Should I be bottle feeding my little one?

[Jun]

Hello

My DD (4.5 months) is breastfed and every weekend takes a bottle or two of expressed breastmilk from DP.

This weekend she has refused the bottle so we are thinking of ways to try and get her back on to it. A couple of people have suggested I should be trying to get her to take a bottle from me, something I have only tried a handful of times and she has always refused.

I like bfing her and don't particularly see why she needs to take a bottle from me, only DP and Granny. Is getting her to take a bottle from me also key to overcoming her refusal of the bottle?

Thanks in advance!

I can't see any reason at all why you should have to give her a bottle. She doesn't need to take a bottle from you; you have all the necessary equipment right there. It may end up confusing and upsetting her all the more if she can smell you but can't have the breast.

Get your dp to try giving her the milk from a cup - she may prefer it that way to having a bottle. She might sip at it, or she might want to lap at it like a cat. Either way, it might be easier than trying to force a bottle onto her.

If it's only one or two bottles she's missed, though, it won't cause her any great harm. And you may find you don't ever have that problem again.

don't stop bf - I have never given dd a bottle myself though she took one happily from DH, MIL and at nursery

just a thought - dd had a phase of refusing bottles of EBM and it took me ages to realise it was because the milk had gone off in the freezer - mine only seemed to keep for 6wks or so and eventually I gave up freezing altogether and pumped one day to feed the next.

taste it and check

Thanks for the tips

TBE: DP likes doing it (a lot!) and also I have had the odd few hours away doing something else.

The major problem is that we are invited to a babyfree wedding in another town which will mean most of the day away. Granny was all set to babysit so if we are going to go we need to overcome this.

I don't think you giving her a bottle would make any difference.
there may be a number of reasons for her not taking the bottle from your DP, maybe she wasn't hungry, is dropping that particular feed, or if you were around at the time, maybe she was holding out for the boob!
I agree with shitehawk, she is old enough to give a cup a try, or just try again with the bottle, maybe try a different teat, a faster flow one or different shape. Or it may be that she was just having an 'off day'. It's anybodies guess!

MrsB - the milk "going off" in the freezer might be one explanation.

Sometimes freezing the milk can make it a bit soapy - it's called saponification and it's to do with lipases in the milk.

You can prevent that happening by scalding the milk before you freeze it - just bring it quickly to the boil and then bag it up.

Mine was the same - we started offering him a cup from this age, the little Tommee Tippee ones with the rigid spout were best IIRC. He took to the cup really well and we avoided the hassle of bottles.

I don't think setting yourself up for a battle when she'll be old enough to skip bottles soon is worth it.

Just on the funny tasting milk thing
I had a problem with DS1 feeding when I was on antibiotics, in fact he wouldn't even feed from me, which was v upsetting at the time.
But worth checking the taste for any taints, it could be something as simple as that.

Well the first 2 bottles she refused (on fri night and saturday morning) were from the freezer, possibly 6 weeks old. Then on Sunday she got really upset when offered a bottle I had expressed the night before, she'd tried the other two but wouldn't even try this one. I didn't want her to get a negative association with the bottle so I offered it to her after the feed and although she didn't eat she played around with it in her mouth for a while.

We left her with granny yesterday and she refused the bottle and got really upset and we had to rush back. Granny doesn't really listen though and I suspect she didn't warm it up enough (DD likes it warmer than you'd think).

I think it is a good idea to leave DP for a while so I am off her radar. This was how we got her to take it in the first place but she was doing so well until this weekend.

The wedding is 2 weeks away and is a 1.5 hour drive so we'll have to be confident it's going to work to leave her.

I really appreciate all the advice!

just as an idea, you could always leave dd and granny somewhere convenient closer to the wedding so at least if she kicks off you are nearby...

it might come to that Mrs Badger, not sure how granny will be feel about being marooned somewhere for the day though.

I have a couple of stupid questions for the kind people who suggested scalding and cups:

1. I was under impression BM should not be boiled due to losing nutrients but is it a case of the odd bottle would not hurt?

1. With the cup, do you just hold it to their lips and try to encourage them to sip? Or hand it over and leave them to it? I have a strange image in my head of DD sat with a teacup and saucer!

1. scalding does affect the nutritional value slightly, but then so does freezing. Either is still better than formula though.

1. you hold the cup! only put a little bit in at a time in case of flailing and tip it gently so she isn't flooded

dd is 15m and can just about manage an open cup - everything gets very wet though

We never managed to get DD to take a bottle. I returned to work when she was 6 months and left the childminder struggling with cups, spoons and an oral syringe! A breastfed child might hold out until mum comes home - but that is often not as big a problem as you think it will be. They can catch up (at the expense of your sleep perhaps).
In our case - she was 6 months old so we could start introducing solids during the day. If I was not leaving her then I would have waited the full 6 months before giving solids. Actually, I started at just 5 months so that she could have something if she refused milk from the childminder.
At 30 months, she is still breastfeeding, despite being apart from me for 9 hours 2 days a week.

I was interested when someone suggested tasting the milk to see that it had not gone off. Personally I only once tasted my breastmilk and I found it disgusting. I am interested to see if other mothers taste test breastmilk.

when it was fresh it was just kind of sweet and watery and didn't taste of much

when it was off it coated my mouth in a vile film of rancid fattiness

though this was a tiny sip only, I wasn;t swigging the stuff

How can you tell if it;s off if you don;t taste it?

I tasted some this evening and the sweet and watery desciption is a good one.

She refused it anyway the little minx, am going to try a cup.....

My DD did this also. I BF and she had the odd bottle of expressed milk from about 8 weeks. At a similar age to your DD she started refusing the bottle. It coincided with her first tooth coming through (at 23 weeks). I used an Avent teat so I changed it to a Tommee Tippee one which seemed much softer and not as rigid and she started taking the bottle again. Might be worth changing teat to see if it makes a difference. She might need a faster flow teat if its still the same slow flow teat from when she was younger. Good luck.

Thanks Wags, keep telling DP that some babies do this. I changed to the 3 month plus teat a while back when she refused the first teat (would suck for a bit and then get fed up). This time she won't even go near it. I am using a tommy tippee one but maybe if it is her teeth a cup will make a difference.