Moving BF bottle refuser to formula - any tips?

[thelittlestbird]

Hello all

My daughter is just shy of 8 months and was EBF until solids introduced at 6 months. She used to take one bottle every 24h or so from DH until she was 8 weeks old then he went back to work and ever since she's refused all bottles and cups. We've tried - and I'm not exaggerating- every brand / teat / technique, regularly for close to five months now.

I am desperate to stop BFing. Absolutely desperate. I use formula in her solid foods and she'll occasionally have an oz from a cup.

Does anyone have any great tips or suggestions for making the transition?

My daughter refused the bottle. Health visitor said no reasons n why she needed to use one - a zippy cup was fine from four months. So that's what she got. Basically it's perseverance- your kid will drink when thirsty enough. Cut down the breast feeding one feed at a time and offer the sippy cup. Nothing bad will happen if she misses a few ounces of liquid!
Just keep it casual - do not make a song and dance that she HAS to drink X amount at a certain time. Just offer, if she refuses move on to some other activity, then offer the cup again. If she still refuses absolutely fine keep it on sight she knows it's there.

Thanks @easyday we have settled on the mam starter cup and just keep offering it. The money wasted with pouring away formula is killing me but not as much as the BFing

Did your little one eventually drink enough from a cup?

I don't mean to be negative but my DD never took to any formula at all, ever. Nor would she drink cow's milk, nor any other kind of milk. I had to continue to bf until she was 13 months when my milk suddenly dried up. After that it was water and yoghurt.

We used a sippy cup with a straw (nuby) for water during meal times. DC got the hang of drinking water from that and then at 9mo DH tried him on a bottle of formula while I was having a lie in and he took it. This was after months of refusal and many different bottles! Tommee Tippee bottles won in the end. I am still breastfeeding him though, he's not giving that up without a fight!

I wrote some info about this common question & what research tells us:

www.baby-thrive.com/blog/bottle-feeding-breastfed-babies

How to get your breastfed baby to accept a bottle