4MO won't take a bottle

[MrsWilson18]

The title of my post says it all. My 1st baby happily went from breast to bottle when I was combi feeding. My 2nd girl won't go near a bottle.. she just chews the teat, same with dummies too.

I wasn't planning on being a long time breast feeder. Maybe until around 6months when I've decided I've had enough then wean her onto formula or use my freezer stash. She has none of it. I went for a meal last week with work friends. Was gone for just over 2hours. When I got home she was screaming but wouldn't take a bottle whilst I was out. I know I might get some stick for this post because she's just a baby who is used to the nipple as apposed to a teat but jeese I'm so frustrated.

I feel like the choice to give up breastfeeding has been taken away from me because of the worry that she would lose weight due to not feeding well from a bottle. I've contemplated buying different teats that are compatible with the MAM bottles but I must have spent about £50 on different dummies so I'm guessing she won't like any of the teats either

Dummies are a whole seperate issue for us. Tried so many but she just moves them around in her mouth like she's chewing gum. She wakes up so many times in the night wanting comfort so I'd really love it if I could pop a dummy in for her to go back to sleep but I cant, I have to get the boob out and she falls back to sleep straight away. Then I put her back down again and she wakes up shortly afterwards

I guess I'm just frustrated because my 1st baby was so easy with this but my 2nd is really difficult. I'm so so tired

Had exactly the same issue with Ds when he was 4 months. Tried everything. Eventually tried different trays and I’ve worked. I remember it as a very stressful time.

I had the same. When she was about 6 months we started
offering her a tippy cup with a valve and she’d drink milk from that….but never from a bottle!

It’s so hard. My first refused a bottle from about 3 months so I was determined this time to keep up the one bottle a day so that I wouldn’t have to manage the 4 month sleep regression alone. Lo and behold, second baby stopped taking a bottle too. We’re just coming out of 6 weeks of sleep regression where he was waking every 1 - 2 hours and oh my god I wish he would have taken a bottle. 😩

With my eldest we did manage to get her taking bottles by about 9 months but we had to try loads of different teats and styles and I had to be out of the house for her to take them for quite a while.

Similar happened to me. I ended up BF long term, he's 17 months now, and I have to say I'm glad I was a little pushed into it. Now it's the nicest and easiest thing in the world. It sort of flipped around 10/11 months when he was on 3 meals a day and had mastered a cup so I felt quite free to do what I wanted. Now I BF because it settles him, puts him to sleep, we connect after a work day, great for travel etc. So it's not all doom.and gloom (although I thought it was the worst thing ever at that time, I don't know why 4/5 months seemed to be the time for all.my mum friends to struggle with BF too)

I agree with @MilkMonster654, once past the 4 month regression with my eldest I really enjoyed breastfeeding and it was easy and as she got older it was way less of a tie.

Have you tried Lansinoh teats? They were great for both my little ones when I was breastfeeding.

DC1 would not take a bottle and went straight to a sippy cup. It was stressful as I had to go back to work.

My second tried to do this to me when I was giving up BF at 5 months. I ended up "starving" her into it i.e. when she was hungry enough she took the bottle (i think it took 4-5 hours) - I had to do it this way as I was the only one feeding her at the time, if you keep trying her with another trusted caregiver with a bottle she might get used to it that way. It did end up meaning that I weaned from BF overnight instead of over a number of weeks to stop her regressing back off the bottle again which wasn't fun though.

Both of mine were total bottle refusers but would take a cup of milk at that age if I wasn’t around.

I agree with others suggestions to try a cup, there are some thst can be used from 4 months. Mine never took a bottle but has been fine with cups, I think as they arent trying to mimic the nipple. Are the bottles full of expressed or formula? I think formula can be less confusion for some as well.