Advice needed - how to get 10 month old breast feeder onto the bottle

[emilymanson]

Hi

My daughter Ellie has only ever breast-fed but now I am going back to work I am trying with my husband to get her to take milk from a bottle. We are finding it absolutely impossible. She won't even open her mouth and is crying desparately when we try to give her milk. We are using a 'nuk' bottle which she is used to for water (but using a differerent one so she doesn't get them confused).
My husband is trying to do the feeding as the whole point is that she needs to take milk when I'm not there. He is trying hard but obviously it is really difficult for him to be making Ellie cry like this.
Any tips? Anything that has worked at such a late stage in baby's life? Obviously with the next one we will mix in a bottle from the start!

Emily

I bf both of mine for 12+ mths and never bothered with bottles - have you tried giving drinks from a sippy cup (without a valve)?

If you start to introduce it gradually she will soon get the hang of it.

I had the same problem with my DS, he never would take a bottle after being breastfed until 8 months and refused to take a beaker as well. It wasn't until he was a year he picked up a beaker and drank at a toddler group. He had lots of sloppy food to keep his fluids up.... which probably meant he had no incentive to drink! I wasn't brave enough to just give him dry food to make him drink. He got there in the end and now drinks really well from a beaker. I had lots of (useless) advice from family and health visitors, and got worried that he wouldn't take a bottle or beaker... best not to worry and let her work out a beaker in her own time- you prob dont want to both to teacher he how to use a bottle at 10 months, go straight to a beaker.
well done for breastfeeding for so long