Help - DD has decided she doesn't want a bottle!

[babybouncer]

When my baby was born promised myself I would try to ebf dd until she was 6 months old and at times, especially early on, I have had to cling to that in order to keep going. From time to time I have given her a bottle of expressed milk, but last week when I went out and left my mum with a bottle, dd refused to take it. We've tried a couple of times since and she just cries. She's now 5 1/2 months and I feel like someone has just turned out the light at the end of the tunnel. I love breastfeeding, but I feel so tied to her and bfing clothes and I have a hen do and wedding and meal out coming up in the next month or so and now don't know how I'll be able to go to them.

Dh has tried with defrosted bm i expresed and froze a while ago, but she didnt like that, so then we've tried with freshly expressed, when she's hungry and when she isn't and with two different flow rate teats, but none of it has worked. What should I be trying?

My first began to protest about taking a bottle around seven months. My husband got her to take it by putting some kind of animation or animal footage for her to watch on the computer. It seemd to relax her, or make her forget she was having a strop, and then she took the bottle.
I always stayed well out of sight when he was doing it so there was no other option.
I am guessing you will be starting solid food in a week or two if you have not already?

We had this problem. We had given a bottle of ebm occassionally from three weeks and it was still hell switching to bottles. There was screaming and rage for weeks. (Sorry). The thing we were doing wrong was trying to breastfeed all day on the days when it was possible. Getting him used to a bottle meant doing it every day. If we had given in to that earlier then we would have saved ourselves alot of heartache (he had to have an occassional bottle and there was nothing we could do about that). What I would do (with the benefit of hindsight) in your situation is give one bottle every day, however inconvenient this is. Persevere with it and do not bf at that feed even if you get total resistance. Try and make it the same feed every day, two feeds if necessary. And she will eventually accept it. Just know that the hell will end!! We have been there it is horrible. The downside is your supply may drop and long term I think its hard to sustain breast feeding this way. But it sounds like youre ready to let go anyway and 5 and a half months is great going. For us it got much easier when we weaned to solids. You can do it and she will eventually accept the bottle. Give it time and patience. Experiment with different teats, tommee tippee worked best for us. Frozen breast milk tastes disgusting compared to fresh, we also found fresh was better. We didnt try it but I have heard some people say going straight to a sippy cup with an older baby worked better. Good luck you really do have my sympathy - one day it will be over!

i know it sounds harsh but she'll take the bottle if she's hungry enough. my two were both the same. screamed at the sight of a bottle but gave in eventually when they realised there was nothing else coming. if whoever if minding the baby can keep calm and patient then you don't have to martyr yourself to ebf

She doesn't have to take a bottle for there still to be a light there. There always will be, as she's almost six months you could just start with cups. She'll be on solids soon and you can then often leave them with just food and a drink.

A tea says if you leaver her with someone who can remain charm, then she won't stave herself.