How to persuade 6mo to have EBM from bottle?

[venusrider]

Hello.
It's been a while since we have given our DS any expressed BM (he's been exclusively BFd), and I think we might have made life tricky for ourselves. I did express occasionally at the beginning in the hope of the odd lie in or early night, and DS took to a bottle quite happily. That was a few months ago. Now I'd like to be able to have the flexibility to occasionally go out at any time of day & have DH feed him expressed BM, but when we tried giving DS some a couple of days ago he was having none of it! It's been so long since either of us tried to give him a bottle that all that advice friends gave about introducing one early on to get him used to it seems to have gone down the pan.

Any suggestions as to how we might persuade DS to have some expressed BM after all this time?

Try a beaker

This sounds just like my dd(5 months) .She would take a bottle when younger but refusing now after not having one for a bit. In the end I took the teat off the bottle and she happily drank it from the open neck of the bottle. So I'm going to try a cup.

Hi, am having similar problem with DD (20 wks old). Have been trying since 6 wks old to get her to take bottle EBM but always refused. DS1 was the same until he got to 4 mths then took bottle fine so hoped DD would be same. Have tried Avent and Tommee Tippee bottles but makes no difference - just screams house down. DH just took an hour to get her to take 2oz inbetween screaming. Tried Tommee Tippee cup the other day but she didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do with that. Have been told Doidy cups are good, but struggle to see how she would cope with open cup. Don't know whether it better to keep trying each day and hope she gets used to it, or leave it a couple of weeks then try again.

Like venusrider just want to be able to have a break.

The most important thing for us was that dp gave the bottle, not me. Actually I left the house for a bit (and had a coffee) while he tried. If dd knew I was around, there was no way.

thanks all, have tried DS giving the bottle but to no avail as yet. I'd wondered about trying a cup instead - will give that a go, & keep you posted Pozza

It took me a while to get DD to accept a bottle - unlike with other posters, she took it from me better than DH at first - lots of eye contact and (on occasion) switching from bottle to breast and back again helped start us off... After that just keeping at it...

have exactly same problem, DD 6 months won't take a bottle of EBM at nursery where she started last week. I'm going to try giving a kind of bendy nozzle with a hole we used to use for DS's drinks, and see if that works. I have a feeling she's never going to take it!

hi there, we found very similar with our little boy.He is now 5 months. We had tommee tippee closer to nature and the nipple kept collapsing. He was very hit or miss whether he'd take the milk - more on the miss!

We then tried phillips Avent and had a marked difference. the teat is more 'meaty' (tehcnial term there!!) and he actually now seems to like the change of feeding...

We also found he took to it like longtalljosie says - DH lots of eye contact etc - but on holiday - so we were in a completely neutral new place. I think this worked, as we always sit in the same place to feed at home. out of the normal environment, I wonder if he was a bit more chilled about it...

ps doidy cup - one of our friends has been in your precise situation. DH used doidy cups with the baby and managed (after bit of practice) to get 3-4 floz down her that way!

I would also suggest expressing and keeping very small amounts frozen. That way you don't feel so 'bereaved' if your precious milk is not accepted, and you enough handy in small amounts to keep at it. That is what I found most depressing was wasting the milk after all that effort of expressing it!

Has taken 2 months for my 6 month old to get used to taking the bottle during the day - perseverence appears to be the key.... if you can use a cup, do it as will make your life alot easier in the long run.

Oh God yes, littleweed - how depressing is it to throw away 4 oz of ebm? Adds a whole other layer of stress to the situation

what worked for my dd was getting dh to give it her while i went to the gym- she was hungry and she had no choice- now she'll take a bottle off anyone quite easily and sometimes i mix the 2 in one feed