Should i be giving in?

[sugarplumfairy01]

Hi

My daughter is 5.5 months old and we're trying to get her onto bottles. We've been trying since she was 3 weeks old. She'll only take 2/3 Oz at a time.

I then end up feeding her when she stops taking the bottle. Should I give in and feed her or should I just wait until she then decided she's hungry?

When she stops drinking from the bottle she's not screaming for more or fussing, but if I put her on me she'll eat more.

Tried different bottles, sippy cups, my milk, formula, hot, warm, colder etc. Nothing makes a difference. She refuses my milk in a bottle completely so we only give formula now. I go back to work soon!!

We're introducing baby rice / cereal now too as she has started waking more in the night for food.

Any advice, thoughts etc welcome!

Thanks
SP

Anyone?

We recently transitioned to bottles after BF'ing for 6 months... most of the time my DS only takes 2-3oz at a time and it's a rare occasion he takes 5 or 6oz. His weight gain has stayed consistent so I guess this is just the way he is... Anecdotally from what I picked up though friends and other mums is that a lot of BF babies seem to feed little and often. Not sure what the answer is re him feeding from you after... I guess if you're happy too there's no issue, and if you ever need to leave him with someone he will take more from the bottle when he's ready, perhaps after a little break

What if you gave her a little break in the middle? I found with DD1 at the same age that she'd drink only 1/2 - 2/3 what she was "supposed" to on the breast, but after a 10-15 minute break she'd polish off the rest of it. Almost like she was feeding from two breasts with a break in the middle! She did that for quite a while (probably until 7 months ish). Can you give that a go?

Waking in the night for food is normal at 5 months. My 2 year old still wakes. Baby rice is not nutritious and won't make a difference to sleep, I wouldn't bother with it.

I can't help on the bottle front because neither of mine ever took one! They changed their feeding schedule when I went back to work.

DD was the same, I think it's quite typical for bf babies. She's 13 mo now and has never had more than 5oz in one go.
What happens if someone else gives her a bottle? She might take more if you're not available

Well that makes me feel a bit better then knowing other babies take so little.

If they take that little do you feed more often?

I'm starting to head back to work shortly and have various training days coming up so she needs to take something other than me!

We've tried different people giving her a bottle, in the house, out the house!

My son was text book, he always took what was stated on the box for formula, so not used to a child that doesn't eat much!

I'll try giving her a longer break in between. I always try to feed a bit. Burp. Do a nappy change etc and then feed again, but will try a bit longer.

She was a really good sleeper but that's not changed, we very rarely get more than 4 hours sleep before waking again.

She does have 2 teeth already, and I think there are more on the way so o guess that could also make a difference.

Thanks everyone!

By the time DD was doing full days, she was 9 months and scoffing lots of different foods, so she just used to have a 5oz bottle before her main nap. I did do a few full days between 4 and 6 months - DH fed her on demand, so yes, little and often.
(We also found this was a terrible time for sleep but it started to improve around 7 mo.)

Breastfed babies aren’t used to drinking large volumes of milk at once. Your baby won’t have a big enough stomach to take a large amount of formula milk - she’s used to breast milk which is a smaller amount and comes out more slowly.

Also just because your baby wants to suck your breast doesn’t mean she’s still hungry. She could be sucking for comfort and closeness.

At 5.5m I wouldn’t bother trying to introduce a bottle, she’s old enough for a straw cup or even a doidy cup.

We've been trying bottle since 3 weeks so it's not that we're just introducing it, she's just never liked them.

She definitely still sucks on me for comfort! I can tell the difference from her just suckling to feeding. She won't suck a dummy to get back to sleep she'll suck on me! She's a wee monster 😂

I guess I just worried because my son was bf but also took a bottle and would drink a full 7/8oz of formula milk still so I assumed that was normal...he was a chubster and still eats loads lol

We've had a few goes at sippy cups but the free flow ones as I find the other ones you have to suck really hard. Never thought of a straw one though. Will give that a go.