Baby won't take bottle!

[WindFlower92]

Hi all, I'm panicking slightly as I go back to work in April and baby still isn't taking the bottle at all. She'll have a sip of some formula from an open cup but that's it. Obviously we're working on this, but will a nursery be willing to take a baby that refuses a bottle? Has anyone been in this situation and how did you all work around it?

[WindFlower92]

Thanks all :) I'll try expressing, although I doubt she'll go for that either!

[BecauseReasons]

I do think they know when you're not there so it doesn't distress them like it does when you're there but not giving them what they want. Mine eats much better when she's with her nanny because she knows there's no alternative. She's a fussier eater when I'm home. I think she'll be fine, OP, but I appreciate your worry- I posted a very similar post to yours a couple of months before I started back at work.

I would say leave the nursery with some expressed milk (you'll probably want to express in the very early days anyway-because you'll be very engorged by lunch) but be prepared that she may not drink it. That's what I did, I stopped pumping a couple of weeks in when it became clear she had no intention of drinking what I pumped!

[nachthexe]

I stopped bf cold turkey at 10 months as this was ds. It was the only thing that worked. We had tried everything else.

[WindFlower92]

That's good to hear. Will put her on for some morning sessions then first.

[BecauseReasons]

How was it at first? Surely she screamed all day?

Nope, she was absolutely fine and we never had any tears at all. Ours was with a nanny, so different situation to nursery, but the same as far as milk goes and she was absolutely fine. I built up to it over a few weeks, leaving her a little longer each week. So from a couple of hours the first week to almost a full day by week 4.

[WindFlower92]

Bumping for reassurance!

[WindFlower92]

She'll be 10 months old. How was it at first? Surely she screamed all day?

[BecauseReasons]

We're still nursing almost a year after I went back to work full time.

[BecauseReasons]

How old will the baby be? Mine has never taken a bottle in her life- ebf. I was away 12 hours a day and she just went without and nursed more when I got home. She was fine, 11 months old at the time.