Getting baby on the bottle - advice needed please!

[pinkdelight]

I've been breastfeeding my two-month-old a bit too successfully and now he's refusing to take bottles of expressed milk. He was fine having the occasional bottle up until six weeks, but ever since then it's as if he's forgotten how to suck. He won't even suck my finger if I put it in his mouth, let alone a bottle teat. Me and my dh keep persevering with different approaches, but we're getting nowhere. My health visitor was particularly unhelpful, saying that some babies just won't take a bottle, but surely this can't be so? If something happened to me (god forbid), he'd have to or he'd starve! We really need to sort this out as I have to go back to work soon.

So if anyone out there knows the secret of teaching your baby how to suck again, please could you share it?

Try giving the milk in a cup (a plastic bottle lid is fine). Some babies alas never take to a bottle, my niece never did and was bfed for a year. All the other drink she took from a cup.

My DD was like this. Didn't take a bottle until she was 1. Obviously your DS would eventually take a bottle if you disappeared for a long time but while you are around he knows you have a nicer mode of delivery .

There are various types of teats that BF babies are more likely to suck. Nuk rubber teats eventually worked for my DD. Rubber teats have a more natural texture than silicone.

Thanks for that. We've tried different teats to no avail, but will keep trying. In the meantime, the cup sounds very promising. So you just pour a little at a time into his mouth and he swallows?

We had exactly the same problem with DS - breastfeeding going great, would take a bottle of expressed milk, then at 3 months refused the bottle. He would get very distressed and so would we! I think it's a good sign of development though, that they've decided what they like and realise they can hold out for it!

I don't have any solutions for you but wanted to let you know the problem resolved itself a few weeks after we started giving him solid food after about 5 months. He seemed to associate being in his bouncy chair with being fed something nice and would take a bottle there.

Sorry if you have to go back to work before then, but maybe the bouncy chair or other positions than being cradled are worth a try?

Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature were the bottles we succeeded with in the end. He would only ever accept formula and not EBM -possibly as it didn't remind him of the breast? - which by 6 months old I was relaxed about as it was only once a day while I was at work. I still BF morning and night at 10 months without problems.

have you tried just your DH giving the feed with a bottle with you nowhere near??

I use dr. brown bottles - DS was not getting on well with either tommee tippee or nuk....fingers crossed the doctor brown ones seem to work a treat. hope he doesnt suddenly start refusing it though...twould be a right pain!

hth

As a nanny who nannied a three month old boy who resisted a bottle when mother went back to work here is what I suggest.

Try three types of bottles for up to three days each before changing.

Would be better if you did not give bottle.

Try feeding in pram/carseat/boucy seat/while side tracked with tv etc eg not holding in traditional holding position

Make sure the milk is quite warm.

Be consistent.

With my little one it took a good six weeks for him to take a bottle, he could last 10 hours with no milk while mother was at work. And it took two weeks of these 10 hour days to break him, for the first month the mother would rush back home during her lunch break and finish early. First time he took bottle he finished, burped and smiled the biggest smile as if to say "boy, that was good stuff why did i resist so long".

persevere, even if he makes you think you are murdering him. same time every day, and just express a couple of ounzes for practice milk, as it is depressing to waste ebm.

Thanks so much. That's daunting, but really helpful.