DD really, really hates bottles

[openerofjars]

I am bfing 12wo DD and she is fabulous at it. Great weight gain, happy to feed etc.

However, I need her to be able to have the odd bottle of expressed milk so I can do stuff, and she isn't having it.

She just sort of licks the bottle, bites it a bit, cries and gets distressed, gags etc, so I stop after a bit because it is clearly stressful and unpleasant for her. I cuddle her, sing to her, etc. I have tried facing her away from me as well as cuddling up close and making lots of eye contact. I don't get stressed and I don't force her to keep going when she cries.

I have tried her on the Tommee Tippee teats and normal ones.

There's a training event I have to go on at work in about four weeks, plus we are hoping to move house in the next month, so I really want to get this sorted before then. And packing to move is not all that easy with a boob-only baby.

Any ideas?

Bump. Bumpity bump bump bump.

HI there. I'm afraid I am no expert and am having a spot of bother myself but thought I would pass on what I have been told ...
have you tried someone else giving her the bottle?
try either when she is very hungry or not hungry? some babies will take it if they are starving whilst others get too upset if they have teat instead of breast. Other babies will drink better if they are not too hungry and have time to play around.
Let her explore the bottle with her mouth before starting to feed.
Try a different position so it is not associated with b/feeding.

My 6 month year old takes a bottle when I am not there but only once have I managed to feed him one myself. He normally just sucks eagerly then lets it ALL dribble out. I am going to try in between feeds when he's not too hungry...

Good luck - it can only get easier!

A number of people have said to me that the baby can smell your boobs when you normally breastfeed and then try and bottle feed (be it breast milk or formula) and they want the real thing, so LouYK's advice about someone else trying to bottle feed your DD sounds like a very good plan.

Sorry, drip feeding a bit (no pun intended, well maybe a bit) but I forgot to say she has had a total of 3 bottles in her life with varying degrees of difficulty: first one was fine but it's been getting worse! One with DH, one with me & one with her grandma.

She is a wee bugger.

She also has a marked preference for my left boob and occasionally sulks if offered the right one...

Have you tried a cup instead?

Not yet. Would I not have to sterilise it & if so, can you recommend a good baby cup? Or will a normal one do?

I've been putting off trying a cup because she flails around and gags with a bottle.

I don't know the answers - sorry :)

i was just thinking that if you let her carefully lap at milk from an open cup it would be totally different from breastfeeding, and she might get less upset.

ooo - i also remember reading somewhere that you could even try with a spoon?!? i guess it would be a shallow weaning spoon and just let her suck it off ... how that helps with the bottle in the long run i'm not sure though ....

My dd was the same with tommee tippee bottles took one fineish with a bit of spluttering but then would take no more.
After trying several different bottles we've found the MAM anti colic ones amazing! They have a slightly flattened teat like their dummys and it's the only bottle that he will take without any stress, crying etc. He'll even take it from me.
Think was about a fiver from boots and was worth every single penny!

So worth a try if your not having any luck with the Tt ones.

My friend used the Medela Haberman feeder bottle, this

If memory serves it is the only valved bottle on the market so it is more like the breast in the fact that nothing drips out of it, they have to suck to get milk. She successfully breast and bottle fed for months, her milk supply was low at around 5pm so they fed their daughter formula from the bottle at that time and breastfed later in the evening when her milk supply was back up.

It was the bottle recommended by The Baby Whisperer and when I wanted it 9 years ago you had to order it specially as it was designed for babies with cleft palette, there was a 6 week wait. These days you can get it in Boots and Mothercare.

Right, MAM bottles ordered: I will save the Medela one for a last-ditch attempt on price grounds but it's good to know that it's there if the MAM bottles don't work.

If anyone else is reading this thread and wants a link, here are the MAM bottles on Amazon.

She will have a bottle.

you may not want to hear this but I remember a girl in my postnantal group talking. her friend was determined that her baby would have a bottle. Baby stuck mum out for 11 hours before they gave in and drank from a bottle. It was a very long 11 hours.

My DS also hated bottles, and we tried about 4 types and DH feeding him sticking a bottle in his mouth whilst hard expressed breast milk poured down DS' chin and he screamed hysterically and I sat in another room on the internet pretending I couldn't hear. In the end, he was just breastfed and ended up having water in a free flow cup at nursery from 9 months and we just gave up on bottles.

Well, it's an option! But I'm not beaten yet...

I'm not going to do the 11 hour thing, though: I want to go out on the lash go to my keeping in touch days at work and let my mum have her on moving day, not stop bfing. Plus, think of the boob trauma. Ouch.

When you play the game of bottles, you win or you end up covered in unwanted milk...

I've been trying for weeks to get 3mo DS onto bottles with no success, however I will share the strategies I've tried as these proved to be game-breakers for other people:

• Mam, Dr Browns and Tommee Tippee were no use for me. The closest I've had to success has been with Breastflow
• Use nipple shields as a halfway meeting point so she gets used to sucking from something else but still has a lot of familiar contact with you
• Get partner to feed and get a long way away yourself so baby can't smell you and know the preferred option is available
• This is the only one that's come close to working for me - stick the bottle in baby's mouth when they're doing that sucking in their sleep. My DS drained 5oz of EBM this way, and then downed another couple of oz later on when he was awake. Tried a bottle with him again the next day and it was back to square one - I could've cried! I've got him to drink another bottle in his sleep since then but never again awake. He's also happier with me trying a bottle with him than anybody else, which is no use whatsoever!

I'm almost at give up point because I've been trying pretty much daily for six weeks now so I hope you have more luck than me and I'm willing to hear any other suggestions! The only thing I'm not keen on trying is cold-turkey - when I've tried feeding him hungry, he's much worse than when he's a bit peckish and I don't like the idea of starving the little chap, even if he is keeping me from any semblance of a social life, baby-free exercise plan and extra sleep!!

PS We moved when he was six weeks and EBFing. Secret is to get a moving company who does the packing for you (well worth the extra cost) then friends/rellies who will take her on long walks to take her mind off eating.