Bottle refusnik and going back to work

[bunnyfrance]

Hi,

I suppose I'm just looking for a bit of sympathy here....I'm in a right panic - DS (6 months) absolutely refuses to take a bottle and I have to go back to work in 10 days' time.

We've been trying to get him to take a bottle from the age of 4 weeks (so we didn't leave it too late), we've tried everything (other people offering it, different liquids, hungry, not hungry, different teats etc etc)

We've started on solids, but he really doesn't eat much yet. Am doing purées, as he has to go to a childminder and BLW is unheard of in France.

I have visions of him starving and screaming the place down while I'm away

Any tales of hope would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

try a cup/beaker anything but a bottle?

DD is a bottle refuser (except from my MIL ) so i didn't bother to try anymore

he won't starve but he may make up for it when you are at home and at night

I've tried a cup on the odd occasion, with water, DS just spits it out. If I make it my mission, how long do you reckon it would take for him to drink significant amounts from it?

my ds1 was exactly the same and by the end of his first day in nursery was drinking water happily out of a sippy cup and enjoying all sorts of purees. He never took a bottle for me and was even fussy about a sippy cup but was totally different at nursery. good luck!

thanks! abdnhiker, how old was your DS when he went to nursery?

I'm also worried about my milk supply drying up if he's not drinking in the day, but maybe 6 months is long enough for it not to disappear overnight?

We had the same issue - my husband persevered with DS for about a week before the breakthrough. After 2 days DS decided to forgo that feed so we went on to the next when he was really hungry. After 5 days of persistence DS finally realised that he had to take the bottle and fighting was pointless. We have not looked back since.
I stayed well away (downstairs). It is hard as you can hear the major tantrums, crying etc but they can smell your milk if you are close by.

Good luck.

he was 6 months old exactly. And your milk should not dry up, I dropped to 2 feeds a day later on (morning and night) and then finally once a day and never had a problem with milk when he wanted it.