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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Hel p3 month old refusing expressed b/m from bottle!

21 replies

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:26

My fully breastfed 3 month old refuses to drink from a bottle. i am trying today the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottle and she has held out for coming up to six hours - she normally breastfeeds every three to four hours! She isnt crying constantly considering she hasnt been fed as she has a cry and then is smiling and laughing again.

i have tried MAM teats and when she was six weeks old she fed from it ok but now as she is older and more set in her ways she refuses that also.

How long should i hold back until giving into her and breastfeeding?

Any advice would be welcome

OP posts:

nicnack2 · 04/06/2006 18:29

do you wnat to give up bf?

Original poster

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:30

No but i havent been away from my baby since she was born and would like to be able to go out for a couple of hours without her. Still want to b/f other times. Also going back to work in two months so have to start somewhere

OP posts:

edam · 04/06/2006 18:32

My dh sorted this by wrapping the bottle in a bra that I had worn. Apparently ds recognised the smell and suddenly realised it was milk in there! Think it would only work if someone else delivered the bottle though, if you are there, baby knows where milk should be coming from and will resist any attempt to prevent them getting at their supply.

nicnack2 · 04/06/2006 18:33

have you tried a tommee tippee first cup. some babies dont move to bottles. I introduce a bottle once a day from birth so i cold go out,but my friends babe wont take a bottle and he is 4 months but will out of a cup

Original poster

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:34

Maybe i shuold start again another time when dp is here as have been trying since midday! She knows there is milk in there as she chews on the teat and milk comes out. ??

OP posts:

Original poster

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:35

I have brought one of those cups but i cant even suck water out of it has. This might be the valve i dont know??

OP posts:

nicnack2 · 04/06/2006 18:36

is that the blue cup with the green flip spout?

mears · 04/06/2006 18:36

If you want to go out then feed her and go is my advice. You now know she can last for quite a while. No need for her to take a bottle just so you can get away for a few hours. If she is truly hungry when you are out, she will feed. If not, she will make up for lost time when you are back. No breastfed baby has ever starved when their mum returned to work - believe me
I only gave mine a bottle the day before I went back.

Original poster

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:39

no i think it is purple with yellow spout. in reply to mears i dont want to inflict her crying on the childminder as its now coming up to 7 hours since she was fed and as her crying is quite bad now im going to b/f.

OP posts:

nicnack2 · 04/06/2006 18:43

the blue and green one doesnt have a valve, also i had teats that had bumps on them to feel like nipples for the babies. Dont know wheher then worked or i succumbed to the blurp. think they were also tommee tippee. Perverance i think

Original poster

1g1unknown · 04/06/2006 18:47

im giving up for today maybe ill try her first morning feed with it to see if that he
lps! thanks 4 reply

OP posts:

crazychilledmummy · 04/06/2006 19:15

You could try the flat teats rather than the round ones, apparently they mimic how the nipple is in the mouth. And I found using formula rather than breastmilk at first got my DS started on bottles. If you can get someone else to try it at first then she won't smell you and expect bm. I put DS in a recliner chair thingy to feed him as being close to me seemed to confuse him. good luck.

mears · 04/06/2006 20:07

1g1unknown - childminders are pretty relaxed about feeding babies and are probably the best people to get a baby to take a bottle.
The way I did it was to start baby off on the breast and once they were sucking pop them off and slip in the bottle with EBM.
Please don't try starving your baby into submission when you are there to n=breastfeed - it will only result in rejection of the bottle altogether.
As you are not returning to work for a couple of months you have got plenty of time to introduce a bottle if need be.

mears · 04/06/2006 20:29

Other tips for trying baby with a bottle are - whoever does it holds baby next to skin - ie DP unbuttons shirt. Heat teat of bottle so that it is warm. If those fail, hold baby facing away from you and walk arouund while offering teat. It really is better to have someone with confidence with baby doing it. I have never had a B/F baby not take milk from me yet.

iris66 · 04/06/2006 20:57

1g1unknown - my DS (19 wks) wouldn't accept a bottle either & we spent loads on various teats that he wouldn't take. We were successful with the Boots first cup (soft spouted - with a valve & no handles. I've only seen blue ones but they may do other colours) & he's happy drinking EBM or water from it.

RedZuleika · 05/06/2006 14:03

My breastfed baby used to take an occasional bottle of EBM, but started refusing when she was about three or four months old. She's now eight months old and still won't have it. As she hardly takes any solids either, this makes it very problematic if I want to go out. I went out for the whole day the other week and left her with my MIL, thinking that after a few hours, she'd be bound to give in and drink from a bottle / spouted beaker / doidy cup (I left an array...). No chance. She stubbornly refused all day (although she seemed quite happy apparently) and then virtually pounced on me when I got in.

NappiesGalore · 05/06/2006 14:34

reading this with interest as my ds3 is 4 months now and wont take anything - formula, water, ebm, even watered down juice! - from anywhere except me. like others on here, he did take it when younger, but not now.
have tried various teats, tried me giving it, dp giving it, my mum giving it, with me there, without me there...
havnt tried a cup yet, so ta for that tip.
the only bottle any of us have had any success at all with was the Medela bottle for babies with cleft palettes who cant suck, but even that hes not keen. and i once got him to take about 20 mls by filling a syringe with formula from a cup about 7 times and squirting it gently slowly into his mouth while jiggling him a little so he swallowed. not ideal. (also, the formula or the fuss or all the air he took in made him fussy with a sore tum for about 6 hours after. not doing that again, doh)

NappiesGalore · 05/06/2006 14:35

i cant rmember what i did with ds's1 and 2 and theyre not even 2 and 3 years old yet

Kathy1972 · 05/06/2006 14:55

I didn't use the 'holding out for ages' method with mine - after a few minutes of trying to give her the bottle I gave her the breast, but then the next time she was hungry I or dh tried again with the bottle for a few minutes and so on (except for night-time feeds, because I didn't want her to be upset when I wanted her to sleep) but then after a day or so she decided she might as well have a go at drinking from the bottle and after that it was mostly fine.
I suppose I was trying to familiarise her with the bottle before expecting her to drink from it, rather than starving her into submission.

KTeePee · 05/06/2006 15:11

My dd never took a bottle, but eventually would from the old-style Avent soft spout (this was nearly 9 yrs ago!). I went back to work when she was 7 months old and for a while she took very little milk during the day and would almost tear my clothes off me to get breastfed once we got home. (Obviously she was on solids by then so wasn't crucial that she had milk during the day.) Ds1 was eventually ok with Nuk teats/bottles. Ds2 eventually took to Playtex bottles, but I think it only really worked once he started on solids and got used to taking something other than milk from the breast.

Only advice I can give is try different types of bottles (maybe borrow if you can to see if it works?), offer a bottle regularly (it might take many attempts before she drinks a whole one) and get someone else to do it.

TBH I wouldn't let a 3 month old baby go without a feed for six hours...

tiktok · 05/06/2006 17:21

I agree with mears, here, and I would also be quite concerned about a baby going hours and hours without drinking in this warm weather. 6 hours is too long for anyone, let alone a 3 mth old, to go without fluids in the day.

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