How do I get breastfed baby to accept a bottle - total refusal @ 11 weeks

[Catla]

My DD has taken an expressed bottle of milk in the early days but i didn't want to put her off breastfeeding as we had difficulties to begin with getting her to latch on. She's now doing really well and I want to start her on 1 bottle a day as I have a work appointment soon when she will have to be left with husband for a whole afternoon. Also, we are flying to France in a week and a half and I thought if I could get her to take a bottle on take off it might help to stop her ears popping...

We've tried everything I can think of - Avent and Tommee tippee bottles, warm, cold, after swimming when really hungry, me out of the house, me giving bottle, I've put nipple shields on then swapped to bottle - fine with nipple shields, screamed as soon as bottle put in mouth. I've used and wasted loads of expressed milk but have even tried formula once to see if that helped - not a bit! Is there any way that we might be able to persuade her to take from a bottle again??

thanks for reading x

Sorry, just read another post asking just about the same thing... I had to type question while I had chance before checking other posts! looks like there is no magic solution...

If it's a question of sucking on take off, could you let her suckle from you briefly? If you can't, she could drink directly from a small beaker held to her mouth, some people have used bottle caps/teat covers for this. You could practise before you go away, and it prevents nipple/teat confusion because it is an entirely different way of drinking.

You could try a doidy cup for feeds at home. Wouldn't attempt on a plane as very messy!

good luck with that. i did cold turkey at 10 months as i'd been through every bottle, sippy, doidy, la la, spoon on the market.

why aren't you just bfing her on the plane? she'll be lap sat and then in a bassinet anyway, won't she? for such a dot you have to have to have them facing you and cradle the back of the head anyway iirc? it always worked for me lol.

(sorry, that's the most unsympathetic post ever - my hv even said 'pah, i'll get him to take a bottle - or i'll spoon it in'. she had him for 45 minutes and eventually they both appeared dishevelled. he with an enormous grin, she sheepish. she didn't offer again. i even went to the bf clinic to ask their advice lol)

Catla my ds happily took a bottle of EBM until 12 weeks old when he then blatently refused as it appeared i was trying to poison him

I also tried very bottle/teat/size/cup etc to no avail. At times it was distressing and at others bloody frustrating.

I'm afraid iv got no magic cure but what did work with us was perseverance. I offered the bottle at least once sometimes twice a day with 1oz of EBM as i knew it would probably be wasted. If he refused it three times i gave up for that day and breastfed. Although i did read somwehere in my own search not to immediatley offer the breast after the refusal of the bottle so as to minimise the association of the refusal. I used to wait at least ten mins.

Six long weeks later he suddendly decided that he would take one again and we have had no problems since. He is now 22 weeks and happily has one bottle a day

I know this is no magic solution that will help you in the next week or two but it might be worth a go.

Good luck

thanks LolaBella, I'm going to persist and use your advice re not feeding breast immed after bottle refusal and just keep trying if there could be light at the end of the tunnel!

Thanks for advice re flying, i thought she would have to face away but looks like i may be able to breastfeed...Need to persist with bottle for work anyway.

Yup, bfing on plane is perfect. Start feeding just before takeoff and it should help her ears enormously.

My dss would only ever take a bottle of EBM if they knew I was out of the house. They seemed to even work out if I was hiding upstairs, but if I was off the scene completely they seemed to be able to sense it.

HTH

Thanks for all your help - I'm finding mumsnet the most useful site I've come accross with some properly practical advice - I'm spreading the word - Thanks again x