Agghh- 12 weeks refusing bottle

[Newbiecat]

My DS is 12 weeks old and breastfed except for a 'dream feed' at 2230 which my husband gives, of either EBM or formula.
We have done this since he was 6 weeks old mainly to help him gain more weight but also as I was keen for him to take to give me a break for occasional trips to the hairdresser etc. His weight gain is great now (12lb 10oz) however we carried the dream feed on because it means I can get more than 2 hours sleep at a time during g the first part of the night!
For the last week he has been a nightmare to feed. He has been with refusing to take the teat, He's been screaming and it's literally taken half an hour to get 30 to 40 mls into him with him seeming to retch. We originally gave him milk via timer tipee closer to nature range, size 1 teat, however I've tried a MAM teat size 2 & Avent bottle for 2 days as my previous DS liked this. Unfortunately it has made no difference whatsoever! He had screamed the house down and tonight I offered him a BF which unsurprisingly he took fine! However he has woken 11/2 hrs earlier for his next feed.
I know it's not the end of the world but I was liking the routine of breastfed 1900, bottle 2230, breastfeed approx 0200 0430 and awake 0730.
Can anyone offer advice on how to get him bottle feeding again?!

Thanks x

Hey, I can't comment on switch from breast to bottle as i had to formula feed from birth (unfortunately). But we had similar screaming etc and it turned out to be silent reflux. Could it be that the "easy flow" of milk from the bottle is causing reflux for your LO where BF doesn't? We find Dr Browns bottles good by the way (and ranitidine). Hope things improve for you!

Hi Minimaxi,
Thanks for your reply. Yes he does have some reflux which we generally get by with wedging up his cot and pram mattress.
I tried the Dr Brown bottle as I had heard they were good but no change! In fact he's probably best with the MAM teat and Avent bottle. Since I posted its 50:50 if he'll take it.
I've now sussed out the problem.
He feeds from the bottle like the breast and tries to induce a letdown with small rapid sucks before deep sucks but hasn't realised that if he does this with a bottle, then he gets a rapid flow of milk at first and he coughs and splutters and often vomits it back up!
I'm not stopping breastfeeding Im just wanting to maintain one bottle every 24 hours so I know he will take one if I want a break or to go to bed early and get a few hours block sleep.
I'll keep trying! My husbands success is even less than mine! I never really believed people when they said their BF babies totally refused a bottle until now! Mad since he's had one daily from around 3-4 weeks old!

My BF baby took a bottle for 3 months then violently refused from 4-7 months. Nothing worked really. :-0 She eventually took lansinoh bottles. Slow flow teat. Try amazon!

My bf babies both had ebm in a bottle as a dream feed from about two weeks old until about 12 weeks when they both started refusing. My ds was just a pickle and I won't tell you about him as it wouldn't be helpful! But with dd (my pfb), she refused the bottle so I refused to feed her... and actually when I let her calmly go to sleep without getting stressed about the bottle she slept just as well as when she had had the feed.

Thanks for replies. Well, we have managed to persuade him the last few nights by not letting all the milk flow into the teat whilst he tried to induce a let down from the teat! It's still hard going and often followed by a 10 minute BF after and doesn't give me much more rest- only til 0200 or 0300 but we'll persevere for now so I can get that hair appointment soon ha ha! My hairdresser used to do mobile hairdressing before opening her shop, gutted she doesn't now!