I need to go back to work and my 4 month old dd won't take a bottle. Help!

[Minithemoocher]

My 4 month old dd is ebf. She takes an expressed bottle at night as a dream feed but won't take one in the day. I'm due to go back to work (part-time) next week and it's stressing me out. Has anyone got any tips?

No expert but have you tried different types?

Yes tried three different types now but still no luck!

don't worry she will have to eat when she is hungry so just make sure there is enough milk for when you go and she will be fine

I've left her a few times with my parents and she ended up going 6 hours without a feed. Is that ok?!

Could try alternative delivery method... Finger feeding and a syringe or tube perhaps?

Is she going to nursery? U may find that they manage to get her to drink from bottle (little more forceful maybe in a good way) my lo refused a bottle from 6 weeks old she had some nursery trail sessions and drank from a bottle fine for them. They are used to it a little more. My mum tried a bottle but she wouldn't take it I would say not quite persistent\forceful xx

How many hours are you leaving her at a time? Can you shorten your days for the first few weeks. My ds refused bottles. We started him with a free flow cup at about 5mo and on Ella's kitchen porridge made up with formula at 5.5mo. By 6mo the cup and porridge kept him going 9am till 4pm when I collected him.

I specifically mention EK porridge as its gluten free etc so ok from 4mo but it has the texture of ready brek whereas we found other "baby porridge" was more like wallpaper paste and he wouldn't eat them!

I'd be encouraged by the fact that she takes a bottle as a dream feed... You know she can do it! Maybe try rousing her a little more each evening so she's more aware of what she's doing, but in a gradual way so that she doesn't just instantly reject? Does that make sense? It might get her used to feeding from a bottle when awake in a gentle way?

Could they try feeding when napping like a dream feed? I did this when having breastfeeding problems as was only time ds would bf. Get to sleep in order to feed then get to sleep again after. Worth a try

Thanks for all the advice. I'm not leaving her all day so although she'd miss a feed is she didn't take her bottle, I'd be there an hour or two later.
She's going to my parents. They're great with her but can be a little fussy and not very calming! I think possibly that this is how it started. I'll suggest they give it to her whilst she sleeps at first and then work towards awake feeding.
We've been playing with a sippy cup over the last fees days with some success so I'll keep trying that too. It's so frustrating!

I had this problem, was a nightmare. Persevered for a month and in the end the playtex latex teats worked for my DS. Don't think latex is used widely in case of allergies but it mimics the nipple much more effectively than the silicone teats. Hope you get it sorted, it's very distressing.

We used a free-flow cup (nuk soft spout) at five months when I went back to work. It took a bit of getting used to, but DS took what he wanted. He generally waited for me to get home and have a giant feed though. It was fine - he didn't dehydrate or anything, and he carried on feeding as usual when I was home.