Refusing to take ebm from bottle

[scrumpy]

Ds is coming nine weeks old and at six weeks old took a bottle of ebm on the odd occasion (about 4 times in total) I will be going back to work in approx 7 weeks and would like to be able to leave ebm with child minder also dh would like to feed ds occasionaly and I am due for a night out in a months time when I need to be able to leave a bottle. DS is now refusing the bottle this has happened about 6 times now and he just screams but will except bf, any ideas?

What bottles are you using?

I have found playtex nursers to be very successful with bottle refusers!

Also, try very warm milk, warm teat, different flow teats etc.

i am using a avent teat not sure what its made of though!!

Will try different ones and will try your suggestion,
thanks.

Try the cheap brown teats which are softer and easier for some babies (like mine). It's hell, isn't it, but it does work out in the end.

Hi scrumpy - I've posted v similar messages as getting ds to take anything from a bottle (ebm, formula, water etc etc etc) has been hell. tried nuby teats which seemed to help a bit and warming the milk/teat which did too, but have to say the answer for us was patience. dh is full time carer for us and just tried and tried and tried. When ds screamed he took the bottle calmly away and held it at a distance for a few seconds then put it down. Eventually ds reacted by pulling dh's hand towards him and chewed the teat of the bottle a bit, then took a few drops etc. It's agonizing and two steps back for every three forward but you will get there (although bizarrely the stage we are at means ds will take bottles from dh but only take from me if dh starts off and hands bottle to me mid stream!! babies hey?!! goodluck scrumpy and let us know how it goes

Still failing to feed from the bottle although we did suspend trying for about 10 days as we went to Scotland on holiday visiting relatives and the last thing we needed was the stress of attempting to get ds on the bottle!! Another attempt to feed ds today by dh and myself will not even attempt to suck on teat just screams. Again tried to feed from egg cup, this failed ds started to cough badly!! Still going to keep trying although dh very despondant and it is rather frustrating. Any more tipsd greatfully received.

NCT have a free factsheet called Bottles for Breastfed Babies with a gazillion ideas in it - call enquries 0870 444 8707 and they will send you a copy.

I usually suggest waiting a few days before trying again, if the baby is already 'anti-bottle'....just so he forgets he hates it

tiktok - we're having the same problem (there I was panicking over whether to give ebm or formula and he won't take the bottle anyway) - that leaflet isn't online is it? Or could you post a few ideas? (I'd be surprised if they'll send it to Spain and anyway it'll take at least a week)

Yes they will send it to Spain, and no it isn't online, sorry. They might fax it to you, though!

Ideas:

• don't try when baby is hungry - he'll only go more ballistic. Does anyone learn new skills best when hungry? No...

• offer bottle in a way that doesn't mimic bf - so face to face, for instance

• get dad or grandma to offer it while you are out of the room

• give bottle and teat to play with between times

HTH

Scrumpy, I have exactly the same problem - DS will not take a bottle from either myself or my husband. As I have to go back to work soon I was in a major panic. However, we decided to do a test run with the childminder and lo-and-behold, he took and continues to take a bottle from her with no protests! So give it a try if you haven't already - you may be surprised!

Scrumpy, I have had the same problem DD would not take any sort of milk from any other source than me!!
DP / MIL / Mum tried and failed!!
finally I found that NUK teats worked (they are a funny shape, supposedly nipple shaped but lets not go there)
Also I didnt warm the milk up - I couldnt bear going through all of the trauma just for DD to throw a fit and refuse it!! Then I tried the first bottle in the middle of the night when she was semi asleep and not too aware of exactly what was happening.
Persevere, all of a sudden they do decide that they will do it.
Good luck

I have to say I tried every one of the suggestions on here and a lot more besides (had a massive collection of teats and bottles) and no-one ever got either of mine to take anything from a bottle. That includes very painstaking experienced nursery nurses who had seen it all before and were convinced it would be no problem. Luckily (very) I was only going back to work part-time, so both of them managed with a few sips from a beaker with a soft spout and some food (they were a bit older), followed by an afternoon of ravenous breastfeeding.

I know in some ways this doesn't sound remotely helpful, but I just felt like such a failure- everyone said oh you just need to try this (leave for a few days, when they're really hungry, when they're not hungry blah blah), whereas I would actually have greatly preferred it if someone had just said not all babies do drink from a bottle, but they all still manage anyway. It will work out in the end, somehow, whatever. Good luck!

tamum - so did you have the ravenous feeding every afternoon till they were fully on solids?

I tried the when he's not hungry and not in a bf position today: he took half an ounce. So possible progress, but would there be anything wrong with just cup-feeding him in the event that he turns out like tamum's babes?

The thing is SenoraA, I'm being a bit coy about it, because I'm embarrassed to admit that they were both on solids by 4 months, that being the advice at the time (I know someone's going to jump down my throat and say that was never the advice, but it's the only advice I ever got ), so by the time I went back to work they were eating a fair bit. They would breastfeed when we first got home for a while, but it didn't take as long as it does with little babies, so it wasn't really a bind. They got better and better with the beakers, quite quickly, so they would have a few ounces easily by 6 months, and plenty by 7-8 months.

Irnically, of course, given the advice I was giving you about expressing this morning, I had to chuck all my EBM away

right.

Luckily I work from home, so when he won´t take a bottle I can feed him later - but obviously I don´t get much work done that way (both because I can hear him screaming and because I have to come downstairs to feed him). I´ll keep trying.

thanks for all the tips I have suspended trying the dreaded bottle until Tuesday and will then retry I will also try my childminder giving the bottle as she only lives across the road. My dh is still despondant about the whole affair I feel now like its my fault for breastfeeding rather than going on the bottle straight away as his other 2 children had the bottle from birth and had no problems. I have been feeding for 11 weeks now and I am happy to continue. Some days my ds only feeds for about 5/10 minutes at a time is this normal? I am worried he does not get enough although he seems ok, plenty of wet/dirty nappies sleeps well all night and is alert when awake.

Totally normal for feeds to be 5-10mins.

I had both children refuse bottles..first one solved by perseverance, offering bottle to screaming hungry baby until he finally took it..second one will only use latex (brown) teats using the playtex nursers..and must have very warm milk. Good luck..

thanks bluebear sometimes all the information that you read just makes you worried your baby is not feeding correctly etc he also sleeps from about 8pm until 5.30/6.00am the last 2 nights without waking for a feed, I read the other messages and think he should be waking up for more feed!!!