Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Infant feeding

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

Flip

Original poster

Help! breast-fed baby hates expressed milk from a bottle

12 replies

Quinster · 14/01/2010 14:17

Hello. I am new to Mum's net so hope this works!
My baby is 3 months old and loathes with a passion drinking expressed breast milk from a bottle. We have tried: 3 different teats / Hot and cold / Freshly milked / Different times of day / Daddy or Nana doing it with Mum not even in line of vision....
Does anyone have any advice? I want him to take to it so that he can be fed by his Daddy - for the bonding, and for the occasional opportunity for me to have a break!

OP posts:

ladylush · 14/01/2010 14:18

No advice I'm afraid - I'm in the same boat Maybe when your baby is 4 months old you could dry a doidy cup? dd will drink a few sips of juice from one - so hoping she will take milk from it one day.

Original poster

Quinster · 14/01/2010 16:19

how old is dd?

i can't believe people find this easy. no-one in my 1st baby group expresses then bottle feeds, there does not seem to b any professional advice out there in the web, yet baby books talk bout it as if it is bound to work. apart from anything else i have bought an expressing machine now so want to make it work just so that wasn't a waste of money!!!!!!

thank u for responding. so nice to ask a question and 4 people 2 take time to answer!

OP posts:

ladylush · 14/01/2010 17:58

dd is 6 months old. What's worse is that she is not gaining weight at the moment
We've tried all kinds of bottles, teats, cups etc. to no avail.
Welcome to mumsnet by the way

DontSweattheSmallStuff · 14/01/2010 18:18

Is the milk given immediately after expressing or stored and used later. Have you tasted it yourself. Sometimes breastmilk can start to taste soapy when it's been stored.
scroll down to where it talks about lipase

I had the same problem and only discovered why when i tasted the it!

asuwere · 14/01/2010 18:28

DS1 took EBM in any kind of bottle/cup and hot or cold from only a few weeks old...

DS3 however would not take it in any shape or form. We tried lots of bottles/cups/teats, different people, me here, me away... He just refused. I hate to tell you this but we never managed to get him to take any EBM, ever!

On the plus side though, he still bonded with DH and although it is difficult, I just had to wait till he started weaning to get a break from him for a few hours.

Not sure if this helps you but just thought I'd share. Good luck

eggontoast · 14/01/2010 18:33

I feel for you - my first was the same - he accepted it until he was about the same age - then totally refused. I was 'chained' to him till I introduced solids, then he went all day without breast and just had water/milk in a cup through day so I could get about!!

If you don't find a solution, just remember, it is a very short space of time, relative to your whole life, that a baby breast feeds (even if it is extended) and you will live to reap the benefits of being their for your baby when he needs you and providing all that goodness.

That's how I consoled myself when I missed friends birthday parties and works doos in the first year. After a year, baby was fine at night without breast feed if I wasn't there for the odd night.

messofthedurbervilles · 14/01/2010 20:10

My DD was the same, absolutely refused point blank to take a bottle from either me or DH, or a cup come to that. But when she was 6 months I had to go back to work and she took a bottle of EBM from our nanny no problem!!

But eggontoast makes such a good point; this really is such a short space of time.

AppleAndBlackberry · 14/01/2010 20:45

My DD took one from birth to about 3 and a half months and then just refused them. To be honest by that age I thought it's not long til solids and then I'll be cutting down feeds and able to leave her for longer so we didn't really force the issue. You probably could force her if you wanted to by refusing the breast until she takes a bottle but it depends how much she cries and how much you can put up with!

Could you maybe take two or three hours break straight after a feed and be back in time for the next one?

Also I'm sure some men love it but my DH never found bottle feeding a particularly bonding experience - he much prefers playing with her or taking her out or bathing her or reading to her.

dinkystinky · 14/01/2010 20:55

DS1 was similar - took a bottle under protest when about 2 months old but at 3 months refused - and we had months of bottle battle. In the end gave up for a few months and then did 48 hour short sharp bottle battle just before I went to work (when I expressed for 48 hours and he only had EBM in bottles given to him by his dad) which got him onto bottles during the day and then I bf morning and night. Didnt even bother with bottle battle with DS2 until he was 7 months old and I had to go back to work - then just did the same 48 hr bottle battle thing (FWIW DS2 was much more resistant to the bottle than DS1 was - and now at 11 months he's still not a huge fan of the bottle. Extra warm milk and MAM teats helped get him to drink from the bottle). But tbh it wasnt much fun for anyone really either time and at 3 or 4 months babies know what they like and what they dont so you're going to have a job convincing them that they do like the bottle instead of the lovely warm squishy boob. Good luck.

ParanoidAtAllTimes · 15/01/2010 09:28

we had the same problem- what eventually cracked it was feeding him from the bottle every evening in as familiar way as possible. His dad fed him but wrapped in a top that I'd been wearing so had my smell. Milk was warm and he was in the same place that I sat to feed ds each evening, with ds on the same cushion I always use. I initially stood near ds and made reassuring sounds. He suddenly 'got it' after about a week of doing this (and could do it with me in another room by then). After each try I would bf him as normal so he always knew that he would get fed IYSWIM.

HTH!

Longtalljosie · 15/01/2010 10:12

In our case it took a couple of weeks of daily perseverence and a larger than recommended teat to get things off the ground. My DD has consistently favoured the teat above the one she ought to have - for example she was on the 3 months + one from 6 weeks to 11ish weeks, then suddenly refused, so we gave her the 6 months + teat and were away again. She's exclusively bf as well. Just keep at it. It's a learned skill. Choose a time of day when she's not starving (maybe an hour after a feed?) and use small amounts of breast milk so you're not throwing endless amounts down the sink. Keep calm and keep the eye contact up.

handbagsandgladrags · 15/01/2010 19:26

When you say you've tried different teats do you mean of the same brand? The reason i ask is that my DD wouldn't take a bottle either, until we changed to MAM bottles (was using Tomy Tippee). I bought the MAM anti colic ones with the silky teat (sounds odd i know!) & her first feed from that she drank the whole bottle! I think the tomy tippee ones were just too round & big for her.

Flip