Switching to bottle feeding a bottle refuser...

[OnionRing]

I want to switch to bottle feeding.

DD2 is 7.5 months and so far has refused all attempts at bottle feeding. Do I refuse breast feeds until she is hungry enough to take a bottle, or is this a dreadful thing to do?

How did others make the transition?

How's it going?

Not so quiet. She's had a 100mls of bottle though at midnight. She's currently on her second lot of crying and I've only had an hours sleep. I think it will be a very long night but I just have to stand firm and get this whole situation under control.

And actually it was fine. She finally settled after 20 minutes and apart from some minor grumbling she slept until 6.15am. She took 75mls then and that seems to be her maximum daytime bottle size at the moment. A vast improvement in just a couple of days, I have to conclude the cold turkey approach is effective in our case.

Going in the right direction then, that's good. Cold turkey is probably less confusing for the babies. I tried night weaning at 12 months with dd2 and it never really worked, presumably because babies don't have watches and don't know they're supposed to not feed between the hours of 8 and 6.

Hope you catch up on your sleep soon.

Thanks parlimo, I've had so little sleep in the last few months that even if I get up twice to give her a bottle that's an absolute luxury, so I'm in no hurry to night wean. I'm going to get DH to do the dream feed at 10.30 anyway to allow me longer to sleep - he is better at getting her to take bottles than me and that's just as he comes to bed anyway. I go to bed at about 7.30/8 at the moment. Maybe if I get to catch up a bit I will eventually have a little bit of time to myself!

Thanks for all the advice and support though. You're all great!

Oh - I'm so glad things are improving. It is so much easier to cope with a bad night here and there if you have a bit more rest.

I'm surprised at 75mls being her max bottle size at this age. It's only 2.5oz. Do you think its because she is just not the keen on a bottle or her stomach doesn't like to take in more liquid? If you were BFing her, would she take a full feed from each boob and do you know what you would express as a full feed from each boob? I'd have thought 7oz or so at every feed?

If generally she only takes a very small feed, then that might be the reason for the relentless night feeding/grazing? Is it worth ruling out silent reflux (seems to be every baby on Mumsnet these days ) and any medical reason for a small appetite. ? If she's just a petite child that likes lots of small frequent meals then it's just a case of trying to get more into her during the day perhaps?

Oh I know it's nowhere near enough. It used to take her ages, eg an hour to drain one side and another hour to drain the other. I have no idea why. The GP said she didn't have reflux but I'm not sure about the silent version. She has always seemed ambivalent about feeding and is a petite child too. Her weight is below her original curve but not by much. Although it will have gone down now.
She's good with solids though. She was weaned early on at 21 weeks (on medical advice) and seems to prefer solids to milk.

2 hrs per feed. Heysoos ! No wonder your boobs are in bits. Even if her latch was perfect that can't be good for them.

I'd crack on with solids in that case and not look back. I have a thriving 3.5 yr old who didn't take a bottle from 6.5 months. She is 98% and never dropped a bit (born at 75%) when I had to stop feeding her. I'd check the overall fluids levels she needs with the GP and get plenty of dairy into her and with any luck this will all be a painful memory in a few months.

Well doneonion, hope your success continues!

Ha oscar. They are in tatters. Interestingly, she's now taking the recommended amount of 500mls over 24 hours but 350mls during the night. Argh. That's three night feeds! She's so awkward.