Tips on introducing bottle

[FuchsiaG]

My baby is almost 5 weeks old and has been diagnosed with silent reflux which is making feedings (exclusively breast fed), on an evening, very difficult (thrashing around, refusing the breast, coming off after a few sucks). Last night out of desperation to get something into him I tried to give him a bottle of expressed milk and he went crazy (thrashed around, refused to take it).

How do I introduce a bottle when I’ve had this reaction? Would it be best to try and introduce a bottle throughout the day initially when he’s calmer?

Sorry I can’t help with introducing a bottle as both of mine totally refused. I just wanted to ask, if LO has silent reflux, have they been checked for Tongue Tie?

There’s loads of old threads on bottle refusal if you have a search in the MN archive

My baby didn't have the problems feeding yours does - and I agree you might want to look into the underlying causes of this - but we got a similar reaction when trying the bottle when he was really hungry at the same age. I know it must be really tough but I think you're unlikely to have much success using a bottle when he's already upset and unsettled. We first did it an hour after he'd had a feed and although he didn't take much he was much happier to try the bottle then, and after a couple of weeks we could use it when he was hungry because it was no longer scary in and of itself. I know it must be hard when feeding feels like a bit of a battle ground all round, but the calmer you can get him before trying the better from what I've read, and from my (very limited!) own experience.

Sorry to hear this. I have a 7 month old EBF baby who completely refuses to take a bottle but the most success I've ever had was with a Minbie teat as they supposedly most closely echo a nipple.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone.

@jiltedjohnsjulie (love that name btw, Gordon is a moron!) yes he just had his tongue tie snipped the day this happened so maybe he was a little sore, it was stupid of me to try then but I was at my wits end.

@lisasimpsonsbff that sounds like a sensible plan. I’ll try to do this.

@loveacupoftea18 thanks fo the tip re. teats . All of the bottles I have seem to have quite big teats so I was wondering if this would be an issue.