Help! My 2 month old stubbornly refuses the bottle - any ideas?.?

[Polka007]

I am BF my 2 month old, he's putting on lots of weight and he sleeps through brilliantly but I'm struggling to get him to accept the bottle.

I introduced it at 5 weeks (expressed milk) and he took it fine and carried in with 1 bottle every other day then out of nowhere he absolutely refuses it. I changed bottles and teats, heated milk then didn't and the Mam bottle seems to be his favoured however after a few successful days (trying everyday now) he screams in outrage whenever it's out into his mouth, sticks his tongue out and will not suck. He's fed by DH and I'm not in the room but we're out of ideas......any suggestions?

Do you absolutely need him urgently to take a bottle? DS2 similarly refused any and all bottles after the first couple of months, but got the hang of a cup at around 4.5 months.

If you search the boards there are loads of threads about bottle refusing. Good luck!

I still can't get my 4 month old to take a bottle but the recommendation I got from a few people was the nuk bottle with a latex teat.

Thanks ladies, I have done a search and didn't find much but I'll try again!

It's not absolutely do or die but to get some sort of freedom for a couple of hours or if I'm ill, I'd much prefer him to be happy taking it.

Re getting a couple of hours off, you'll also find that feeds space out A LOT after the first couple of months - I was usually able to go out for a swim or haircut or coffee or something without even having to leave any milk, especially if I timed it for around nap time. It seems a bit relentless in the first few weeks but it calms down!

The various suggestions I got were:

• trying different bottles
• leaving the house entirely for several hours so hunger forces your baby to take the bottle from someone else
• sticking a bottle in their gob while they're asleep. They automatically suck it down then might be more amenable when awake
• most controversial (which I drew the line at and never tried): put some sugar on the teat and some in the milk.

The only one of the above that I had any success with was the second last one, but even then I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times DS took a bottle when he was awake. Sorry to say as well that he never spaced his feeds out - he was on the boob every 1.5 to 2 hours around the clock (so be grateful yours sleeps! ) until I had to go back to work full time when he was 8 months. Even nursery couldn't get him to take a bottle and they guaranteed me they'd succeed. He ruined their record!

I ended up BFing for 17 months and am actually bloody proud if myself, so it's no big deal if you have an equally stubborn baby.

My DD refused a bottle when I first tried at about 2 months, I just left it and tried again at 4 months. She took it without a problem, and happily guzzles milk from bottle, breast or cup now. I'd just relax and try again in a few weeks!

Wow Elpha that's pretty impressive!

We have had variable success with the Mam bottle with DH feeding and me prancing about with a squeaky toy!

I spent a small fortune on bottles and teats before I finally gave up. We tried everything for him to take a bottle including me going out so no boobs in sight or sniffing distance and my husband trying the bottle but no go. At 5.5 mths i decided to give a sippy cup a go and he loved it, no problems at all. At 7mths he is able to drink expressed milk from it if on the rare occasion I need to go out. It has also giving me reassurance as I'm going back to work in 3mths

Have you tried a doidy cup? These were quite successful when I worked in a nursery.