Bottle refusing

[Hangingofftheboob]

I have a 9 week old DD who is currently EBF. I am a FTM.

When she was born she struggled to latch so most of her feeds were EBM from a bottle.

I wanted to mostly BF but I didn’t have my heart set on it. However, we got a lot of excellent support from both the hospital and community midwives to establish BF. By about 10 days old we had stopped using bottles.

I enjoy BF my daughter. It’s easy, free and we have a lovely bond. However, we decided to try and reintroduce a bottle at around 5 weeks to make sure we had that option. I wanted to be able to mix feed.

Well she’s never taken a bottle since has she. We have tried all sorts and she is simply not interested.

If you have any suggestions I will gladly but to be honest the point of this post is to moan.

No one warned me this could happen - midwives and HV would bang on about nipple confusion if teats/dummies/shields were introduced before 6 weeks. They kept encouraging me to establish BF and as a FTM I wanted to do things the “right” way and wait 6 weeks.

None of my friends who mix fed from birth have had an issue. Their babies will happily switch between the two. I am the one left with a baby hanging off my boob.

The longest I have spent away from my daughter is 15 mins. I just want the option of going out for a run or popping out for dinner with a friend. Or letting my husband do a feed when I’m not feeling 100% (like the last 10 days where I’ve had a terrible cold).

Not to mention she’s been diagnosed with milk intolerance so I now have to have a dairy free diet which will be especially crap at Christmas. If she would take a bottle I think we would probably finish our BF journey early.

I feel so trapped.

Second to try warming the teat - that worked for my DD. Also not sure if you tried Philips Avent but those are the only ones she will take. Won't take soothers though!

My LO had some feeding issues and I needed to supplement with expressed milk to help him gain weight. He was also very fussy at the breast. We overcame his issues with dreamfeeding. For a whole month, I basically only fed him while he was sleeping or half asleep. At some point, he snapped out of it and now (8mos) everything is fine. I would give dreamfeeding a try. Maybe she'll get used to the bottle again. It is also great for getting more sleep for you.

Cant add much but you have my sympathies @Hangingofftheboob. I too EBF and was told not to introduce a bottle before 6 weeks. 5hink this may be why she refused. Pushed bottle away, sucked teat or licked it, cried .. Anyway baby is now 11 weeks. I persevered recently with a small amount of BM in a bottle every day for about a week. The other day she just started sucking and drank it. No idea what changed...so just to say maybe dont give up if you persevere every day she may accept it?