6 month old EBF suddenly refusing bottle

[SASASI]

So DS has suddenly started refusing a bottle of EBM which he has always previously loved - that is how he was fed for first 3 weeks of his life & getting him to latch was one of the toughest things I've ever done in my life. So this is kinda ironic!!!

Why would he be doing this all of a sudden?

It happened before we started weaning. I have like 6 different cups & he won't take EBM or water from any of them. It's always someone else offering him the bottle & I'm not there (weekly yoga, hairdressers etc).

I'm going back to work part time in May & was planning to express in work etc to keep up BF for a year. So this shift in him is stressing me out!!

When I started weaning my EBF DC2 at 6 months, within 2 weeks he started completely refusing all milk - breastfeeding, expressed, formula, from the breast, a bottle, a cup, anything - he only wanted 'proper' food and would only drink squash.

He is 9 now and still hates drinking milk as a drink. I guess that's why he was so excited when weaning started and took to solids so well.

On the advise of my HV, I just ensured he had lots and lots of dairy in his diet. I would insist he had a yogurt for pudding after every meal for example. Cereal with milk for breakfast. Pureed veg mixed with milk. Basically I started hiding milk in as much of his food as possible.

Thanks ladies!!

I've been putting milk into his purrees so he gets used to the taste of them with my milk.

Sometimes he lifts a sippy cup & puts it in his mouth so maybe it's just a time thing. Joy! ;)

It could be an age thing. Three of my friends who ebf had babies that would take a bottle until around 6 months and then just refused. Two just continued bf alongside weaning (one of them hated it) and one, who really wanted to stop bf altogether went cold turkey on direct bf one weekend so baby had no choice but to take a bottle. Neither way sounded ideal tbh. Keep trying and don't worry too much about work, bf can be maintained when you're not working and your baby will be having much more food by then so might not need much milk during the day.