Breastfed baby won’t take a bottle

[goldenretriever2000]

My exclusively breastfed baby girl is now 4 months old and will not take a bottle of expressed milk.

She took one until she was around 2 1/2 months old then suddenly stopped. Since then I have tried every day but with no success.

I have tried all the tips I have found online including other people trying to feed her, putting milk on the bottle teat, body temperature milk, cool milk, waiting until she is hungry but no success with anything.

The breast milk I am trying to give her is from the fridge and with MAM bottles.

Has anyone got any advice or tips at all please? 🙏🏻

Why does she need a bottle?
Do you still want to EBF?
Then she doesn't really need a bottle.
Just continue with the breast?

She won't take a bottle from you, why would she when you are right there smelling so milky and warm to her?

Get someone else to feed her the bottle.

Because I want to be able to leave her for more than an hour at a time to go to the gym etc.

As I’ve put in the post I have been trying this too

It depends on how determined you are or how important it is.

If you've tried everything else then if you leave baby long enough and hungry enough she will take a bottle.

But that's a tough one and a last resort.

Then let who ever will look after her whilst you are at the gym give her a bottle. She'll soon learn that's what she does with them, or she'll just have a mammoth feed when you get back.

I do feel for you. It must be hard.

Could you try a different bottle, with a different shaped teet? Some babies just dont like some teets! You'll get there 💕

God forbid a woman should want someone else to support with feeding after four months.

If it helps at all - mine hated the MAM bottles but loves the cheap Tesco ones :) good luck!

you've tried cool and room temperature, have you tried warmer milk? DD would only accept bottles when milk was properly warm and crucially, teat also had to be warm. Room temperature was firmly refused

I never got mine to take a bottle. We did succeed with about our 6 or 7th sippy cup at 9 months.

dh was always the one to try. Me offering alternatives was a non-starter.

All I can think of is to try lots of different types of bottle.
If that doesn't work, you may have to decide whether you can cope with the idea of leaving her with dad and a bottle regardless and seeing how it goes.
I did this a couple of times and although it didn't work, in the sense that DD didn't feed, she was fine and just made up for it later.
I know by the way that that might sound really callous, if you're new to this. But I think sometimes mums get so much pressure that they feel that it will be a disaster if they're not perfect. I got home after a couple of hours away hyperventilating about starved baby, but of course she was fine😂 (having said that, I didn't leave her much and ebf for 9 months followed by mixed for a while longer).
Good luck.

I have tried tommee tippee too with no joy, I will give the Tesco ones a go 😊

Offer the bottle every day for 2 weeks at the same time of day. Eg after lunchtime nap when she is hungry. 15 mins of bottle then switch to breast if she doesn't drink the bottle. It will take a while for baby to learn but she will.

My DD would gag on any teat but finally found Nuk perfect match bottles, no moulding, can be flattened against their palate same way a nipple would.

You can cup feed, especially from 6 months but I think from younger as well, Lucy Webber on Instagram is great for feeding advice

Been there, I know how rough it can be!! I tried for several weeks to get my now 13 month old to take a bottle, in the end it was just sheer persistence and trying lots of different bottles that worked (Lasinoh bottles are the ones that worked for us). Just keep trying, if they refuse it stay relaxed, just put the bottle away and try again the next day/feed.

Tesco are supposedly close to Mam in shape so perhaps try something else

We occasionally cup fed from a few days old for various reasons. It was surprisingly easy.

This isn’t helpful

some mums (like me) found breastfeeding extremely difficult and didn’t have enough milk anyway. Getting baby to take a bottle that dad could give, felt like a huge step forward

OP hang in there and just leave baby with dad or another responsible adult. I know how tough it is. My ds for months would have a bottle, but only from me! Ridiculous. Refused any other adult. In the end I left him with my mother for a whole day and he eventually gave in and drank for her after quite a lot of whining. We were ok after that. It is worth playing around with different teats.

Lansinoh is the only one that worked for us too. We were in the same situation though and tried daily for a month before there was any success. It also had to be warm (body temp) or it was (and still is) refused

After 3 long months of trying, the below worked for us:

• stop feeding on demand, move to a feeding schedule (we did every 3 hours) so she knows when next to expect/she wants his next feed. (I think this was the main game changer). Once you have spent a few days feeding on a schedule, then offer a bottle

• pick the same time of day every day to give the bottle. Even when she finally takes it, keep giving it at that time every day. We're 6 months in to bottle acceptance and our son still gets a bottle at the same time every day!!

• sit her in a chair or similar, I.e. don't hold her like you do when BF, and sit opposite her, give eye contact and encouraging smiles and chat

• warm the milk and warm the teat by turning the bottle upside down with the warm milk inside it

• lansinoh teat. We tried LOADS of teats and this was the only one that worked

I feel you - I tried all the tips and tricks going to try and get mine to take a bottle. Nothing worked! I’d get excited if she drank a bit but then it was mostly just spat out after that 🤦🏼‍♀️😆
In the end, it was just too much effort to persist and I just couldn’t be bothered to keep trying every night or two with her getting upset and to keep that up so she would continue to take a bottle just for the sake of the odd occasion where I might go out. Tbh I just waited it out a few months and she had started solids etc and it wasn’t long before I could leave them for longer (during the day anyway!)