Breastfed baby used to have a bottle now refusing. Help!

[Hatchie]

Hi

My baby is now 12 weeks old she has been breastfeeding since birth and from 2 weeks would have one bottle of pumped milk in the night so my husband could help with feeds.

Now at 12 weeks she completely refuses the bottle and cries and screams until she exhausts herself to sleep or I give in and feed her. I can't leave her for any amount of time.

We have tried everything- different teats, bottles, distractions, warm/cold milk, me leaving the house, my husband doing it, me doing it, different positions, dipping the teat in my milk, skin to skin etc etc.

Any advice on what worked and what you did to persevere. do you just keep going until they are so hungry they take it? Because it seems the gentle way isn't working.

Thank you x

DS2 went through a (long) phase of refusing bottles, but would take milk from an open cup instead. We never tried it at night though! Later I tried again with bottles ready for him to start nursery and he quite liked the variable flow teats.

Breastmilk tastes better than formula and comes from a warm squishy boob rather than a bottle. Honestly, you can see why a baby would prefer it.

At three months feeds should at least beginning to space out a little bit as her stomach capacity gets bigger? Can you feed lying down in bed (following safe sleep rules) to minimise sleep disruption?

Not sure if that's helpful. Basically there isn't a trick to make a baby not prefer breastfeeding. If you keep going with bottles she might take it sometimes. My babies never did.

If your husband is keen to help at night he could change the baby's nappy and bring her to you for a feed. You can stay in bed and get back to sleep quite quickly after he puts her back in her cot. Really, this would be much more use than him giving a bottle, and it sounds like overall you would all be better off if she isn't screaming the house down.

I often see couples who make a point of giving expressed milk in a bottle purely so dad can "feel involved". If this is the case, perhaps let him give her some milk during the day when she is not so desperate for her Mum. I agree with trying a cup.

Honestly OP she is still little. As PP said, soon she will go for longer between feeds.

My daughter has intermittent bottle aversions (and feeding aversions in general).
I think I had high lipase and she only accepted freshly pumped breastmilk especially if she was just starting back on the bottle
I had some success getting her to accept the bottle again by offering her an Oz of freshly expressed breastmilk immediately after each breastfed during the day. It usually took a few days for her to go from not being interested in the bottle at all to accepting the teat in her mouth but not drinking to drinking. After that she would accept a bottle from dad until the next set back.
Set backs for us were triggered by silent reflux and food allergies.
For us the most beneficial time for my partner to give a bottle was first thing in the morning so I could get a bit more joined up sleep. I coped with disturbed night's better than he did but he coped better with early mornings that I did