Help!! Breastfed 10 week old refusing bottles!!

[Killeen88]

My 10 week old breastfed baby is point blank refusing to take a bottle of expressed milk.
We've been trying to give a bottle of ebm every day for the last 3 weeks with no success. We've tried different times of the day, 4 different bottles and varying teat speeds with each bottle (mam, tommee tippee, cheap ones from b&m and now minmie), feeding in different positions, standing, sitting, walking. I've been making sure I'm upstairs out of the way whilst my husband gives the bottles and have even left the house a few times to see if it helped.... But nothing seems to work.

He will initially take the bottle in his mouth and "mess" with the teat and in turn accidently take a few mls of milk, but after that he just screams and is inconsolable until the boob is offered. At best he takes 10mls of ebm.

I wondered if anyone has any tips or ideas on how to encourage him to accept the bottle.

We really wanted my husband to be able to offer a bottle to give me a break in the evening, as he's extremely attached to me and some days it gets a lot and I would really benefit from just an hour to myself or even just to take a shower!! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Additionally, we have quite a few weddings, hen do's and events coming up in the new year, all of which are for very close family members or friends. I'd be devastated to miss them. But they're all taking place away from home and are child free. If we can't get him to take a bottle comfortably, I'm going to be forced to miss all of these events, as it wouldn't be feasible or fair to leave him at home with someone else!

Has anyone been through this and managed to get their boob obsessed baby to accept a bottle??

TIA xx

I had 2 bottle refusers. with DC2, what finally worked was a soft latex teat, hot milk (not lukewarm) and importantly, teat had to be also warmed in hot water just before I stuck it in, otherwise she would spit it out and refuse to entertain the thought.
If your baby is already older when you have the weddings, you might want to try also sippy cups or even open cup. Or there are little tubes you could tape to your finger, like this one www.birthwithlovestore.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1956

Unfortunately nothing worked with DC1, some kids are just stubborn like that.

Tried everything with my bottle refused and no joy. The only thing he would eventually take milk from other than the breast was a Doidy cup which can be used from tiny with lots of help

I never managed to get my bottle refuser to drink milk (expressed, formula or cows) out of a bottle or cup. I eventually stopped feeding at 15 months and she has never drunk milk since. She's 17 now!

Nothing worked for us. Sorry!

Sorry to echo what others have said but I've had 2 bottle and dummy refusers. At 6 months old my DD would drink from an open cup, but we never tried milk. I had to wean her at 14 months due to a high risk pregnancy and she didn't accept any drinking milk until around 18 months.
My DS drank from a 360 cup from 6 months and did have cows milk (that his big sister 'shares' with him). Now he's 11 months and we do give him a small amount of cows milk after bath time to try get him used to it before nursery starts.
Maybe give it a few weeks and try again?
Breastfeeding is so very hard and a lot of commitment, but honestly the time does soon pass

Use a steam steriliser as the cold water ones can leave a chemical taste.

I say this of course, but neither of my breastfed babies ever took a bottle!

My 1st would happily take a bottle. The 3rd wasn’t too bad. But nothing on earth would induce my 2nd to take a bottle. In the end he went straight into taking a sippy cup of cows milk at about 10 months.
I did nothing different with all 3 of them. In my experience they either do or they don’t but if you get one that won’t then you just have to ride it out!

I had to give a decent amount of breastfeed and then I switched the bottle in and although a little unsure started taking it. Had to do a fair bit until she'd just take it.

10 months? Sorry, meant 12 months!

Hate to say it but my bottle refuser was never persuaded to take one. She had a bottle of EBM every night from DP from about 2 weeks old to 8/9 weeks then just refused point blank. The most she'd take was 2/3oz from a free flow Tommee Tippee cup and the milk had to be really warm, she was about 5/6 months though when she did that.

Have you tried an open cup or a feeding spoon?

Both of mine were bottle refusers (not tried with dc3 who is 6m) so I feel your pain.
10weeks is young but your DH should be fine to take baby for a walk/drive for an hour to give you a break; feed before they go and on return. I can leave dc3 now for 4hrs in the day without too much upset.

If the hen do's etc are long evening events be prepared for some serious boob discomfort. Even when ds1&2 were 2+yrs old I'd feel like I was about to pop if I was out past 10 🙄

Try a little cup, shot glass, spoon, etc, they don't have to drink specifically out of a bottle.

We had to dance with ds laying down intially and he sort of got distracted into taking it. Milk had to be warm as well.
I went back to work when he was 4 months and the first day back he took minimal milk until 4pm when he eventually gave in and had a bottle full. After that he swapped between both no problem.

These comments are terrifying me! I've got exactly the same problem with my 4mo, and I have to go back to work in a month (not UK). She'll be with DH till January, then nursery. If she won't take a bottle, she'll starve!

I hadn't heard of babies refusing point blank for ever, I just assumed they would all give in eventually.

What do I do???

It might be worth just sticking with one bottle and one technique. We kept chopping and changing with mine and I'm sure it just added to the stress of it all. So then we started offering the same bottle, same teat and same milk the same position every day. First few times as normal she took nothing but then started having a bit and a bit more. She's now 5 months and although won't guzzle a bottle, she'll take enough (3oz normally) to tide her over. She just needed to learn and us changing it all the time wasn't helping! I also found it needed to be a bit warmer than what I thought.
As she gets older she'll be able to go a bit longer between feeds so that might help as well!

Neither of mine would take a bottle at all. Couldn't you leave her with your husband in the evening for an hour while you have a shower, surely he isn't constantly feeding? Have you tried a baby sling or bouncy chair that your husband could use to keep him happy for a little while without feeding so you can have a break.

For the weddings, keep trying the bottles but don't force the issue now as he is still very small. Maybe in a few months he will be able to have a bottle (although mine never did). Have you asked the very close family members if you could bring him along, many allow small babies even if children aren't otherwise invited.

So my husband and I had the same issue. We tried everyday for weeks but DD just wouldn't take a bottle. Then we read this blog post (there are 3 parts)
www.rachelobrienibclc.com/blog/bottles-for-breastfed-babies-introducing-a-bottle-part-1/
We found it really useful and DD started taking bottle almost immediately. She continued taking the bottle for weeks, allowing me to go out etc. Then suddenly, just before 4 months she stopped again. She's refused a bottle ever since! We've decided to give up and are now using a cup instead.

Try cup feeding

I never got anywhere with a bottle, but mine would take little bits in a cup from about 6 months. None of them were reliable about it though but once they are on solid food they would take enough food plus water I could go out for a few hours.