how do I persuade my dd to take a bottle of expressed milk?

[crossjoss]

DD is 7 weeks old and exclusively breast fed. I'm really pleased with how well the feeding has been going. I have started to express milk so that my DH can do some of the feeds but DD is not interested in taking a bottle at all. We've tried at the start of a feed, half way through and as an extra bit at the end but she screws up her face and mouths the teat out. She was equally unimpressed when we tried her with a dummy. I am using an Avent bottle and teat. Can you give me any advice about how to encourage her to take a bottle? Would trying different teats etc help and if so are there any particular ones you've found to be helpful?

Thanks

Sorry, no answers, but am watching this thread as I have the exact same problem with my DS - he's 20 weeks, and I've been trying to get him to take a bottle since he was 4 weeks, with no luck...sorry, that's not the answer you were looking for, was it?!

we started at about 5 weeks with ds.
we waited till he was properly hungry and i stayed well out the way.
dh got him when he woke from a sleep, brought him down to a nice warm bottle and then rammed the bottle in. the first time we tried the bottle wasn't warm enough and we were a bit too gentle about how much bottle to put in. (need to have lots in their mouth)
ds got involved straight away!

I've only just managed to get my dd to take some expressed milk in a bottle. My previous attempts have ended up with me feeling like I'd been in a fight and really frustated.

What has worked for us is using a tommee tippee bottle (recommended by a friend), making sure the milk is warm (she has spat it out in the past when it's too cold) and feeding her when she was hungry but nice and relaxed. I've only just managed to crack this and she's 13 weeks. But I left if for a few weeks following the last bad experience.

It depends on your baby ime.

I have done the same thing with both DC with different results.

I started bottlefeeding from day 1 (medical reasons meant that both had to be given formula when born)and gave one (expressed) bottle a day, breastfeeding the rest.

DS (2 years old) was quite happy to receive all forms. But the milk had to be nice and warm (and after hospital he was never keen on formula but would drink it if nothing else was on offer).

DD (13 weeks) will not take it anymore. Accepted it begrudging in hospital, but always latched on straightaway after, much to the nurses' surprise), but by 6 weeks refused it (whatever the bottle, whatever the teat) completely and would rather starve. A problem, what with me back at work and all.

Our solution has been to feed her with a spoon. Timeconsuming and messy, but it works (nursery hates me!). Hopefully in a month or so she'll be sitting up and we can try a cup.

Good luck, but be warned that DD just hates the feel of plastic (won't have a dummy either), and quite literally will go withhout until Mammy shows up. I hope you have more success than me.

After 6 very emotional weeks my dh has now managed to give 12 week old dd a bottle of expressed milk every day. Gave up completely on teats and on the advice of a mner started using NUK trainer cups. Dd gulped in down. I do have to be out the room and dh has had to wait til she's really relaxed and just starting to gesture for milk, rather than starting to whinge.

Hi

I had same problem with my DD at about 3 months - before then she'd be taking the odd bottle without a fuss.

We tried softly softly approach and got nowhere. So then went hardcore - picked a day both me and DH were home and made decision it was bottle or nothing. She held out to about midday and then went for it. It wasn't nearly as painful as we were expecting. We then made sure we were giving her at least one bottle most days which she tolerated. And in the last couple of weeks (she's now six months) she's been perfectly happy to take bottle.

We also use tommee tippee closer to nature teats - and we did change to the medium flow ones (though our DD bit older than yours) and agree that you need to make sure milk is warm enough.

Good luck

i found tapping my babies gently on the lips with a dummy or bottle helped. then when they opened their mouths shove it in. mind you they were greeding which helped

Should have said earlier that I had the tommee tippee closer to nature bottles too. Also worked fine while we mixed fed.