does anyone have any good ideas? I thought we'd cracked it before, but we seem to be back at square one again. Long term we will need her to take a bottle I think as I'm heading back to university when she is 11 months, and it would be nice to be able to get out and about alone sometimes.

Anybody with any ideas we could try?

Thanks!

At 8 months I would forget the bottle and try a cup, either a soft spout or an open sippy cup. If its only 3 hours you are away (is she a good eater?) and she won't take milk your DH could give her sips of water, weak juice or milk, yoghurt, sloppy cereal with milk on a spoon....... This is what I did with DD (now 10mo) she is much better at the cup and doesn't get dehydrated or anything when I'm away. It was a shock as other DCs took a bottle ok!

Thanks - maybe I will try a cup (although the soft spout one that I use to try to get her to take some water suffers the same fate as the bottle - delighted to see it, play with it & chew it, but not necessarily drink from it!)

She's not a great eater really. And even worse when it's DH feeding her. I'll arrange to leave something she's guaranteed to like in the hope that she'll at least take that.

At 8 months I wouldn't worry about 3-4 hours, both my non-bottle taking children coped with such amounts of time away from me at around 5 months, when I had to sit a few exams.

Both my children have been given open cups, as well as those spouty cups, but preferred water or weak squash to milk. Neither expressed milk nor formula did it for them.

Both started full time nursery at 9 months and therefore were without milk for 10 hours at a time 5 days a week from that age. In the beginning we tried expressed milk or formula, but they wouldn't have it and happily stuck to water and solids.

Rosie - I think they're a little far away for me here in NZ

And anyway, this is just about getting her to take a bottle so I can enjoy my hobby for a couple of hours. Not the end of the world, and no need to call in 'professionals' just yet

DS won't drink milk from a cup or bottle either, but at 8 months I would be happy leaving him for 3 hours. He eats well and he's down to about 4 feeds a day anyway so that long would be fine as long as he had something to snack on. Does your DD eat yoghurts/fromage frais?

Yoghurt has been a total disaster - she just won't take it. But I'm hoping to try again this week.

Realistically I suppose you are all right - 3 or 4 hours isn't all that long. Although it's 2 - 3 hours longer than she has ever been away from me before

Awww, I know how you feel. I would leave some EBM if expressing isn't too hard for you, but otherwise would second everything others have said. At this age, she'll cope fine for that period, and if she wants it enough she'll drink from a cup.

My 7 mo won't take a bottle (although she did used to!) but will take expressed milk from a beaker - one of those standard tomee tippee ones. If it's just 4 hours I'm sure she will be fine.

Update:

We gave up on the bottle, figured she'd take it somehow if she was hungry.

I left while she was having a late nap. When she woke she had a bit of lunch, played with DH & her big sister, supervised the house being tidied , didn't even look for a feed and was generally angelic

She has just made up for it by having an epic feed now that I'm home. I've now got a load of expressed milk that I need to use in the next 24 hours

For future reference I'd give the Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles a try if you haven't already. The teats are more 'boob shaped' than a regular bottle and really soft. I've used them before when looking after a breast-fed baby and found them to be really good; baby switches easily between bottle and boob.

Yes, we'd tried those - I'd heard good things about them. Still have a couple around - might try them again at some stage if we need to, but she was having none of it last time

I've given up with bottles at 6mths too. She just uses a tommee tippee cup if necessary now!

If your trying her with a bottle of milk and she knows your there she will probably want boob. I found that my LO would take the bottle easier when I wasn't there. But i would say for 3-4 hours its not the end of the world just feed her before you go and she will make sure you make up for it once you are home.
Don't be afraid to enjoy yourself go have some fun doing your hobby and let DH do the worrying, she will survive

My DD had to go 10 hours without me a few weeks ago when she had just turned 7 months - she refuses a bottle and isn't keen on taking milk from a sippy cup. She was fine though - DH just topped her up with yoghurt.

Have you tried greek yoghurt rather than normal yoghurt? It's creamier and slightly sweeter than normal yoghurt. I'm sure DD would live on Greek yoghurt and banana if I'd let her.

In fact, if she doesn't take to a cup before the beginning of July when I go back to work, that will have to be her main dairy intake during the day.