I need help.

[UrsulaBeresfordTodd]

I really want to stop breastfeeding my 7 month old but she won’t take a bottle or cup. I started trying her with a bottle at 4 months and after spending a fortune on every type of bottle on the market moved on to trying cups at 6 months.

She has never slept through and wakes 5-15 times a night. I am beginning to resent breastfeeding so much. I left a message with my HV 3 weeks ago but not heard back - she is very much breastfeed at all costs though. I feel broken. I need a break. Please, what can I do?

Bumping for you as I never breastfed. So sorry you're having a hard time. Hopefully someone will be along with some good advice

Unfortunately if bottles are not introduced very early it becomes very difficult to do so when you want to. 4 months is much too late, preference has set in. It needs to be in the first couple of weeks.

I was in a similar situation with a 9 month old. But due to allergy rather than desire to stop breastfeeding. We managed to get him using a tum tum tots straw cup. It has no valve. This was what the feeding specialist I consulted with recommended.

Introduce when they are chill but very hungry. For us this was post nap. you need to leave the house and let someone else do it. They recommended tv to distract and in a dark room.

The mess for the first weeks while they were learning was next level but we got there!

We introduced a bottle early but unfortunately allergies and reflux meant she developed a bottle aversion.
I had to stop breastfeeding at 10 months. We had spent 2 months trying to get her to take the bottle and combi feeding with no success. Then I ended up in hospital and baby had to go home to dad for a few days. She went 26h without a drink but then accepted the bottle she was then formula fed from 10 -24 months. It was brutal and we wouldn't have gone down this route had my physical and mental health hadn't been completely destroyed.
Before she went home to dad I couldn't hold her and the bottle at the same time because she tried to leap out of my arms to escape the bottle. She went on the alfamino which is a foul tasting amino acid formula and my dietician was amazed that we managed to get her on the formula. A friend in a similar situation managed to get her 9 month old on to a different amino acid formula gradually he had a bottle aversion but not as bad as my daughters.

She really had to know there was zero options of breastmilk. She would go 5-6h without a feed in the run up without feeding. She also only ate a few mouthfuls of food so was predominantly formula fed.