Any advice getting ebf baby to take a bottle?

[Haribojoe]

DD is nearly 8 months old and ebf.

I'm due to go back to work (2 nights a week) in Feb and then at the end of March have to start taking medication which means I won't be able to breastfeed any longer.

DD has never taken a bottle or dummy. If you give her either she just chews it and rolls it around in her mouth.

My plan was to try and get her taking a bottle over Christmas (DH will be at home for 2 weeks so got plenty of help) and once I've managed that will start weaning her off the boob (can't bear thinking about that it's so sad)

Has anyone got any advice, have never had this with my others as bf has stopped for other reasons and they were all quite happy to take bottles.

Maybe she'd like a sippy cup better? My dd will take one if I need to go away for the afternoon etc. She hates bottle and like yours, plays with it. She seems to think its a milky teether!

I would't bother with bottles - just go straight to a cup. Presumably she has a sippy cup now she's on solids anyway, and she'll be close to 1 by the time you go back so will be able to just drink cow's milk from a cup by the time you have to take your medication.

Have been giving her a cup, which she empties on herself!

Will try cup instead of bottle then, she still wakes several times in the night to bf, think this may be comfort partly.

Shall I/DH try giving her milk from a cup in the night?

Feel silly that I'm so clueless, I think it's having a deadline that's making it seem a bit daunting!

I'd carry on with the bfing at night - my experience was that both DCs carried on with proper feeds at night till solids really kicked in at about 10m. Then night feeds dropped off hugely to a couple of minutes a time about three or four times per night and DH got up to them with some ebm. Two nights of that and they were both sleeping through, because it had stopped being about hunger. She will get better with a cup - honestly by the time she's 1 she'll be a pro!

I wish I had gone to a cup from breastfeeding cos my ds is 2 and won't drink milk out of anything other than a bottle. Keep persevering.
I also had to stop cos of medication but I had to stop with no warning at 8 months. I know how you feel.

If your DD is 8mo now, then wouldn't she be 12mo by the time you go back to work? For what it's worth, my experience of returning to work at 7mo is

1. at 7mo, DD will feed herself with a bottle, using the brown NUK teats. She'll also put the other teats like breastflow or TT in her mouth and chew them. She would not tolerate me feeding her like a baby, but will happily drink from bottles like a sippy cup.
2. I was giving her water in a tommee tippee free flow cup from 6mo. By 10mo, she can drink competently from a free flow cup. By this I mean drinking like 70-100ml in one go.
3. By 9mo, DD has already dropped all her bottles during day time. She just prefers to eat her snacks at nursery. She has bf during the day in the weekends until 11mo. And still on wake up and bedtime.

Basically all I'm saying is from experience, you should just keep offering water/milk in a free flow cup. You can offer cow's milk because I doubt very much she'll drink a significant enough amount to be a 'main drink before 1'. And when you go back to work, I think she'll be 12mo and therefore can have cow's milk anyway. I wouldn't waste money on formula yet given she'll probably not drink much of it! Keep trying and you know many many bf mums have their babies on cups before 1. I see many ff mums struggle to get their babies off bottles so at this late stage, I think it's better not to get her onto bottles just to get her off it again.

BTW, this is the cup I use

www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/first-cup/

I just got some more from asda and it's only £1. TT also does beakers and insulated beakers with the same top so it's very handy.

Oooh, it's a nightmare. I just kept trying, gave myself a month to slowly get her used to one, and eventually it clicked. I found Tommy Tippee Closer to Nature the only ones she would even countenance. And the funny thing was, my DD had taken a bottle fine when she was tiny - she clearly forgot how in the intervening months. Wierdly, I found feeding her from the bottle with my top off, holding it where my breast is, for some reason encouraged her to take the bottle. No idea why, unless she can't tell the difference!

Link again ..

www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/first-cup/

I second and third the tommee tippee first cup-they're about £1.50 from boots and it is the only thing that DS (6 1/2 months) will drink formula from. We tried lots of bottles and lots of different things, and his favourite is hipp organic ready made formula, fridge cold! Have managed to cut down to three breastfeeds a day, 7am, 2pm and 6pm (and any nightfeeds) and then he has formula at 11am. Am going to swap over the 2pm feed this week. Bottles were a complete nightmare. Have also found that he prefers drinking it when I'm not holding him, or when I hold him facing away from me sitting up straight (whilst watching ceebeebies...!) I also distract him by feeding him in his pushchair whilst out and about.

Try getting DH to offer her the milk when you aren't around. Dd wouldn't take a bottle if she thought the good supply was available.

Though the first time I was away for a few hours and she was Not Impressed, he ended up using a sippy cup and a beaker of milk for his finger - dip finger in milk, in baby's mouth, she sucks milk, repeat, slowly sneak sippy cup spout or bottle teat in at same time, and touch wood eventually she sucks the bottle. This was 6 months - now at 9 months she looks insulted but drinks from a large-teated bottle or sippy cup just fine.

Both ds and dd like their milk warmer than breastmilk if it's in a bottle/cup.

Feb is 3 months away - she'll be 10 or 11 months then and able to eat lots and cope without milk for half a day. I wouldn't worry about it until January.

I'm mean and have always offered the milk fridge cold . I think there's a huge difference between a 6mo and a 10mo. You can see it as part of weaning, getting her used to cold cows milk in a cup. It doesn't matter if she doesn't drink much at te start.

Just to clarify my suggestion on trying with cows milk, say with (or as) a morning and afternoon snack. It's easier and faster to prepare, especially important when you are sure she will threw most of it away! If your LO starts to manage decent amounts from it, you can put formula in the cup instead from that point on.

Thanks everyone.

Your advice has really helped, I think the main problems are that I don't really want to stop feeding and my parenting style is to just let things run their course/happen naturally. So I am starting to worry a bit about having a deadline.

Will keep giving her the cup for drinks with solids and worry about the rest after Christmas.

I've just gone back to work with 11mo DS. Working evenings until midnight rather than nights though. He'd never had a dummy or bottle either. We just had to persevere with it.

In the week before I was back at work we had DP do everything with the bedtime routine and then offered formula (I'm rubbish at expressing). We accepted that he might wake up in night for a feed if he didn't manage much formula but he stayed sleeping through (appreciate that part may be different for you). It took until about day 3-4 for DS to get the idea. He's been fine since I went back to work.

By this point my supply was very well established and so I didn't really get much engorgement from him not having that last feed.

I'd be tempted to just leave it for a bit 4 months . I didn't want to stop either and at least the unsocial hours part of evenings and night working mean that day time feeds can be the same, well they have been for me anyway. A deadline does feel rubbish but a lot may change with your DD between now and when you go back and it might not feel quite so stressful a change for you (she'll be fine!).

dd is 9 months and was always a bottle refuser. after months of battling with the bottle i stopped, left it a month , now 6 half months, and started offering water in the tommee tippee soft spout (called a tip and sip) with food. at 7 months i started putting in ebm into a doidy cup for her to drink with breakfast, 2 months later she will now take 2 oz with her breakfast and another 4 oz before a nap when with cc and drink lots of water from her cup. i never thought id see the day, we had lots of tears over bottles and just one day something clicked. persevere with the mess and keep it consistent until she gets the hang of it, ie, same time every day in the same place from the same person like breakfast. good luck x