22 week old won't drink expressed milk from a bottle - any advice??

[KingRolo]

DD is 22 weeks old and exclusively breast fed. Until she got her first tooth 4 weeks ago she was happy to have the odd bottle of expresed milk if I was off doing something.

Since this tooth popped out she has refused point blank to drink from a bottle - she just chews at the teat instead. This isn't too much of a problem at the moment but I'm going back to work in 4 weeks and she cleary needs to be able to drink from something other than my breasts by then!

So, what's the answer? Persevere with the Tommee Tipee Closer to Nature bottles? Try a different bottle? Abandon bottles and try a sippy cup or a doidy cup?

Any advice much appreciated!

What about trying a different type of teat. there are many different teats about nowadays

What about trying a different type of teat. there are many different teats about nowadays

I have tried size 1 and 2 teats, doesn't seem to make any difference I'm afraid. She just chews them!

Sippy cups worked for us - my DS would have nothing to do with bottles but had no such scruples about cups.

You could try a cup with a hard spout like a tommee tippee cup. Or an open topped cup like a doidy cup - though that can be a difficult with a bigger baby who wants to 'help'!

Ditto sippy cups here. Tommy Tippee flip top and Anywayup ones worked best for dd1 at this age.

I tried cups with a soft latex like spout - Nuk do a beaker but you have to get it direct from their site now (mothercare used to do them) - its like a large spout and free flow and fab. Also some hard ones are fine for her - but longer spouts seem to be better for some reason - maybe because they go further back in her mouth. I started with very free flow so she got the idea and then tried some of the non spill ones once she got the idea of sucking.

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I'll experiment a bit with sippy cups to see which ones work best. I think the free flow ones might be a good bet because she seems to have forgotten how to suck!

My DS went through a similar stage (he also went through a 'nursing strike' stage, so he couldn't make up his mind about whether he preferred bottle or breast!!) I would just gently persevere. I think in a few days he'll take the bottle again. Not sure I would try cups- as that didn't work with us, and I did want DS to get used to the bottle again. So I just offered small amounts of EBM once a day from a bottle, and within a week he was back to taking it.

I wouldn't worry to much - my DS never properly accepted a the bottle until I went back to work. Within 2 days of going back to work, he decided that a bottle was much better than being hungry!