Not taking the bottle, cup or anything but breast

[NonDomina]

Anyone have tales of hardened bottle refusers just coming round to it in the end without drastic measures?

My bf DD is 7 months and starting solids no problem but we cannot get her to take breast milk, formula or water in any of a variety of bottles, sippy or doidy cups. Does anyone have any experience of something similar where the baby just comes around to a bottle/cup one day?

I’m keen to avoid anything too forceful, like going out for a whole day and just leaving her, but that seems to be the only advice on offer. I can keep ebfing for now, although I’d like to be able to leave her for more than a couple of hours, but in a couple of months I head back to work so will need to solve this issue by then.

My older dc took the bottle no problem so no experience of this at all. Any advice welcome, as are stories of hope.

Both of mine were bottle refusers but I had the odd night out at this age and left her with DH and a sippy cup of ebm. I don’t think there’s much point in forcing the issue now with a bottle as ahe’ll be back off them at 12 months.

I wouldn’t worry too much about returning to work either. I went back at around 9 months. I fed in the morning, on pick up and before bed and if they wanted it in the night and they had solids in the day.

If you call one of the BFing Helplines a BFC should be able to help you to come up with a return to work plan and might have some tips on feeding her while you’re not there. Have you got the numbers?

Why do you want her to drink from something else? If because you need her too, then just go out and leave her. If because others think she should, then ignore and continue as you are: always offer, but don't force. You know yourself that all children do things in their own time.

Sorry, didn't read the last paragraph properly! But what I said still stands, she will be a different girl in a couple of months when you go back to work. Upsetting her now won't change the future.

Yes somewhere between 9 and 10 months she "mellowed" and started sleeping in her own cot rather than with us and accepted a bottle (of formula), the look on my DH's face was incredible when she let him feed her. It was completely out of the blue, he just thought he'd try it.

My little one took a bottle one day after swimming, and had previously refused everything we tried. I wasn't there so he didn't have the option of breastfeeding. He was about 8 months so it was just in time for him starting nursery.

Mine never did. I tried the leaving her for the day and she refused everything all day. Weaning didn't go too well either. Didn't get a spoon in her mouth until 9 months and that was in the days when you started at 4. She just clamped her jaws shut. Eventually got water into her using a water bottle with a sports cap and squirting, but she wouldn't take milk. Eventually stopped bf at 15 months. She never has drunk cows milk and she is 14 yo now! I was a SAHM so I had no pressure other than my sanity.

Thank you Jilted, that makes me feel a bit more relaxed. At the moment I feel anxiety if I leave her for even short periods, like taking older dc to park, in case she is hungry or thirsty. Of course this will lessen as she takes more solids, I guess I’ve just wound myself up about it a bit too much

And yes TooMuch it’s always worth reiterating how much they can change in a couple of months. I’ve just been fretting over how much she loves bfing and co-sleeping and how I can change that in the right way at the right time . Being patient and working at our own speed is always good advice!

Poshpenny- thanks for the ray of hope - we will keep offering it just in case

Goodness seeline, that sounds really stressful. Happily dd loves a bit of porridge so at least I know we can get something in her

I’m afraid DS would never take any kind of bottle or cup with expressed milk, I went back to work at 9 months and he reverse cycled - ie had all his milk through the night, it was exhausting but at 13 months I went away for a few days with work and DH found he’d take a 360 cup of cold cows milk so we night weanedhim onto that!

I’ve never heard of reverse cycling, How on earth did you function?
And I’ve not actually tried a 360 cup nor experimented with temperature, just assumed body temperature gave us the best chance.

Errm... with difficultly! Fortunately I had ended up in a lower job grade job to avoid redundancy so I could operate at work with half my brain! If the same thing happens this time now I’m back in a rather more demanding role I’ll be in real trouble!

By way of an update, should anyone have the same issue and find this through search, we’ve had bottle success and no drastic measures. Tried more different vessels and temperatures but then when back to offering formula in a bottle after breakfast, making a couple of extra ounces than that needed to mix with porridge. After a while she just took it.

I think it was a matter of time and being more relaxed about whether she took it (& not using expressed milk which was upsetting to throw away).

Good luck to anyone else with similar issues.