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Infant feeding

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

Original poster

Very headstrong bottle refuser

18 replies

mia101982 · 22/01/2016 22:27

Hi all I am desperate for a miracle at this stage. My almost 5 month old is EBF and it was going great. However for the past month she is up every 2 hours for feed from before midnight. I am exhausted and I am starting to resent breastfeeding which is making me then feel so guilty as dd is the most beautiful placid but hungry baby. So I am trying to introduce a bottle of formula and I am having no joy. I have tried everything, different teats, distraction, EBM etc etc. I know I probably need to go cold turkey wit her but I could not and would not have her totally distressed for boob while somebody is forcing a bottle on her. It would just break my heart. Has anyone gone through this and came out the other side. If so what worked? The bottles I have tried so far are tommee tippee and nuk latex and avant. Thanks

OP posts:
ANiceSliceOfCake · 22/01/2016 22:40

I'm sorry for not being able to offer any real advice but I'm gong through the exact same thing with my boy so I just wanted to say you arnt alone.

I've tried everything, different formula, temperature, bottles.

Have you tried someone else giving the bottle while you pop to the shops etc?

I'm actually starting to feel a bit annoyed that they drum it into you that breastfeeding is great, but don't tell you how to stop. If I'd of known this would happen id of given a bottle of formula once a day.

Whoops. Sorry for ranting on your thread Grin

Original poster
mia101982 · 22/01/2016 22:54

Hiya yes I have left dd wit my mam for 3 hours. She simply still refused it but my mam did manage to squeeze about an ounce into her over that time but no active sucking. I am going mad I didn't introduce a bottle earlier on but I simply didn't get time. I have 2 other small kids who got a bottle of expressed every day from about 3 weeks and never has this problem. I have read that we could go straight to a sippy cup but I just can't see a baby drinking 7oz out of a sippy cup in one go? ?

OP posts:
ANiceSliceOfCake · 22/01/2016 23:12

I tried a sippy cup today but he spat it back out! I'm at a loss what to do.

Have you tried a bottle of formula mixed with breast milk. Didn't work
For me but maybe try it?

Notso · 22/01/2016 23:14

My fourth wouldn't take a bottle until he was 8 months although I only really tried from about 6 and a half months.
I'm not sure what changed his mind although it did coincide with him finally starting to eat solids so perhaps he wasn't as hungry.
He did like his milk quite warm and the bottle he took to was the old style medela one a long thin bottle rather than a wide neck one.

When she wakes at night is she really hungry or just wanting a little comfort suck? Would she have a dummy?

Notso · 22/01/2016 23:17

As for a cup, two of mine used one for a full feed from 6 months but only one they really had to suck the milk out of. They wouldn't entertain the type where the milk just pour out.

SnuffleGruntSnorter · 22/01/2016 23:18

I had exactly this, I just offered him a bottle every lunchtime. Let him play with it, chomp the teat etc, taste a few drops of milk and then I'd carry on normally breastfeeding him. after about a week he learned that he could also have milk from the bottle and it wasn't instead of cuddles and breast feeding. At first he had to be sat up opposite me so it was completely different to bf. Now he takes a bottle from anyone easily (but is still a massive boob fiend)

SnuffleGruntSnorter · 22/01/2016 23:18

Good luck! I know your feeling of despair.

SnuffleGruntSnorter · 22/01/2016 23:20

I did the same with a doidy cup at the same time by the way - after playing with the bottle for a bit of tip the milk into the doidy cup and let him take a sip. He drinks water from that well now he's a bit older and weaning.

Cel982 · 22/01/2016 23:21

It sounds like the four-month sleep regression, it can be really tough (Google it, you'll see you're not alone!). Do you co-sleep? That was the only way I coped with those phases of terrible sleeping, it meant I could feed without really having to wake fully or get out of bed. Total lifesaver.

NewNameNoFace · 22/01/2016 23:24

I know you said different teats, have you tried the 'vari flow' Tommie tippie ones, they have a little x in them?

NewNameNoFace · 22/01/2016 23:25

And yes to co-sleeping/feeding!

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 22/01/2016 23:29

ds1 was a bottle refuser, nothing, no water, no juice, no formula, no expressed.....finally weaned him onto a spouty cup and expressed at about ten months, and I supposed I stopped feeding about 15 months!

It's not a mistake you make with subsequent babies.

BananaPie · 22/01/2016 23:31

Neither of mine ever took a bottle. I'd say don't panic, and ride it out if you can. Maybe don't offer boob every time she wakes - she may just be looking for comfort rather than milk.

Blueturquoise · 22/01/2016 23:44

Nuk bottle with latex teat worked for us - ebm quite warm and cuddles and try feed before they re too distraught

Original poster
mia101982 · 23/01/2016 00:03

Thank for the replies. I have tried most of the suggestions above. I think we will just have to keep at every day and hope she just learns to like it. Tried feeding on my side and Co sleeping but we can't get hang of it; latch isn't good at all. Might have a look at a sippy cup and also heard the breastflow bottles are good? Other than all that I just need to relax about it I think. Surely when solids are started bf babies must sleep some what better, right?

OP posts:
ACatCalledFang · 23/01/2016 22:05

My baby was mix fed from week 1 due to weight loss issues and would initially take anything from anyone; like a fool, I let him go a week without a bottle and he went on bottle strike... We managed to lure him back to taking a bottle with a MAM anti-colic bottle (which I bought on Amazon on the grounds that the teat looked most like a nipple). MAM boasts that 94% of babies will take this bottle, no idea if that's true but it worked for us. I would offer expressed milk at a time of day when he generally wasn't ravenous just to coax him into the bottle and would persevere even if he was just playing with it, as long as he wasn't actually distressed. Now, DS generally will accept anything in any format again if he's hungry enough.

My friend has been in a similar situation and found that the issue was getting baby to accept formula rather than a bottle; you could try mixing it with expressed milk maybe?

I really sympathise, DS is 4.5 months and wakes very frequently at night so I know where you're coming from. I hate to say it, but I have not found that either formula or expressed milk have got him to sleep for any longer. In our case, the brevity of the feedings has led me to conclude that he's not actually waking through hunger, but is using me to resettle.

We are experimenting with other methods to resettle him at first (on the grounds that if he's truly hungry, five minutes of rocking/cuddling/dummy is unlikely to solve the problem), but I must admit that some nights I'm too exhausted to actually sit up...and the end result is the same as he's still waking!

KatharinaRosalie · 26/01/2016 15:44

As others asked, are you sure it's hunger waking her, or if it's just sleep regression? Very common at this age.

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