how long is it worth keeping trying with a bottle?

[aroha77]

Hi,
My 7 week old DD has always been good at breastfeeding. We've just started to try to introduce a bottle of expressed milk (no reason other than giving me the chance to go out occasionally in the future). She's given it a go, seemed to be trying e.g chomped up and down on the teat and was happy to keep trying for as long as we did but she hardly took any milk - didn't seem to have enough suction to keep it in her mouth cos her tongue kept pushing it out.
My OH gave it to her and we'd warmed it up. He held her fairly upright but tipped the bottle up so the milk was in the teat (Tommee tippee closer to nature). She was obviously hungry because when we gave up she fed really well from me.
We've only done 3 nights, I wondered how long it's worth trying for and if there's anything else we could try to make it easier for her?
Thank you very much!!

I'm still trying. My LO is 5 months...

Oh wow...! And do they take it at all?

Nope... but still trying anyway.

I ebf but tried a bottle very night from 5 weeks. Some days Ds would take a bit, other times not. Just kept on and around 5 months got a bit more consistent and now taking it no problem if given one at 6 months. It's worth persevering and they will eventually take it.

Have you tried doing it while she's asleep?

Maybe try a teat with more holes to test if it is a sucking issue (usually as the baby gets older you get teats with increasing numbers / size of holes to make it easier for the milk to come out).

But you should probably ignore my advice as DD2 is now 8 months and has never taken a bottle (maybe once took 2 oz when I went to work for the day). She will take a bit of formula from a sippy cup, and lots of water and now solid food, so we have given up bottles (having spent a small fortune trying various brands!)

You'll probably get a flood of bottle and teat recommendations now. I'll start by recommending mam. I know friends with stubborn bottle refusers have had success with mam, and it gets recommended on tongue tie Facebook groups as a good bottle for babies that do to take bottles easily.