DS 6 months and still not taking bottle plus going back to work ...

[Shell001]

Hi,

Anyone help my DS just plays with teat in his mouth and doesnt drink milk/ formula .. trying to introduce bottle for going back to work and its not happening. hv advise giving as first feed in morning didnt work and another hv said use beaker training cup but he bits that too ?

Any help advise anyone else with same problem .. i feel alone on this.

ps he had drank 3 oz once from bottle of formula but knows a good thing i think or maybe im to easy to give up ? could it be the milk aptamil ..

Have you tried a doidy cup? Have you thought about continuing to breastfeed when back at work and giving expressed milk during the day? My dd will only take breastmilk I'm going to bf until 11 months then introduce cows milk which I've been told is fine.

when do you go back? you may find that by 9 months he can take or leave the day feeds

may im back ..

DSshall be 8 months ..

worse comes to worse i can give a feed in morning and one at night .. and mum can try with bottle in the day ..

But just wanted to use the bottle also so im sure his getting enough.

Ive brought a tommee tipee cup thing and the something first ... they have like soft spouts. he takes it to his mouth and bites on it ..

try an open cup with no spout at all, like a Doidy, or just that the lid off one of the oes you have - you have to hold it for him to avoid huge spillage but if there's no spout to chew he may drink better

Doidy cup (with expressed milk) worked (eventually) for us when I went back to work and DD was six months.

But it took a while and she never really took that much - she made up for it in the evenings and mornings. The nursery mixed her morning breastmilk in with her cereal and she had yoghurt in the afternoon.

good luck and remember you're not alone.

Thanks will try ..

Hi Shell, I had the same problem with my daughter (I had to go back to work when she was five and a half months). She liked these cups the best:

Nuk Learner Bottle

It's like a cross between a cup and a bottle and she found the soft spout much easier to work at first than the hard one on a Tommee Tippee cup or similar.

Also, I carried on breastfeeding when I was around until 14 months when she gave it up of her own accord so there's no need for you to stop breastfeeding completely unless you want to.

I have just managed to get 6 month old EBF DD to take a bottle and the ONLY way I managed to do it was perseverance - I made a bottle up before every feed and tried her in her chair or car seat because as soon as I put her in my arms - wam bam it was all over, she wanted BM. I think feeding in a different setting (ie. them sitting away from your boobs!) helps as they don't associate it with feeding off you.

Keep trying and you really will need to try at least 3 times a day. Get all the bottles etc ready in the morning so you are organised.

Good luck!

HE - good on you for getting there! DS is 4 mths and refuses a bottle which is driving me mad as I really would like a little sleep every now and then! Have tried diff bottles etc and he has managed to take 2 1/2 oz in the eve feed before bed before he started screeching for the boob. He did this for two nights and now refuses the bottle point blank. Guess I will have to keep trying too but it is REALLY hard, esp with a 2year old toddler needing my attention too.

Also, Helenelisabeth, how long did it take you to get lo to take the bottle? Days? Weeks? And how old was she?

I find that DD (9 months) takes a few sips from the Doidy but then wants to play with it - messy enough when it has water in it and a nightmare with milk!

Am impressed that Helenelisabeth persevered and like Shoobaloo would like to hear how long it took. Have been trying on-and-off to get DD to take a bottle with no success - she puts almost anything else in her mouth but rejects a bottle with milk outright...

Dragthing - it's a bloody nightmare isn't it? DS1 took the bottle (ad a dummy) with not probs, but DS2 is having none of it (and won't take a dummy either). Just tried again and he just writhed and cried like I was trying to poison him, so again I just gave up and gave him the boob...

I'm having the same problem with DD2, 5 and a half months. Have tried a number of different teats and cups with no success. Am hoping that when I begin weaning in a couple of weeks she will become more open to food coming in various forms and that I can mix her first tastes with formula to get her accustomed to the taste (I don't want to give up BF but would like her to take formula while at nursery if poss- I can't find the time to express). Going back to work in June.

Will be watching this thread with interest, maybe we should post occasional updates on progress and any breakthroughs?

Pendulum, I am right there with you - def up for doing updates etc. How long were you giving each teat / cup before you moved on to the next? For us it's been once a day , giving it around 10 mins before we give up and give the breast... it's very very hard.

Shoobaloo, I must confess I haven't persevered very hard on any occasion, partly because I find her distress upsetting and partly because I have been deferring the problem somewhat (my vague optimism about weaning being the solution)

We seem to have two problems:

• she won't take a teat (even if EBM is offered) and
• she dislikes the taste of formula.

I've been advised on here to ditch the bottles and try to get her straight onto a cup. She has taken a small amount of both water and formula from a Tommee Tippee cup- she is at least interested in holding it and putting the spout in her mouth- but I can't imagine how she is ever going to take a whole beaker full. It's all a bit of a shock TBH because DD1 loved her bottles when I stopped BF and it never occurred to me that DD2 might be different.

Think tomorrow I will try helenelisabeth's strategy and sit her in her Bumbo with the cup.

Have you tried getting someone else (DP?) to give the bottle? We tried this for a while but DH is even more soft-hearted than me and couldn't bear to see her upset.

We used Nuk bottles with both DS1 and DS2 with DH feeding and me in another room. I had been offering the bottles for a while (few days) before the boys took them. I think they need time to get used to the idea!

For nursery, I would suggest you start ds on purees and baby rice/formula milk as soon as possible. As he is 6 months he is ready to start trying. You might find that he won't be established on solids until about 9 months.

But if he is just taking a little solids, mixed with milk. That would sustain him through the day at nursery. Even if he does not take milk from a cup/bottle, he might take water, juice from a cup/beaker. You can try that, so he gets fluids during the day.

Nurse just before you go to work and immediately when you come home. I also co-slept and continued to breast-feed dd, and now ds, through the night - called reverse cycling, because dcs took most of their milk at night.

By one year old, this won't be an issue at all.

Sorry everyone, didn't come back online yesterday, DD2 has an ear infection in both ears.

To all who wanted to know - it took around 6 times of trying her with a bottle on my knee to make me realise it wasn't going to work that way. I made up the bottle so it was quite warm (I tend to find a lot of BF babies like it warm) and then when she was sat in her car seat (when I knew she would be hungry) I tried her with it - hey presto, she drank 3 oz! I then tried at every feed to get her to drink from the bottle first - didn't push it too much and then BF her to make sure she was still getting enough milk.

Now she is established on it I give her a couple of bottles a day and BF her the rest of the time and when she wakes at night. She is happy to alternate.

Good luck everyone! Let us know how you get on. Your LO's won't be the same as mine but as I said - it is perseverance which is the key - some babies will take weeks to get used to the idea but if you only try a few times then give up, they will never take to it. Do it a few times a day - EVERYDAY!

Sorry shoobaloo - it was only 2 weeks ago that I started, she was 5 1/2 months. I had tried her on and off though for a few weeks but no success at all until then. I use the Tommee Tipee Close to Nature bottles and teats but I know people who have had success with the really cheap old fashioned latex teats.

helenelisabeth- sorry about your poor DD, she must be suffering.

well, spurred on by this thread last night I offered DD a bottle of formula when she woke at 10pm. I never expected it to work but she drank the whole lot down! I was kicking myself that I had only put 3oz in the bottle, expecting it to go down the sink! Today I offered her some EBM in a bottle and she took 2oz but I don't think she was particularly hungry so still a huge improvement.

I'm now going to get DH to try another bottle of formula at 10pm tonight. Don't know if it will work again but what has seemed to help is:

• waiting (it's a couple of weeks since I last tried a bottle)

• letting her sip water from a sippy cup- this seems to have taught her what to do with the teat rather than rolling it around her mouth

• a MAM teat (although this was flatly refused last time!)

• heating the milk up much warmer than I ever remember doing with DD1.

Fingers crossed for tonight and luck to anyone else trying to outwit the boob addicts!

My DS is the same. He happily accepted the occasional bottle of ebm or formula using the tommee tippee ctn bottles but when he reached 6 months i wanted to give him formula during the day in preparation for working and it was then that he started to refuse the bottle - both ebm and formula. I tried the tommee tippee cup and doidy cup and managed to get him to take a bit but not enough and after a few sips he would just spit it out again or blow bubbles with it! i then began to swaddle him during the feeds so that he couldn't thrash about and wriggle and that has really helped - he will take about 3oz per feed now. I've given up trying to get anymore into him in one go. I use formula to make up his breakfast and then give him a bottle around 11am and then another one around 2.30pm so i can get about 8oz into him that way. I now continue to bf in the morning, around 5pm and in the evening and if he wakes at night so i think he should be getting his daily requirements from this, if he needs more i would try and get milk into his food rather than trying to take more milk in bottles. He is now 7 1/2 months.

Pendulum - she is lots better today thank you, yesterday was awful though. She is such a sweet content little thing, it was dreadful see her so distressed.

Good news about DD taking the bottle! My DD only seems to take between 3 and 6 oz tbh, I always top her up with BM. I am not worried what she takes as I know that when I am not there she will down the whole bottle (has been known to take 7oz when Ive been out and DH has fed her!). At least she is taking something which is good. Definitely get DH to give her bottle at 10pm tonight, let us know how you get on! Definitely make sure the formula is nice and warm as well, my DD refuses it even at room temp.

Shell/ others, any luck so far?

After my breakthrough the other night DD has accepted a bottle every evening from me or DH. She will 'only'(!) take 4oz at a time but obviously this is a huge step for her. Hopefully I will be able to increase the amount gradually, but if not I will just have to top her up with meals/ BFs as bravissimo describes.

One question though, half an hour after she stopped taking formula from the bottle this afternoon she wanted to BF. I did let her because I don't want to force the issue, but I wonder if I am undermining myself- how long before she realises she can get BM if she persists. Any views?