Bottle fail - Please come and tell me positive stories...

[badguider]

DS 11wks is ebf but had bottle top ups of expressed milk in his first couple of weeks due to tongue tie, then had a daily bottle at night from dh for weeks.
Now however, he has other ideas and has become properly attached to the boob rather than just wanting milk from anywhere.

I am self-employed and need to work the occasional day to keep my business going (10 KIT days in the next three months) then go back to work at 6mo.

There seem to be LOADS of mothers of 'bottle refusers' on MN but could I hear some positive stories of babies who have taken a bottle with perseverance???

please???

[feels desperate]

Mine wouldn't take a bottle for ages. He kept pushing the teat out of his mouth with his tongue. I was worried for the same reasons as you as I'm also self employed and had to start doing KIT days fairly early. My LO wouldn't take Avent or Tommee Tippee bottles, I think the teat was to firm for him. The first ones I had success with were the Medela ones. Not the Calma one - that was a complete waste of £15! But the soft ones which he latches onto like a nipple with his lips curled back. I think the softness is the closest to a real nipple that I've tried. After a few goes with this one he actually opened his mouth in anticipation like a baby bird and now, at 7 months he grabs the bottle out of my hand!

My LO has had a few bottles a week of bm since 3 weeks old. She sometimes refused her bottles if they weren't warm enough. Things that have helped us are putting on boob then sliding bottle in, giving the bottle really warm, low stage teats- ie newborn or next size so baby has to work harder like on the breast, keeping the bottle teat in her mouth while she figures it out which could take a few minutes. Sometimes she took the bottle better from me because she assosicated feeding with me but most people advise others giving the bottle. She now takes two bottles a day as I'm going back to work on Monday

this sounds hopeful - thanks.

we were using tommee tippee cause that's what he used to like but I will try to find soft medela ones instead as it does seem to be that he can't squish it that he doesn't like.

My DD was a bottle refuser. We tried the tommee tippee closer to nature bottles from about 8 weeks and she would have none of it. I didn't want to buy lots of different types of bottles and end up with a cupboard full of them! And I just had a feeling if we persevered, she would eventually get the hang of it. I would put an ounce or two of EBM in the bottle and offer it to her a couple of times a day. As soon as she got too upset with it I would take it away and BF. We did this for a few weeks and just as I was about to give up she suddenly guzzled it down like it was nothing and has happily taken a bottle of ebm everyday since.

Oh and my tip would be put the the teat in boiling water for a few mins before the feed and then let it cool down so its warm but not hot obviously. This softens it and makes it easier for them. Once they get the hang of it you won't need to keep doing it.

Yesterday I spent £15 on a medela calma bottle and today he took 80ml from dh in his old tt bottle :)
Seems he likes being carried around by dh while fed....

Fingers x for a repeat tomorrow...

Sounds promising OP you might find that some days he'll take some from the bottle and other days he'll refuse but eventually he should decide it's no big deal after all!

We've tried them all after dd2 hated TT bottles, but got on initially with the little medela soft teats; she managed the calma but got fed up (so did I) and I tried the medela wide base teats (from the US) but by this point she was fully established as a refuser! I then tried every teat that would fit a medela bottle, latex and silicone. Then we tried all the bottles on the market, when she finally showed interest in the playtex nurser (amazon) with drop ins, and the MAM anti colic ones.

We are having success with MAM bottles and teats at the moment and she is eventually having a bedtime bottle of formula - it has taken 2.5 months of perseverance though and I hate to think of how much I have spent...! Now need her to take it from some one else now as I'm not much better off otherwise!