EBF 12 week old refuses to take expressed BM from bottle

[northlondonchoclover]

DD2 has been exclusively breastfed since birth, and she has taken EBM from the odd bottle. However since 8 weeks she has refused to drink from the bottle. The initial bottle used was Avent brand, and I bought her another bottle with a softer teat, the Japanese Pigeon brand. She refuses to drink and screams when she sees the bottle. The reason for trying to get her to take the bottle is to prepare for when I go back to work in 2 months - trying not to leave everything to the last minute! I have also tried getting my mum to offer the milk but she refuses.

I am planning to express at work and continue breastfeeding for as long as possible but am a bit worried about the situation. The milk that DD2 is refusing is not wasted as I just mix it with fresh milk and offer it to DS1, who is 2. :)

Any advise is much appreciated, thank you very much.

My son was the same, he would take a bottle when tiny but gradually went off it and would refuse all. Tried all sorts if tears, feeders and temperatures. In the end I started using a sippy cup with ebm when he was 4 months and he would take a couple of oz from that if I wasn't around (not often). By 8 months I could replace a feed with the sippy cup and finally gave up bf by 9 months. it got easier after weaning from 6 months.

Friends with the same problem managed to get their baby to take a bottle by basically not offering anything else for a day and putting up with a lot of crying, but with me not working, it wasn't worth what would have been traumatic for me.

I second waiting until four months and then just introducing a sippy cup. My DS briefly took the odd bottle as well then adamantly refused shortly before he was due to start nursery (naturally) never to accept a bottle again - we tried every single piece of advice and invented some strategies of our own to no avail. Even the nursery, with their unbroken record of converting bottle refusers, failed. As you can get a sippy cup for under two quid from any large supermarket it's far cheaper than trying, and failing, with multiple bottles.

Never had this problem with DS1, as long as there was milk he would drink it, from breast or bottle.

I also tried slowly feeding her with a small cup, initially she lapped up the milk like a little kitten. However on the 2nd try she also refused it.

Hopefully DD2 won't refuse the cup at 4 months. Otherwise I worry she might go hungry while I am at work.