17 week old BF baby refusing EBM from a bottle

[jazzymama]

Hi, this is the first time I've posted, so hope I'm doing this right! My DS is 17 weeks old and is currently exclusively breast fed. When he was 3 weeks old, however, we both contracted thrush and it became too painful to breast feed, so I expressed like crazy and fed him breast milk in Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles until he was about 12 weeks old. I then gradually got back to breast feeding at every feed. However, I would like to be able to give him a bottle on occasion and ultimately (at approx. 6 months) will want to wean him, but it seems that DS is now rejecting bottles! The last few times I or my DH have tried, DS has started to protest, cry and push the teat out of his mouth. DS is also showing all signs of teething (gnawing on anything he can, drooling like mad, red spots on cheeks, slightly raised temperature, etc) and seems to have sore gums. Can anyone suggest a different type of bottle or teat we could try that might be kinder to DS's gums? Or does anyone have any experience of this problem and tips on how to deal with it? I'd be very grateful for any advice. Thanks!

Hi Jazzymama, we had the same problem with ds, we tried three different teats, two types of bottles and he still refused to take the bottle. At six months he started to take water from sippy cups but still only wanted his milk from me so I'm still breast-feeding him at 13months. Sorry, that I can't help more I do know what you're going through. One of my friends had a similar problem with her baby not wanting to take the bottle and got her mother to give it to the bay instead which worked eventually. Hopefully someone else wil come along soon with some more tips.

Hi jazzy, I also had this problem and didn't really ever solve it. My twins are now eating solid food and I use follow-on milk in their food if I have no ebm, and my DD will drink the follow-on milk out of the bottle but used to refuse it when it was breast milk. DS has also drunk it out of the bottle when previously refusing. But sometimes they still refuse. I am not suggesting you give formula, I wouldn't have done, just telling you my experience after starting weaning.

I think you just have to keep offering it, try to push the teat against the lips so milk flows into your LO's mouth, hopefully eventually he will just think 'mmm this is nice!' You could try a different teat, make sure it is a number 2 or 3 teat, a newborn teat will be too slow for him. I use tommee tippee closter to nature too. It was Dr Brown's they were refusing before (were happy with them as newborns tho). Try using a really cheap teat/bottle system, it would be just typical if he took that!

Also try not to be in the room when he is being offered the bottle.

Well done for continuing to give him ebm for so long and get back into BFing.

Hi Primigravida and Neenztwinz, thanks very much for your comments/suggestions. I'm going to stay with my mother this weekend, so maybe DS will oblige for his granny!! Otherwise I could be in for the long haul as far as BF goes! Just hope it's not too painful once DS gets his teeth!

Bf for the long-haul has worked well for us. Cheap and easy. I have been lucky in that I can go into ds's nursery and feed him there for the two afternoon's a week he's there.

Teeth haven't been a problem as the one time he tried to nip me (before teeth) he got taken off the breast and put on the floor. I forgot to say in my last post - I really admire you for expressing for all that time and then re-establishing bf. That's fantastic!