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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

DD is now refusing bottles of breastmik!!! advice needed please!

26 replies

amieis · 16/05/2012 21:02

My dd is 3 months old, and has previously accepted bottles of expressed breastmilk from dp and pil, but for the last couple of days has refused to take a bottle of any description!!! She would rather scream for two hours while I was not there than accept the bottle. Now she is only feeding from the breast and then comfort sucking for ages afterwards! She also won't have a dummy anymore.
Has anyone got any solutions/ideas why she's suddenly doing this?

Tia

OP posts:
RandomAdams · 17/05/2012 11:57

How regular was "previously"? If not presented regularly, the bottle may not have been quite accepted, and now that she is older, she can be more vocal about her wants.

Tbh though at hree months, she can sustain herself a few hours between feeds, so if you are out only for a couple if hours, she does not need to feed. She knows it and may just Want you, not the Milk. Could she be crying for comfort and then offered the bottle instead thus making her angry/frustrated?

If you are worried, check with the GP in case she has a cold, but if sh eis feeding okay on the breast, it sounds like a baby who has decided she will wait for mum.

OneLittleBabyTerror · 17/05/2012 12:06

How regular was "previously"? If not presented regularly, the bottle may not have been quite accepted, and now that she is older, she can be more vocal about her wants.

I personally knows this is nonsense. There's so much of this thrown around MN, how the baby refusing a bottle is somehow the mums fault for 1) not introducing a bottle early enough, and/or 2) not using the bottle frequently enough.

My DD had a bottle once a day since around 4 weeks ago, 3-4 times a week. She still learned to refuse bottles from about 4mo. I think it's the time when she recognise what the bottle is. She'd fight and bash the bottle away. I gave up around 5mo trying to re-introduce the bottle. I had no advice other than this is a very short phase in their lives. They can probably already go without milk for 3-4 hours (every baby is different ofc). Once they getting solids, then they can also be offered food and water when they are hungry or thirsty. DD was down to 2 day feeds between 7am and 6pm by 7mo. (The cheeky thing also re-took a bottle at this point, but she fed herself with it. She held the bottle and sips it like a cup).

OhWhatAPalaver · 17/05/2012 14:43

same problem here! DD started refusing bottles at 3 months, apparently this is a very common age for this to happen. they realise that bottle aint breast and kick up a fuss. with our DD it was literally one day was fine with bottles, the next day not. i have tried various bottles and teats but to no avail. she actually spits the milk out even tho it is freshly expressed! she wont take bottles from DP, nana or myself.

my last resort is to try her with formula in a bottle from DP but i'm still persevering with expressed milk for the moment.... not holding my breath tho! she is 19 weeks now so i might start training her to use a sippy cup soon. looks like a night out wont be on the cards for a long time tho!

OhWhatAPalaver · 17/05/2012 14:48

just out of interest, which bottles do you use? i have tried tommy tippie, breastflow and nuk, she's costing us a small fortune!

i would recommend trying a few different bottles just in case. you never know, she might like one! good luck with it :)

RandomAdams · 17/05/2012 14:49

onelittlebabyterror apologies if I sounded as if blaming mum. Just going by own experience too. Smile

OneLittleBabyTerror · 17/05/2012 16:38

Don't worry, I can get quite upset on this as I felt I have wasted soooo much effort expressing. And I really do hate it. Looking back, I would have not bothered with the sterilising and freezing if I know she was going to be a bottle refuser.

Luckily for me, she went to 6.30pm feed and then a midnight fee fairly early. Definitely before I started weaning 6mo. Because I remember going for a night out before that. (still have to get home just after midnight, but it's ok). And she took to solids really well too.

ohwhat I have avent, tommee tippee, breastflow and nuk. DD only likes Nuk. But the cup is a good idea. DD likes self feeding (is a spoon refuser) and she is happy drinking from a bottle like a cup by 7mo. A bottle is easily for her to sip from. She didn't get drinking from free flow till around 10mo.

OneLittleBabyTerror · 17/05/2012 16:41

The tommee tippee first sip cup can take a teat. You might want to try that if your LO had been able to use a tommee tippee bottle before. They are suitable from 4mo. Maybe just give it to your LO to hold every meal and snack time?

MNP · 17/05/2012 17:19

Mam is a good teat to try, it fits Avent and standard wide neck bottles (not ttc2n,Nuk)

A feeder spout might be good also.

Original poster
amieis · 17/05/2012 17:48

We have tried tommee tippee, avent and mam... She didn't seem to like the tommee tippee ones after about 2 weeks of using them but took straight to the avent ones.
My pil hade her for 5 hours and said she screamed incessantly for two of thode for a feed but point blank refused the bottle!!! Also, my dp had her for a day while I went to a wedding, I was gone from 9am to midnight and she only fedonce,during that whole time.
She's been having at least one bottle, if not two or three,a day since about 6 weeks as my dp often takes her to pil for a few hours a day to give me chance to catch up with the housework.
We also tried formula as a last resort ohwhatapalaver and she accepted it to start with (we tried a few different ready-made cartons and took thwem all) but now just won't have it at all :( I'm at my wits end because I now feel like I can't go anywhere without her as she won't eat in the whole time I'm gone :(

OP posts:
OhWhatAPalaver · 18/05/2012 08:54

i know the feeling, amieis! it is starting to look like i won't be able to go anywhere either. i was meant to be going to a wedding today but unfortunately my DP has to go on his own now due to our little madam! oh well, at least i can go out for a few hours during the day as she generally doesn't need feeding as much in the afternoon it's just morning and night when she feeds a lot so i can get her nana to have her sometimes while we have a break, albeit a very short one!

i think i'm almost done with the expressing, it's a faff and it's quite disappointing when she just spits the milk out anyway! i am going to have a look around for a nice soft spouted cup to train her on i think. OneLittle i didn't know that the TT cups could also take teats, might be worth a try!

Original poster
amieis · 18/05/2012 13:06

We have several more weddings to attend over the next couple of months ohwhat so I'm hoping there's somewhere quiet I can sneak off to feed her! (It seems everyone we know had lo's last year and are getting married this year! We're a year behind lol) I'm going to the baby show in birmingham this weekend so hopefully someone there might have some suggestions too!
Fortunately my pil only live a 5 min walk away so I can still drop her off for a couple of hours and they can just call me when she's hungry, but its frustrating to think dp can't take her out for the day or me go out without her if I need to!

OP posts:
notcitrus · 18/05/2012 13:36

Same issue here, again same age.
Eventually MrNC tipped some milk into dd's mouth and she coughed and swallowed some and then calmed down just before I got home. Apparently this is technically called 'cup feeding' and often works - as I have oversupply issues she's used to coughing at the start of a feed so maybe she just recognised it as a meal unlike the bottle?

Plan to try again soon once I express more milk. Ds would drink anything as long as it was quite warm, ie warmer than normal bf.

OhWhatAPalaver · 18/05/2012 23:57

strange that all the posts i've read about bottle refusers all appear to be girls and the boys seems to drink from anything and everything...

ELHasShutUp · 19/05/2012 06:49

Ah, we've got a bottle refusing boy here! He was using the Philips Avent bottles from very early as we were advised to top up with formula after being referred back to the hospital for weight loss. After we managed to phase out the formula, we should have kept on with bottles of expressed milk; when we tried to introduce them again after a break he hasn't been keen.

Things were going ok to start with, but then he started to bring the bottle to his mouth with both hands then push it away again after it touched his mouth. He was teething, so we thought it might have been hurting him, but it's still the same now. He's 5 months, and we've been trying about 6 weeks.

On the few occasions I've been out, he has been brought to me for feeding, including smuggling him into a box at the Albert Hall last weekend without a ticket!

We're going to try a cup with spout next.

OhWhatAPalaver · 19/05/2012 11:35

blimey! looks like its not just the girlies then :)
yeah i'm not sure which cup to get, there are so many and i was told to go with a soft spout first but can't seem to find many.

monkeymoma · 19/05/2012 11:38

sorry if the following have been suggested, have you tried playing with the temperature or taste?

Boil then cool it, it changes the taste so it doesn't smell/taste like mummy (so they don't go "hang on, where's mummy?" ( I think this takes away the anti-bac properties so once boiled and cooled, treat it like formula)

Or give it fridge cold, DS didn't like warm bottles

Are YOU giving it? DS refused EBM bottles from me but took them from others if I was nowhere to be seen

monkeymoma · 19/05/2012 11:41

BTW boiling breast milk MINGS! just so you're warned! but it does work if they're refusing normal EBM

monkeymoma · 19/05/2012 11:41

the other alternative of course is trying a few formulas

Original poster
amieis · 19/05/2012 14:09

We managed to get her to have 5oz of expressed milk from a bottle yesterday, but she would only take it from a visiting friend and now she's refusing again! She chews the teat and then spits out the milk!!! I will see if I can get some advice from the baby show and let you all know what I come back with!!

OP posts:
Original poster
amieis · 21/05/2012 10:17

Okay so came away yesterday with a couple of new bottles to try... One from lansinoh (sp?) Called a momma drinkining bottle that looks like a boob... (The whole bottle is round) and one from a company called vital baby, that looks like a tommee tippee one but has a flex zone round the teat which is meant to mimic the natural flex of a breast when a baby is latched, so hopefully she will take to one of these and hopefully they'll be helpful for you ohwhat and el has
Also the lady at the avent stand suggested buying some of the handles that turn a regular avent bottle into a sippy cup type bottle so going to give those a go too!

OP posts:
OhWhatAPalaver · 22/05/2012 11:44

ooh have you had any luck with the new bottles? the lansinoh one sounds interesting, i'm off to google it!

thanks for the tips re: temp etc monkey, i tasted my warmed up expressed milk and it definitely doesn't taste as good as fresh, not tried it cold yet tho so might give that a try next! :)

Original poster
amieis · 28/05/2012 23:03

ohwhat the momma bottle went down a treat! Definitley worth investing in! They're a bit of an odd shape to hold, but are more boob like than every other bottle I've found!!! The vitalbaby ones were useless, if you don't line the holes on the teat EXACTLY with the dimples on the ring it leaks EVERYWHERE... Poor fil ended up looking like he'd wet himself when he tried it haha!!!

OP posts:
jetstar · 29/05/2012 18:16

I was reading this thread and I was interested in the lansinoh bottles but can't seem to find them to buy in the UK. Did anyone else find them or are they very new in the UK (hence at the baby show)?

OhWhatAPalaver · 29/05/2012 22:11

looks like they are branded as Tomy Momma bottles here! they look exactly the same.... i might get one :) here's the link to the amazon page...

www.amazon.co.uk/mOmma-Feeding-Range-Bottles-2-Pack/dp/B00361FMSA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1338325720&sr=8-3-fkmr0

Original poster
amieis · 31/05/2012 12:50

They've only just launched them in the uk...the first time they've been sold is at the birmingham baby show. The website for them is www.mOmmaRocks.co.uk :)

OP posts: