14 week old BF baby suddenly refusing to take ebm from bottle - any tips...

[MidgetGem]

Hi there, my DD is 14 weeks old she is exclusively breast fed. Up until last Sunday she has been taking bottles of EBM from dad and grandma (about 1 or 2 a week) without any problems since she was 3 weeks old. Now, all of a sudden she is refusing to take the bottle, and screams the place down when offered it. I am using the tommy tippee closer to nature bottles, just wondered if anyone else has experienced this and if anyone had any tips, recommendations of best bottles/teats etc.. I am starting to get a bit concerned with going back to work looming and would like to try and nip this in the bud sooner rather than later. Any advice gratefully appreciated, thanks.

Midget, your story is testimony to the fact that there is no guarentee that offering bottles early on means the baby will always take one without a problem - your experience is not at all uncommon!

My tip would be to stop offering bottles for a week or two - by now, she associates them with a fight. She will forget, though! After a short while give her the empty bottle to hold and play with, tickle her cheek with the bottle, make it into a toy. Then on another occasion, try it with milk but offer it face to face, with her sitting facing you (or whoever) in a baby seat, and just be calm and smiley about it. If she objects more than a few sqeaks or pushings away, try again another day.

HTH

Hi tiktok, thank you for the advice, it definatley makes sense, just a bit worried that the prolem might escalate if I leave it for another week or two?? but I think I will give it a go. Thanks again

I have been battling with this problem for about a month. I would definitely second TikTok's advice, try and be as calm as possible with her and the bottle needs to be associated with fun/calm/happy thoughts!

Lots of people advised me to try different brands of bottle and teat but IMO this is a waste of money. Im not saying that changing doesn't work for some but babies refusing the bottle at this age is very common and for us changing has made no difference.

It's a tough one, we are still trying (although not such a problem for us as she will be weaned by the time I go back to work). Good luck and as long as you persevere, you will get there. I do believe that if she is hungry enough she will take it in the end but they can be very stubborn!

Hi Midget, all sympathy as my 15 week old dd3 started to do exactly the same thing at 10 weeks, having been happy to take the occasional bottle of EBM since 5-6 weeks.

I would agree with tiktoks advice to leave it for a little while - I simply found it too stressful for me and her to try and make her take a bottle she very clearly didn't want and I wanted to just enjoy BFing without the bottle fight hanging over our heads!

I tried again at 13 weeks feeling much more relaxed and went very slowly getting her used to having a bottle teat near her mouth, then in her mouth and it has taken a couple of weeks for her to willingly drink any milk. It may be worth getting someone else to try giving your DD a bottle, though this didn't work for me. I also found my dd likes the milk very warm from a bottle or she will not trifle with it! I only used 1-2oz of EBM at a time so I did not feel too gutted chucking it away when she didn't touch any of it.

I use the breastflow bottles from mothercare - allegedly good for swapping between breast and bottle (its amazing the marketing hype you'll believe when desperate for someone else to be able to feed your baby just for once ), though I removed the inner valve thingy as my dd will only take the milk like that, but it is quite a messy affair! BF is so much nicer, relaxing and less messy but I am going to try and keep up fairly regular bottles of EBM with work in mind and possibly a night out for me one day.

HTH, good luck

I found the best bottles for ds3 were the Playtex disposable bottles with NaturalLatch teat in latex. Think the latex teat was more boob-like than the silicone teats. My pharmacist ordered them in for me but you can get them from www.baby-supplies.co.uk

I can understand changing teats if you have difficulty in getting baby to take bottle but if baby took bottle fine and then just stopped surely this is stubborness and changing may be a waste of money? (Just thinking out loud, glad it worked for you CM)

It didn't work for us and we have the following in our cupboard:

Dr Brown
MAM
NUK
Tommee Tippee
Boots trainer bottle/cup thing
TT trainer

Thanks for all you replies, Hammerhead is your DD now taking the bottle without any fights? how often do you give her the bottle? Eadie you certainly seem to have covered every option re: different bottles, good luck with it, it is so frustrating isn't it. Thanks for the recommendations Chipmonkey. Justabouttosplash... I understand what you are saying, they are very strongwilled these little babies, and I know it is just a preference not that she cannot do it because up until now she has done it! I am not at the stage where she HAS to have a bottle so think I will leave it for a couple fo days give her bottle to play with, and try with a couple of ounces of EBM - I'll let you know how we get on!

I've nannied for a three month old that had been taking a bottle but then stopped, it took six weeks of me offering the bottle during the day while his mother was at work to get him to take it consistantly.

He could go 10 hours without any milk, and was as happy as can be until I offered the bottle. I would try up to an hour at a time, if he started to cry/fuss then I'd stop and then I'd continue when he was calm. If he didn't take the bottle I wouldn't offer it to him until he showed signs of hunger.

He accepted the EBM better if it was quite warm. And at the beginning we had more sucess if he was sitting in boucy chair/stroller/facing away from me. It was a relief when he started drinking the bottle but it did take plenty of time and paitence.

I don't think they have nipple confusion, I'd say it was nipple preference!

Hi Nannyz thanks for the post, it shows that perserverence pays off, these babies aren't daft are they?

Hi Midget, in answer to your question my DD3 will take the bottle without a fight, but I would still to hesitate to say she always took it eagerly, but we have only just got to the stage where she will drink well from it so hopefully that will come.

For the last week I have been trying her with a bottle of EBM 2-3 times a day, though being quick to abandon attempt if she gets cross. I am hoping to reduce this to every few days when she seems happier to switch from breast to bottle, as it is all such a faff - much easier to whip out a boob .

Sometimes she takes a while to get going, pushing the teat in and out of her mouth and spitting milk, but as long as she is not distressed I have tried again a minute or two later - sometimes she will down the bottle and sometimes she is not interested at all but will take a huge BF - babies are suprisingly assertive

I feel relieved now that even if she starts refusing the bottle again that I will be able to get her to take it eventually over a period of weeks with some perseverance.

Good luck

Hi everyone, just thought I would pop back and let you know how we got on yesterday. I decided to abandon the tommee tippee bottles and bought the MAM Ultivent (?) bottles on the recommendation of a breast feeding friend (DD also uses MAM dummies so I thought the teat might be similar). Anyhow, during the day I teased her with the bottle making her laugh by putting it on her cheek and nose. At bedtime I gave her her last feed on the breast but did not completley top her up, I lay her in cot with nightlight on and she was very relaxed and content, I then offered her the bottle with 3ozs ebm in and she gulped it down! she did look at me slightly confused but it didn't stop her drinking it! I don't know if it was fluke/coincidence or the fact that it was a new teat and she was so relaxed at the time helped but I am hoping it means we are on the way to her accepting the bottle more readily. I am planning to do the same thing for the next 3 nights or so and then DH is going to try offering her it for a different timed feed during the day. Thanks again for all the tips yesterday.