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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

Urgent help needed to switch 4 month old to bottles

31 replies

Enjoythesilence · 08/08/2008 12:49

I have never posted before but I could really do with some help. I have been diagnosed with a serious medical problem which means I need to give up breastfeeding dd quickly so we are trying to go cold turkey today. She took 2oz from a bottle at 7am but nothing since then. She's been screaming her head off for the last hour but just won't suck from the bottle. Does anyone have any advice/experience? I am worried that she'll get dehydrated if she doesn't have anything soon.

OP posts:
Flightputsonahat · 08/08/2008 12:51

Try her with a cup with a bit of water in it. She will turn her head away quickly at first after every taste/sip but might be happier to take it as she doesn't have to suck.

NormaStanleyFletcher · 08/08/2008 12:51

you can try a cup just to get something into her maybe?

DD refused everything but NUK bottles (though that is not an instant fix which I guess you need)

Can you have someone else try to feed her?

NormaStanleyFletcher · 08/08/2008 12:52

Do you need to give up because of medication that is incompatible with bf?

Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 08/08/2008 12:56

What kind of cup should I use? We tried some milk in an open cup, like you do with a tiny baby but she wouldn't have it. DH has been trying to feed her as we guessed she wouldn't take it from me!

OP posts:
sagitta · 08/08/2008 13:02

HI, I've just started giving dd2 (3 months) a bottle. I have found that she doesn't like the immediacy of the milk in a bottle - when BFing, they have to suck for a bit for the milk to come, in a bottle its there instantly. So I let her suck on the breast for a minute, then quickly pop the bottle in her mouth when the milk comes in. I also found that putting my fingers round the teat helps, so it feels like skin against her mouth, which is what she's used to. HTH.

Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 08/08/2008 13:03

I have a brain tumour which will need surgery and a week in hospital. No idea what medication I'll be on for that. My more immediate concern is that I have an MRI on Monday. They need to inject me with contrast dye for the scan and I won't be able to breastfeed for 24 hours afterwards.

OP posts:
Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 08/08/2008 13:04

Thanks Sagitta - we'll give that a try.

OP posts:
NormaStanleyFletcher · 08/08/2008 13:12

Sorry about your diagnosis

the other thing I have seen suggested on MN is to get your DH to wrap a (worn, not newly washed) bra round the bottle.

It has worked for some people I think

misselizabethbennett · 08/08/2008 13:13

If you can, get hold of a few different styles of teat (shapes, silicone/latex etc) - different babies can prefer different shapes or textures.

So sorry about your medical problems - I really wish you the best of luck.

RedHead81 · 08/08/2008 13:26

you could try skin to skin while giving a bottle so that your baby can see your nipple and be against your breast while you try and trick your baby by putting the bottle in her mouth. also if you get dh to give a bottle you will need to go out of the room because she will still smell you. good luck with everything - my thoughts are with you. x

sagitta · 08/08/2008 13:42

Sorry to hear of your diagnosis - such an awful time with a LO as well. Good luck with it all. I'd second advice to keep her near your breast. She completely refused anything from DH...

hazeyjane · 08/08/2008 13:44

I have a couple of different sorts of bottles (slightly used) and teats (unused), which you can have if you would like, as we are having a big clear out! It's a nightmare having to buy loads of different sorts of bottles, only to have them rejected, but if you'd like them, cat me and I can stick them in the post.

I have some Avent, Dr Brown's and some teats for the Closer to nature bottles (still in pack as I was sent the wrong ones!)

Also at 4 months dd2 liked to drink from a tommee tippee sippy cup (I've got one of those too!).

Good luck

RedHead81 · 08/08/2008 13:48

try this may be able to get it in shops near you but a friend used one and that worked

chipmonkey · 08/08/2008 14:11

Actually Adiri have a new version of that bottle out. I had the old one and it leaked like mad! Hang on.....

chipmonkey · 08/08/2008 14:18

here's one on ebay but it's the stage 3 which would be too fast-flowing I'd say. But if you email that seller, they should have one in the medium flow which seems to be the best for most babies.
When I needed to get a reluctant ds3 to take a bottle, the one he finally took was the Playtex nurser with NaturalLatch teat.
So sorry to hear your diagnosis.

Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 09/08/2008 09:26

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I tried putting her on the breast and swapping to the bottle yesterday and she did take an ounce or so from the bottle but then refused the rest. She hadn't had anything for 6 hours at that point and her nappy was dry so I felt I didn't have any choice but to feed her. Will just have to try again. A friend has given me some Tommee Tippee bottles which do feel a lot more 'breast like' than DS's old Avent ones, which is what we were using. I have also bought a syringe so that if she won't take the bottle on Mon when I have the scan, I can just squirt the milk into her mouth!

OP posts:
Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 09/08/2008 09:41

Thanks for the offer Hazeyjane - I have cat you.

OP posts:
nannynz · 09/08/2008 09:54

A healthy baby won't starve themselves as awlful as that sounds.

I nannied for a baby that's mother went back to work and he had not taken a bottle. It took four weeks for him to successfully take a bottle, although he was been BF at night.

Here's what helped. Making sure the milk was quite warm. The wide necked bottles he took much better than any other, although he did not like Avent(perhaps because the teats are hard). He would take it better if he was sitting in his bouncy chair facing away from me, side tracked my TV(we them moved onto him holding me). He also would take it slightly better if he had just woken up eg I would go in a few mins before he was due to wake up and feed him. It was very stressful, he would go 10 hours with out taken anything and would get quite upset. So I also choose the times when I would feed him during the day(every 3 - 4 hours) and then try feeding him for up to 1 hour, just slowly making sure he didn't get upset, if he didn't take anything then I just tried again at the next time.

It may be a good idea to try a few formula as some babies prefer a particular kind. Also to get someone else to feed the baby with you not been in the room/house - this would just be for a short time. I hope you are getting lots of support and wish you well.

hazeyjane · 09/08/2008 20:40

Enjoythesilence, I am afraid I am a bit of an idiot, how do I get my cat messages? I assumed they would come to my e-mail address.

chipmonkey · 09/08/2008 20:50

hj, they do come to your email address but sometimes it takes MNHQ a while to pass them on.

hazeyjane · 09/08/2008 21:41

Thankyou Chipmonkey, maybe I'm not such an idiot then!

jammi · 10/08/2008 00:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

mears · 10/08/2008 00:39

Enjoythesilence - do you want to stop feeding completely? You may not need to go cold turkey at all. You could introduce a teat as well as breastfeeding. I introduced bottles by starting a breast feed then half way through slipping them off then inserting the teat.

You could try that as a way of introducing the bottle more easily. After your MRI you could resume breastfeeding until you know what treatment is needed. It may not be incompatible with breastfeeding.

Depends how you feel about it all.

Sorry to hear you are going through this at the moment.

Original poster
Enjoythesilence · 10/08/2008 08:40

Mears - thanks for that. It looks likely I'll need surgery plus a week in hospital. I'm considering possibly trying to keep my milk supply going so that I can resume breastfeeding afterwards - not sure how this will work as I'll be in intensive care initially after the surgery. I'm also not sure what medication I'll be or for how long but I'm going to ask about it. I think that one of the reasons I'm finding it so difficult to get DD onto a bottle is that, given the choice, I wouldn't be doing it at all!

OP posts:
ilovemydog · 10/08/2008 08:46

Am so sorry

Was going to suggest NUK/Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature which my DS jockeys between. The tommee tippeee makes him feel more full, I don't know why!

Oh, of course given the choice you wouldn't want to give up, but think you'll be under some fairly heavy drugs....

Best of luck....

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