Breastfed baby now refuses EBM from bottle - HELP!

[lyall257]

My DD is 12 weeks old and was taking a bottle of EBM a night from DH to let me catch up on sleep etc until we went away for Easter.

Since then she has suddenly decided that bottles are not for her and point blank refuses to entertain them. We have been using the Tommy Tippee closer to nature ones and have since tried the faster flow teat (as I have quite fast flow from the breast) but still no luck.

I have no trouble expressing so we would only ever offer her EBM in the bottle - so its not a problem of not liking formula.

Any advice on any tricks we can try to get her to take the odd bottle from DH would be greatly received.

I would love to never be apart from DD but I have a couple of events coming up which make that impossible.

First of all, dont feel bad that you are not with your dd 24/7.

next. try the MAM bottles. BF babies normally take to these like my dd straight away.

Has there been a change in her routine at all? or anything done slightly different on the nights she is normally fed by bottle?

Id you DH confortable and relaxed when trying to feed her. has he used a different aftershave or have you changed washing powder. As babies can sense the tiniest changes in thier environment.

Does he have skin to skin when feeding her?

Lyall257: LOL, it's funny how babies decide at different times that bottles (or breasts, that can happen too!) are not for them. This happened to me too with my little DS- he went for about 1-2 months without a bottle at all (if I recall correctly), and he also went on a nursing strike for 10 days or so at some other point. The only advice I can give is- persevere & it'll pass. Just keep offering the bottle once a day & she'll take it one of these days.

Thanks for all your advice.

The only change to her routine were that we went away for Easter for 4 days and so she was BF exclusively rather a bottle a day. We did this so we didn't have to take loads of extra kit. Since then she has refused the bottle completely.

DH is lovely and calm with her - even when she gets very distraught. We've decided to give her a couple of days off so she didn't start to associate DH with distress of bottle and the witholding of breast!!!

I thought I'd have problems getting bf started - not problems of introducing bottles! Its reassuring to know that mine isn't the only one though.

maybe thats it - the easter break. girls can be stubborn!

I think if you are nearby she can smell the milk at source and she is old enough to know that you are there. My friend is doing the bfc course and told me babies can smell breastmilk from something ridiculous like 20 metres. I know with dc1 the only way she would take ebm after a certain age was for me to be out of the house. maybe you could try a sippy cup when she gets to 4 months? It's not much of a comfort to you, but it probably is a sign that bf is going reallyw ell as she would rather bf........ yeah, I know, and you would like some sleep