help! 3 month old still refusing bottle

[fletchie]

Calling all mums! Please help me! My 12 week old was happily drinking expressed milk from a bottle up until 3 weeks ago. She will now howl the place down if she so much as goes near a bottle. I have tried everything I can think of - different teats, varying temperatures, formula, expressed milk, handling positions... you name it. I am at my wits end and feel like a witch. Any suggestions would be gretaly appreciated!

Best thing is to ring the health visitor and ask her, does she have any other symptoms of being ill??? or has she got little white spots in her mouth my ds did the same thing and it turned out he had thrush in his mouth and it was hurting him but do ring h.v or g.p see what they say,

I just think she is being stubborn not ill. She loves the comfort of the breast and I don't think the bottle gives her the same satisfaction. Does anyone think I should give up and try again at a later date or keep persevering? Any ideas from anyone who has been in the same boat would be welcomed!

have you tried the tommee tippee nuby bottles? only one dd3 will drink from when i've given her EBM.

No I havent tried those ones - have tried nuk, avent and dr browns. She has taken some from nuk but not others - its costing me a small fortune !

fletchie, I'm in the same boat! I gather from Mumsnet and other sources that some babies start refusing at 3 months after happily taking EBM before. However, ds3 is dribbling like mad and sticking fists in his mouth so I think he may be teething. After buying every bottle on the market including this I feel that the type of bottle/teat is not the issue. Yesterday dh tried to give him a bottle and he looked very distressed and pushed it away so we have decided to leave it for a week and try again.

Thats what i have decided - am going to leave it a few days and then try again as not getting anywhere. She is still so young and the whole situation is so distressing i don't want to put her off food for life! Don't know if this is wrong/right thing to do - time will tell!

I also recommend the tommee tippee nuby ones, they were the only ones dd would drink from when I moved her from breast to bottle at 6 mths.

Same thing here today fletchie. I left EBM in an Avent bottle in the fridge earlier for Mr Bubble to give while I was out at work. Came home 5 hours later to find that he'd refused to take it at all. He'd been having the odd bottle of EBM quite happily until last week and he's also 12 weeks old.

I think we should call this "The 12-week strike!"

Bit of a breakthrough yesterday. I had bought a MAM bottle after swearing I had wasted enough money on different bottles. The teat is sort of flattened. Anyway dh and I took ds1 and ds2 off to see star-wars and left ds3 with MIL. She put some teething gel on his gums and on the teat of the bottle and he gulped down 1 oz quite happily. After that she said he didn't seem hungry so didn't take any more but was not unhappy with the bottle itself. AND when I got home I found the MAM teats fit the Avent bottle perfectly! And the dome cap of the avent bottle seals it. This suits me as when I go back to work I will be expressing into Avent bottles and would rather not have to pour milk from one into another if I can help it.

Seems to be a pattern here of 12 week old bottle rejectors! Do you think they are colluding against us and sense we maybe thinking about going out for a few bevvies without them? Have now given up offering the bottle for a few days as we were just getting ourselves in a right twist. Am going to re start campaign tommorrow!

I had the same problem with my dd and ds. Both started fine on bottle wih ebf and both (after a break of a few weeks) decided they would rather stick rusty pins in their eyes than drink from a bottle. I have tried every teat known to mankind except playtex - has anyone seen those? Very flat on the end - supposed to be like a nipple. Anyway distraction wroked the best for us although my ds who is now 9!!! never took a bottle and my dd who is now 10 months still has issues from time to time. I would persevere if you can bear it - you will crack it if babe is given no chice - sounds so cruel!!

Chickpea, did you crack it by offering nothing but bottles? I might give it a go tomorrow but I just feel so awful looking at the state she gets in when I could theoretically stop it instantly. I have a two year old as well and she gets upset to see the little one so distressed.

Fletchie
I had to crack it in the end as I went back to work and left DD with dh. Luckily I work close to home so dh could meet me if things got desperate which they did from time to time. BUT we did crack it eventually by persevering and trying persistently every day. I never let her go for hours and hours but we would persevere with the bottle for a couple of hours. Sometimes she would cry herself to sleep before capitulating but now she generally co-operates!! Mostly my dh gave her the bottle but sometimes I did too with varying degrees of success. Unfortunately it took quite a few weeks.
Good luck Fletchie - I know it is really stressful but hang in there and you'll crack it eventually

Chickpea, Thanks for your advice. I think you're right - it's a case of persistence. I'm not going back to work just yet but it would be nice to have a bit of flexibility in how she is fed. Will try leaving her for a day so she has to take a bottle as there is no other options. Although my sister looked after her for a while last night and she said my little darling kept trying to suck her boobs! I suppose she thought it was worth a go.

Fletchie, good breakthrough here! Used the MAM teat on the Avent bottle, held ds3 facing away from me but with my cheek against his cheek. Held the bottle so that my fourth finger and little finger were resting against his other cheek and he downed the whole thing without complaining. He had just woken up from a nap so was probably moderately hungry but not starving. Also I got him to watch my neighbours baby being bottlefed the other day, they're the same age so I hoped peer pressure would help!!

BTW the milk and teat were both warm but not scalding.

love the pier pressure theory Chipmonkey! I have a friend who had exactly the same problem and the NUK teats worked for her. I tried MAM without much success but then I suppose they are all different. Good luck Fletchie. Let us know how you get on.

Fletchie. There seems to be so much pressure on people to breast feed. Perhaps the reason she won't feed is because you are giving her breast milk. Try giving her forumla in a bottle. If I were you, I would leave her with her dad for the day, go out and have some fun. She'll still be there when you get back. Put the pressure on the man for a change.

Fletchie, when ds3 got so upset we decided to leave it for a few days so that he "forgot" about the bottle. He then took it for MIL. If there's no immediate pressure I' give it a week and then try again.

Thanks for the advice - had a bit of a hit and miss day as she did take some milk from the bottle but only about 1 - 2oz so not a full feed. I like the idea of leaving her with dad sevans x

my dd would only drink from the wide-necked bottles. it's more like the breast as they have to open mouth wider but I guess you've probably tried that anyway