1 month left to get EBF baby to take bottle, will it work this time?

[OhWhatAPalaver]

i have been EBFing my bottle refusing DD for 7 months and i've actually gone slightly bonkers and booked tickets to a gig. it's on 7th sep and i NEED to get DD to take milk from a bottle or cup by then.

i have no idea how to go about this as it will be my second try with the bottles and i really want to make it work this time. we introduced bottles to DD when she was 7 wks and she fed from them with no problen until 3mo when she realised bottle was not boob. ever since that day she has flat out refused until we gave up trying at around 4mo. we tried so many different bottles and all the tricks but nothing worked. i now have severe cabin fever and i just can not miss Patti Smith who i have waited for many years to see live!

i have just started really encouraging DD to drink from a sippy cup. we have 2, one soft spouted non spill and one hard spouted. she kind of drinks water from these but spits most of it out. she is yet to realise it is possible drink from anything other than my boobs!

what can i do this time to make it work? ideas please, i am desperate!! :)

How long will you be away? She might well be fine without any milk, especially if she's maybe now drinking/playing with water and eating some solid food? What does she make of open top cups?

oooh i haven't dared try an open top cup yet as she has a tendency to fling them around the room!

we will only be gone from about 8pm till midnight but her bedtime is between 8-9pm and she feeds to sleep every night. i'm worried that she won't be able to sleep without me :/

Ah, so you need a sleep-induction substitute? How is she with rocking/buggy/car ride? I've got one that boobs to sleep. She doesn't even feed terribly often now (11mths) but LOVES bedtime boob and bottle doesn't do it. On the odd occcassions I need to be out, dh or granny rock her or go for a walk/drive. Then she feeds like a mad thing when I get home and conks out again

she will fall asleep if we rock her for ages in her chair but i would feel so mean as i know she'll be upset as i won't be there to feed her! ideally, i want her to be able to have milk from another source to placate her until i get back.

she used to get distressed even just looking at a bottle. at least now she is interested in it and plays with it. she just doesn't seem to know how to feed from one!

Aw, I know, I was dreading being out the first time, but in the end, dd was okay. DOn't know any tricks, I'm afraid. A lot could change in a month though and she might be willing to have a wee drink from an alternative source?!

Two things to sort out: getting baby sleep and method of feeding. I'll explain what I did as we had the exact same predicament:

Night time pattern: always had a bath-change-story-milk-sleep pattern, no particular time, just when dd was tired. I used to feed to sleep.

With this pattern well established, at around 10 months i realised it just wasn't ideal as I was the only one to get her to sleep at night.

So I tweaked it by feeding her before her story, she would then lie with DP who'd do stories(same ones for consistency). Obviously this took a few nights of her getting used to DP, she'd come back for milk, faff around, be half asleep and I'd put her down. But, i tried to keep her awake and pass her back to DP to start another story and get her to sleep, even if this meant cuddling her to sleep.

Perhaps over 3 weeks, she got used to the change in pattern: bath- milk - change - story-bed. She now goes to sleep cuddling on the bed and he then transfers her to the cot.

Obviously not ideal shes going to sleep on him, but as a family, we've moved forward.

Method of feeding: persevere with a sippy cup at meal time. Just a basic one. We were late introducing one really but dd wasn't interested and she is breastfed so no massive need for additional water. But at 10 months I realised she needed to learn how to use one. So, every meal time, a cup was present. I offered water with and without lid and after 2/3 weeks, she took it and can now lift herself (she is 12 months but this is possible from 6/7 months) So just keep offering. She would cup feed (with me holding it) from around 4 months - babies naturally can do this I think.

To put in context, dd still wakes during the night and I feed back to sleep but night times are better and I can go out for a meal with friends and not worry that she'll starve. My next plan is to get her to take milk during the night from DP!

Good luck

My 10 month old was a bottle refuser, I've spent the past 3 weeks working hard on it and have found that distraction works well.

Also, she will go to sleep with no aid whatsoever if I'm not there - you just put her to bed and she sleeps!

I wouldn't worry too much if I were you.

thanks for the replies :) she is doing slightly better with her sippy cup and we are just going to keep trying DP giving her a bottle while she's in her chair rather than on his knee. she seems to get too distracted when she's sat on him!

Could you try to trick her into going to bed a bit earlier?? I did this with my daughter as she was EBF and went to bed around the same time as your little one - I just moved the routine slowly a bit earlier which could mean you feed your LO before you go out and put them to bed and go out happy and not worrying?? A bit of trickery never hurt anyone haha x

Oh and mine have never liked bottles - they both have laughed at them, just use those tommee tippee cups and one of those beakers with the straw and my 6 month old can drink water out of that no problem but wont even entertain a bottle! x

Someone I knew eventually got baby to take a bottle by cutting a hole in a pillowcase and poking the teat of the bottle through it.. Strange but worked.

very bizarre higherhill! maybe we'll try it.... :)

she has actually started to go to bed a bit earlier by herself this week. 7pm last night! she slept till about half 11 and then wanted a feed, so we won't quite be back by then but maybe nana will be able to rock her back to sleep until i get back.

we are still persevering with the bottle. i am really p*ed off as i can't find a NUK wide neck slow flow latex teat anywhere!! she likes the NUK latex teats best but the milk comes out too fast for her with the medium hole and it appears a slow flowing version does not exisit :( does anyone know of any other slow flowing latex teats out there?

errrm, just found a NUK wide neck slow flow latex teat. on the NUK website.... duh. fingers crossed that she likes them!