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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

Original poster

My 6 mth old baby will not take a bottle!!

21 replies

Kirkaldi · 13/05/2009 11:51

Hi

Can anyone help me? My baby is just over 6 mths and I want to wean her off the breast ready for me returning to work. I have tried all different teats, bottles, Nuby cup and recently a Doidy cup. None of them work, she screams the place down and this is the only time she cries so that makes me feel really guilty. She doesn't seem to be able to suck the bottles, it appears that she doesn't know what to do with her tongue. The Nuby cup doesn't appeal to her and the Doidy is so messy, she just spits all the milk/water out. She is being weaned on solids in between but can someone please help me. Do I just keep trying the bottle or Doidy?

OP posts:
Skimummy · 13/05/2009 11:57

Hello!

I am in the same situation - failure on a number of different bottles and cups too slow (although I am using for water at meals) - but have had success with a Breastflow bottle. Admittedly have only been using three days now but have gone from 50mls on the first day to 150mls today with no drama.

Like yours, my baby had no idea what to do with other teats - she just kind of chewed on them - but she got the hang of the breastflow one very quickly.

Could be worth a shot? If I had more time I might persevere with a cup but sadly I don't!

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 13/05/2009 12:00

Hi ya

thanks for that. I am not familiar with the Breastflow Bottle? Can you get them from Boots?

So strange, my first 2 girls were never like this! Little monkey.

Thank you

OP posts:
Skimummy · 13/05/2009 12:28

I got mine online at Amazon but I think they have them in Mothercare as well.

A friend of mine had success with MAM so you can always add that to the list...!

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 13/05/2009 13:19

Thanks, I will give it a go!!

OP posts:
chipmonkey · 13/05/2009 13:20

'tis a 3rd child thing! Ds3 was like this, ds1 and ds2 ( and now ds4) were very obliging!

Umlellala · 13/05/2009 13:34

Mine was like that at 6mths, but at 9mths (and lots of drinking from a cup) later, he will now drink from the Closer to Nature ones. He seems to be able to suck from it now, but couldn't (would try) before...

Little tip: try making the hole bigger/adding a couple of extra holes to make a faster flow. Ds drank way more when I did this...

(and yes, he is a second)

londonboots · 13/05/2009 20:52

we had some trouble getting DS to take a bottle - tried avent first with not much success and switched to tommee tippee closer to nature with the variflo teat - and success! is now drinking 6oz of ebm twice a day at nursery. important also i think was who gave the bottle - DP tried before he went to nursery and we got 3oz tops so i was very worried about first day of nursery. but they got him to take all his milk without issue! probably a mix of me not being there to feed on demand and their experience (much greater than me and DP!) ps. best price for the bottles was argos. good luck!

feralgirl · 13/05/2009 22:12

We've faffed about with all the teats and bottles mentioned in the OP and in despair - I'm going back to work in 6 weeks - we went back to the mam teat this week and it's working like a dream

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 14/05/2009 21:11

Thanks everyone. Will try everything!!

OP posts:
twinmumma · 14/05/2009 22:55

closer to nature tommee tippee works for us - had same prob - and started another v similar thread a few wks ago.
He took it wel for while and then rejected - but kept offering it - and now he is pretty good again
find that number 2 or 3 teat is good as they have to work hard for it like bfeeding
hope this helps
good luck

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 19/05/2009 13:31

OMG, she still refuses the bottles. Refused the Breastflow bottles and Tommee Tippee closer to nature. I am close to cracking now. She screams the place down unless booby comes out. I have to go back to work in a couple of months!!!!

OP posts:
madwomanintheattic · 19/05/2009 13:39

lol. we tried pretty much everything with ds1 to no avail, so at 10 months he went cold turkey. within two days he had given up squawking for boob and deigned to take a sippy cup. it wasn't great from my point of view (not terribly comfortable lol) but it was fine.
(i should add he was plastic-phobic from 11 weeks when he had rsv and double pneumonia and 5xdaily nebuliser sessions, so it was never going to be a doddle... our hv, 4 neighbours and dh all tried the 'leave him with me, i'll get him to drink' thing at various intervening points... i went through every flipping bottle, teat, cup, teaspoon on the market. expressed milk, formula, water, juice, nada.)

just go to work, it will be fine
well, i'd probably stop two weeks before, but...

i'm guessing you are planning on carrying on feeding some of the time/ night etc - feel free to ignore me lol

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 19/05/2009 13:42

Ha ha little monsters!!!

I am planning on feeding for a while at night only, well that was the plan. So the answer is to warn the neighbours, let her scream until she is defeated and takes the bottle/cup!

I don't fancy my booby being her comfort - could be embarrassing at children parties. LOL

OP posts:
sallyrandall · 19/05/2009 14:17

We had a similar nightmare with number one. We tried every bottle on the market which were all refused and it was all horribly stressful. (We even tried one shaped like a breast) At about 5 months we gave up but continued to worry about what would happen when I had to go back to work. I asked my HV for help but all she would say is "baby knows best - breast is best - blah blah blah".

Of course, when the time came, it was actually no bother. He weaned easily onto a cup at around 8 or 9 months (gave up breastfeeding entirely at around a year)and even before then I was able to leave him for reasonably long stretches because he could fill up on solids. Things like little fruit pots are actually very watery so they won't get dehydrated.

With number two we decided to avoid the stress and never even tried to give him a bottle. He's now 9 months and we're introducing a cup. He takes a bit - not a huge amount but enough to get by and keep him going until the next breastfeed. And he also takes a lot of solids now so I know that if I have to leave him for a long stretch he won't starve.

I think the moral of my story is that it will all work out in the end. Knowing that second time around has made life a lot less stressful. And, looking on the bright side, we haven't had any of the problems our friends have had weaning their toddlers off bottles.

Ponymum · 19/05/2009 14:51

kirkaldi you have described exactly what I went through. We tried every teat and every trick, but DD still refused.

My method in the end (quite unintended, DON'T try this at home) was that I was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation, so DH had to bottle feed her or she would starve. That night he cuddled her really close to try to stop her thrashing her head from side to side to escape the nasty bottle. When she screamed he put the bottle in. When she closed her mouth to take a breath she "accidentally" found herself drinking and eventually she gave in, relaxed, and drank the whole lot! From that moment on she has never refused a bottle.

The problem is, I don't know how we could have replicated this situation unless it had been forced on us. But it DOES show that they will take the bottle when they need to. I think she just didn't know what it was for. Now she gets all happy when she sees us get the bottle ready.

Best of luck.

PatTheHammer · 19/05/2009 15:02

My DD was like this and on my first morning back at work (4.5 mths old) I dropped her off with the CM and 2 Tommee Tippee bottles with a hurried 'good luck' she took it no problem, the little mare!!! Mind you she only ever took one a day after she was on solids and just fed on me as soon as I got in the door till bedtime.....then quite frequently in the night. I stopped BFing at 6 months cos she was eating loads but she was still not happy on the bottles, I had to get her completely relaxed/asleep before she would have it (something others don't always encourage but it worked for us and I was desperate).
Hope you crack it soon

twinmumma · 21/05/2009 13:26

hope u r having some luck
Mine was the same and then improved.... now reverted back again. think that its coinciding with teeth coming through....keep offering the bottle - cos one day you will find baby may take it.
That's what happened to me before - and hoping it will happen again.
I am going to wean off bottles in 3 wks time after holiday. then just bf at night when he is tired and crabby - just before bed.
don't give up! xxx

Original poster
Kirkaldi · 22/05/2009 12:34

That is brilliant, thank you so much. Nice to have the support from others!

OP posts:
Original poster
Kirkaldi · 22/05/2009 12:35

P.S. She now has teeth coming through so god help me!!!

OP posts:
stircrazymum · 22/05/2009 12:46

I have sympathy with you as I had the same situation, my dd is now 2.5. Looking back I got myself in a real state about this and ruined the last month of my maternity leave trying to force a crying baby to have a bottle. I never got her to take milk from a bottle at all. In the event it all went fine despite this. I breastfed her in the morning and the evening before bed and they offered her milk in c cup at nursery during the day. She was taking a good amount of solids and so I guess got some fluid from those. She was happy during the day and didn't seem to miss it, so we just went with the flow (there was no other choice!). In the end I stopped feeding her @9months, when she would take water/milk from a cup, even now she doesn't drink a great deal of fluid and still only has a few ounces of milk in the evening. The best way to boost up their milk intake is with cereals with milk, yogurt, cheese etc as they get bigger. She is perfectly healthy now. So I guess I am trying to say that although it is very annoying and stressful, if you offer her what you can and relax, she will take what she needs. Hope it helps.

crabby · 22/05/2009 21:58

These stories all sound so familiar. My DD was just unable to figure out what to do with a bottle. Then one day after trying every bottle in the world she just got it. It was the day that she understood that when food goes in your mouth it can be swallowed, not just spat out - about 7 months. Really it was just a conceptual barrier for her in retrospect. The bottle types I think were a red herring.

Saying that, if you ever want to try any bottles, we have all the types

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