Trying and failing to get breastfed baby to take a bottle ahhhhh!

[Mary1986]

I have a nearly 5 month old who has pretty much been EBF with the odd bottle early on from caregivers but he's now rejecting a bottle from everyone and will starve himself and scream and cry until I come home and feed him.

I'm ready for a gym session or hair appointment without worrying whether he's hungry.

We've tried MAM and Nuk bottles, sippy cups, drinking directly from an open cup, warm milk, cold milk, formula, breastmilk, feeding at the same time each day, in a different room, different position and NOTHING is working and I'm losing my mind over it!

What worked for you if you've had a similar problem?

Took my DC1 about a month of regular attempts to start taking it reliably, a lot of that was squeezing tiny amounts of milk into his mouth. Still never accepted a bottle from his Dad though. Only myself or my Mum.
DC2 is even more strong willed so I didn't put as much effort in. Just waited until we started solids before leaving him with anyone and then suddenly he was happy to take a bottle on the odd occasion at 8 months.

Some babies are harder than others, and some will just never take a bottle no matter how hard you try.

You could also try frozen milk in those silicone fruit feeder things?

Hate to tell you but I was never able to get my son to take a bottle or cup while young. He would take a very small amount of milk from an open cup but literally a couple of drops. He eventually started drinking water from a 360 cup at about 9 months but didn't really start drinking cows milk from a cup until over a year. I didn't really leave him for long periods until he was about 6 months old. I did use to leave him to pop to the shop/have my hair done etc and he wouldn't cry too much as he could obviously sense I wasn't there.

He refused all formula and breast milk from cups etc but does now love cold cows milk.

Hate to add that my DC1 stopped taking a bottle at 8 weeks and I tried constantly until he was about 9 months before completely giving up. Tried all the bottles, different formulas, different mum friends tried after they were convinced they could crack him etc.

DC2 was the same, I tried a bottle 50 times between 2-12 weeks old. She spat it out and screamed. She’s now 11 months and finally decided she will drink a small
amount of formula from a bottle!!!

honestly some babies are so so stubborn they would rather be thirsty and hungry

Neither of mine ever accepted a bottle but they would reluctantly take milk from a cup if I wasn't around at that age.

Don't forget too that BF babies take in average 25 floz a day, so roughly a Floz an hour. So if someone can get her to have 1 floz that gives you an hour

mine also completely refused a bottle at that stage.

a friend had similar and said the best bet was to offer same bottle at the same time everyday for 2 weeks (e.g. just after nap). offer bottle for 10 mins then switch to breast if baby keeps refusing. after 9 days, her baby switched to the bottle. it is the consistency that matters, not the type of teat etc.

Sorry but another one here with a totally bottle refusing baby - the one time I had to leave him for around 8 hours my DH syringed milk into him 😂