How can I get my 16 wk old excl bf to take a bottle of ebm ??

8 replies

christmascliff · 21/12/2008 16:26

Hoping someone has some pearls of wisdom to offer me !

DD2 is 16wks and up until now is exclusively breastfed. I have been expressing every now and then so have a suppy in the freezer, and would like to introduce the odd bottle of ebm.

Got DH to try last night with her. Tried both a mam teat and a dr browns bottle and teat, tried level 2 teat as well as level 1, but no luck whatsoever. She wouldn't even entertain having the teat in her mouth. She got that worked up that I took her back to comfort her and she fell asleep sobbing on my shoulder .

I felt so selfish trying to get her to use a bottle, but on the flip side, I feel so tied that she will only feed from the breast. I really think my DH would benefit from being able to look after her as he's acting up at the moment and I suspect he might be getting a bit jealous (did the same thing when dd1 was tiny).

Sorry its long, but if anyone has any advicde on how we can persuade her to take a bottle, it may well save my sanity and my marriage !!

OP posts:

jocie · 21/12/2008 16:49

have you tried tommy tippee closer2nature? my ds1 (bf with 1 bottle on eve)took to avent bottles straight away but ds2 (bf same as ds1)wasn't that keen so tried ttc2n and althogh it took a couple of tries he took to them quite well and then took to avent. Also experiment with who gives bottle. Try dh when you are not in room as baby might smell you, or try it yourself which is what we did this time round as ds2 was quite fussy. Also try when very hungry and when not.
I don't think it's selfish at all to want to have a break, a happy mum = happy babe.
If bottles really want work what about trying cup feeding, ive seen others on here advise that before but as not had any experience of that myself hopefully someone else will come along.

Original poster

christmascliff · 21/12/2008 17:02

Mightb try to express a bit (dd1 permitting) tonight to try in a cup.....
.... any other ideas ?

OP posts:

daisydora · 21/12/2008 17:05

I second the tommy tippee bottles. Other than that I hope someone with some better ideas might come along

MissisBoot · 21/12/2008 17:06

DD refused a bottle at about 12 weeks - eventually weaned her on to the tommy tippee teats. She drank from these as if she was latched on bfding.

What I did was to introduce a bottle mid way through a feed - this meant that she wasn't starving so didn't get frustrated about not being able to use the teat. This was at about 6 months though. I started off at the morning feed.

SazzlesIsASleighBell · 21/12/2008 17:11

We are having similar with our 18 week old DD not liking the bottle. However the other night she took one quite happily . That night i gave her a last BF at 5pm, DH bathed and dressed her and then gave her the bottle about 7pm. I didn't even say goodnight to her so that she didn't smell me/milk. We tried her again last night but i had BF later, no bath and i had been with her more and she turned her nose up and spat out the teat. So, i think the hunger part is key to it and also being part of the nice bath and bed routine. We use the Tommee Tippee bottles as well as DD1 wouldn't take anything else (although moved on to Avent later)

BTW i don't think it is selfish at all

HTH

Original poster

christmascliff · 21/12/2008 22:01

looks like DH is going tohave to pull his finger out !!! Not an option tonight, he came homem from work and passed out asleep on sofa by 8pm ! Hence my left handed typing now.

OP posts:

dinkystinkyclaus · 23/12/2008 18:44

We had bottle battles with DS (now 2.8) for months from when he was around 2 months old - he took a bottle a few times but then started rejecting it (as he knew what he liked, and it wasnt the bottle). Gave up in the end until he was 6 months old and we had to get him on the bottle before I went back to work - DH had him an entire weekend and I went out of our flat (nipping back in to express but staying out of DS's sight). DH would wait till he got hungry, offer the bottle for a minute - if DS rejected it or got upset, he took it away and they played. DS missed 2 feeds in a row and then on the third feed he downed the bottle - and downed the bottles for the rest of the weekend. The key was non-confrontation, mummy not being anywhere near and getting used to the bottle (I gave him the bottles to play with for the week before hand too). After that weekend, I breastfed him morning and night and gave him bottles during the day (wearing a huge sweater of DH's so he couldnt smell the milk on me) and gradually mixed the EBM with formula.

Tips I was given during bottle battle are:

whoever is feeding baby should experiment with different positions; some babies like being cuddled close, some prefer being sat upright
maybe the first few times have mum's clothing (used) on the feeder (so they associate the smell with food and mum)
experiment with different teats (we tried all sorts but DS liked AVENT best in the end)

Good luck.

blindhorse1 · 23/12/2008 22:14

we had a similar problem with dd - got to 14 weeks and tried to get her to take a bottle of ebm with no luck whatsoever. tried lots of different teats and have now found one she likes. it's a nuk bottle with a latex teat - really soft, the softist i could find and short and flattish, so more similar to what she's used too. she's taking the bottle well now - we also started with someone else giving her the first few bottles of ebm, plus holding her in a similar position to when she is breastfed (close and tight to the body so she feels secure). This seems to be working - not sure if it was any of the above or whether she just gave in but i'm not stopping with the nuk bottles/teats now! good luck

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