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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

advice on getting a bf baby to accept a botttle ???

16 replies

fuzzymummy · 20/12/2006 22:10

I have a read a lot of advice about this and tried many of the tips . Has anyone got personal experience of difficulties in this area and how did you sort it out in the end ?

OP posts:

belgianmama · 20/12/2006 22:21

Hi fuzzymummy. How old is your baby? Is there any reason why she needs to take the bottle? Are you going out or something?
Unfortunately sometimes nothing works. I ended up bf'ing for more than 12 months because nothing in the world, not even starving her for the day, could get my dd take a bottle or milk from any other type of container for that matter. I used to give her a good feed before going out and another one straightaway when I got home. After she was 6m and I started full time work she had some solids to see her through the day.
I hope you'll be more successfull than I was, but I must say, now she's 3 I do miss the closeness of bf'ing.

Mojomummy · 20/12/2006 22:34

I tried my DD2 with a bottle of EBM when I was helping out at an NCT day. Didn't work & DH brought her along so I could feed her.

After the chore of expressing & getting engorged I haven't bothered since. Lucky she is 5 mths now feeds about every 2.5 - 3 hours.

Agree with belgianmama about the feeding in the morning & evening though - did this for my DD1 for 2 years !

My friend gave her DS a cup from Boots at 10 mths & he would only drink the pre-mixed formula. She gave up BF in the hope it would help him sleep at night of course it didn't !

booboobunny · 20/12/2006 22:42

hi,
i had huge problems getting my little angel to take a bottle. i left it till after 3 months to even try and then found she just wouldn't take it at all. i tried just about every bottle available locally (avent, tommee tippee, dr browns, nuk, mam) and all sorts of teats but with no success. bf/ formula, warmed/not warmed, getting the hubbo to do it and leaving her with a relative and going out. none of these worked. then a couple of things happened. i found the playtex bottles, which have big latex orthodontic teats, and her sleeping went bonkers and i stopped focussing on the bottle to try and fix the sleep, as it seemed more important. i carried on giving her a bottle about once a day, but let her just chew on it (too tired to do much else!), which she was happy to do - lots of wasted formula though. then one day (about 2 weeks ago) she just drank from it when i tipped it up. now she happily drinks from it during the day, and i bf at night. this has taken a fair while, as she turned 6 months this week. if i have another i'll try and dual feed from very early on. i can't be sure what changed for her, whether it was my lack of desperation that she responded to, the playtex bottle or she was just developmentally ready - my feeling is that she just had to learn to do it in her own time, as she has since drunk from the previously rejected nuk bottle.

i hope this gives you some hope. i really was desperate (so fed up of bfing in the middle of restaurants/costa coffee etc.) and then she just did it. almost by herself. i am using the same approach to get her to take a dummy (to help tackle the sleep issues). slowly slowly catchy monkey seems to be the order of the day, which may not help if you're up against it time wise.......

belgianmama · 20/12/2006 23:29

I think booboobunny has got a point. I had to just let my ds and dd play with the beaker in order for them to learn how to drink from it, it took them each 2 months or so. So I think that taking the pressure of and just filling it with a little milk (EBM or FF, whichever you like) and let her play with it. I suppose she'll learn there's something nice in it and start feeding from it in the end. Although this is no good if you've got an exciting night planned for New Year's eve or anything like it

Original poster

fuzzymummy · 20/12/2006 23:30

This is my second child . I started bottle at 3 weeks with him in the hope that it would be okay this time . DD1 never took a bottle . My son was taking some bottles slowly and unreliably but now at 12 weeks he gags and cries and won't take expressed milk even when I know he is definitely hungry . I've tried all the usual gags with no particular luck . I know it's difficult but I can't afford to stay out of work for a year .

OP posts:

belgianmama · 20/12/2006 23:39

Your dd not taking a bottle should not keep you out of work for 1y though. I had exactly the same and I went to work when dd was just under 6m. I did those 2 big feeds 1 before and 1 after work. She also had solids, but I must say that recommendations for weaning were a bit different a few years ago and so I started her on solids @ 5.5m when it became very obvious that she wasn't having that bottle. So during the day she had her solids and her water, so at least I had piece of mind that she wasn't getting dehydrated or anything. I also gave her another feed when I went to bed for a bit longer than the average baby would need, just so she kept having that extra bit of milk.

MamaMaiasaura · 21/12/2006 00:25

fuzzymummy. ds never took bottle either. When he was weaning I offered him a cup (spout) when worked well. He was around 12 months old. Am now very glad he didnt have bottle, hth x

WeWishUAMerryXmasNANappyNewYr · 21/12/2006 00:26

have you tried the orthodontic teats. i've read a lot of bf babies only get on with these when bottle fed.

Original poster

fuzzymummy · 21/12/2006 15:38

Booboobunny , which playtex bottle /teat did you use ? I have tried the playtex nurser with drop in liners and a latex teat . Maybe I should just stick to that one and carry on until he hopefully takes it like you did . I'm just concerned because I've heard at a bf group some local nurseries will not accept babies under 1 who can't be bottle fed . Also , with my DD1 I felt very guilty leaving her when I worked parttime knowing she couldn't have any milk . Unluckily , her growth slowed down at the same time quite dramatically even though she took very well to solids and I expressed milk to add to baby rice etc. I think it's partly that I am afraid the same thing will happen again . I will start training him to the beaker /cup in 4 weeks .DD1 was okay with that but would only take water from it .

OP posts:

BrummieOnTheRun · 21/12/2006 20:46

we tried tommee tippee 'closer to nature' bottles as last resort - all other bottles failed - and DS took it immediately. very shallow teat so he didn't gag on it.

Original poster

fuzzymummy · 21/12/2006 20:58

I have a tommee tipee bottle which I bought in 2005 but it didn't say 'closer to nature '. Do you think there is much difference ? The teat is a bit like an avent one .

OP posts:

MerryChipmonkAndAHappyNewey · 21/12/2006 20:58

fuzzymummy, my ds3 would not take a bottle and after trying every bottle including this one

MerryChipmonkAndAHappyNewey · 21/12/2006 21:05

Sorry, pressed Post Message when I hadn't finished posting. the adiri bottle was the one I was trying to link to. He even refused that but we did have success with the Playtex NaturalLatch teat which sounds like the one you have. Earlier we had some success with MAM teats but unfortunately these fell out of favour as well.
My advice would be first of all to take a break and let baby forget about the bottle. Then use the Playtex bottle and just allow a little to drop into his mouth. Ds3 was still a little iffy about it but then one day I went to a health spa and left him with my mum. He took 4 bottles for her that day.

DizzyBinterWonderland · 21/12/2006 21:35

ok a few things that worked for us-

gave up on all fancy bottles claiming to be closer to nature etc. used avent bottles with 'magic' spouts. decided dd needed something that wasn't going to take anything that was trying to resemble a nipple so stopped trying to. 'magic' spouts worked. started with white softish ones for 3 months plus, now she uses green ones for 6 months plus.

left her with dh all day, 9-5 to see what would happen.

HOWEVER!! i am hasten to add we did this once dd was 6 months old so was on solids and some water.

ALSO, we had already got dd drinking from a doidy cup (open cup thing, no lid or spout) with her meals. the bottle bit was for less mess, drinks out and about, drinks at night if i'm not in etc.

she now has bf in the morning, doidy cup with water at each meal, bottle of milk after each of 3 naps (100mls), bf before bed.

belgianmama · 21/12/2006 21:45

fuzzymummy I think the tommee tippee bottle you've got is different, because the closer to nature bottles are new and they do look a bit more like a nipple than the avent ones. I did have some sort of success with the playtex bottles. I think bf babies love latex teats, as they are softer and have a bit more of a natural feel to them. My dd took the playtex teats in the end, but only of me, not with babysitters or at nursery. She clearly did not get the point of them!

Original poster

fuzzymummy · 30/12/2006 03:54

what I did was took a break from trying , to let ds forget about bottles then reintroduced the playtex with the orthodontic nipple . He is doing reasonably well with that i.e. will take 2-3 oz . I'm just hoping he won't decide to reject bottle again but cooling off period worked a treat this time .

OP posts:

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