Won’t take bottle- help!

[FTM88]

LO is mainly breastfed but was having a bottle of expressed milk at bed time to fill her up. We were using the Avent Closer to Nature first teats and Tommee Tippee Natural Start size 1 teats but she is now refusing a bottle and doesn’t seem to know what to do with her mouth and keeps pushing it out with her tongue. We’ve managed to get her to take a couple of bottles but not without upset and tears which obviously is not ideal. We’ve tried my partner giving it, we’ve tried different positions, different times of the day, we’ve tried the next step up teats but nothing seems to work. Does anybody have any experience of this and can give any advice. I’m not against breastfeeding her still but need the flexibility of combo feeding. Thank you.

My DD was exclusively breastfed for the first 4 months and then we tried to introduce a bottle which she flat out refused!

The only way we managed to get her to drink from a bottle was my husband feeding her while walking around while holding her and singing to her. No idea why that worked, might have been distracting from the bottle, or soothing. But it worked! She took a little bit more every night and after a few days she would drink the whole thing!

It’s really tough when they won’t take a bottle but hopefully that’s worth a try for your little one. Good luck!

How old is she?
They gain (or lose- i forget) a reflex around 3 months which makes bottle refusal a risk then. Too late for us but I recall seeing some videos online showing optimal teat positioning to mimic how breast milk gets down the throat.

My DC would never have a bottle and at 6 months I needed to go back to work occasionally so we tried a cup with handles (Mam one with a soft teat) and he took to it like a duck to water. Temperature is very important though too, as they’re used to body temp, anything cooler and it would be refused.

She is 10 weeks old. We will keep persevering and try some walking around while feeding with my partner. I did try standing up and swaying with her while giving it to her but she could still smell milk on me so wasn’t completely successful- she did entertain it in her mouth briefly. Not sure I can get my partner to sing though but at this point, he may try anything 😂🤦🏼‍♀️
Will look into the cups with handles- this could be useful when she’s able to hold things, thank you.

So it turns out, she doesn’t like cold milk. Something so small and simple but not something I’d considered in my sleep haze and panic 🤦🏼‍♀️ Bottle warmer ordered 👌🏻 Thank you for your replies, much appreciated 😊

I read bottle warmers can get too hot and ruin the good stuff in breastmilk. You can just warm it under the tap. I fill a bowl with warm water and leave the bottle in there for a few minutes, swirl it once or twice