Baby won’t take bottle

[Penny321]

Breastfeeding has been a struggle since day 1 and my baby is now 3 months old. She has really struggled with her latch and had her tongue tie divided twice. She now has a really shallow latch and will only feed well lying down. I have a forceful letdown and oversupply of milk and she fusses on and off the breast before having a meltdown in any other position . I was expressing before each feed to help her latch but even this doesn’t help now. I am now in a situation where she will only feed with me lying down. I have seen a Lactation consultant and numerous health visitors who have been unable to resolve the problem and I am now at a point where I feel I have struggled for 3 months and tried everything and feel the best decision for us both is to bottle feed. I have been trying for the last week to get her onto bottles and have tried nuk, Mam, dr brown and Tommee Tippee with both latex and silicone teats and different sized holes. She has on occasion taken 2 Oz but mostly she just gets really angry and refuses it. Then she refuses to breastfeed as well. It is really getting me down as I feel I can’t leave the house as I can only feed her lying down. Any help to get her on bottle greatly appreciated.

No advise sorry, but following for advice as in similar situation with 8 month old

Have you tried a cup? Mine were all reluctant bottle feeders, but would take milk from a cup. Start with someone else offering it to her though, with you she will hold out for the breast.

Did you freeze the milk you expressed before feeds? Maybe you could start with a few bottles of expressed milk so the taste is the same while she gets use to the sensation of the bottle. If that works then try 50:50 and gradually move to full formula.

I struggled to get my oldest onto a bottle when she was 3 months old - it took a month of trying every day with 50ml of expressed milk in a variety of bottles for her to finally take one. There was nothing special about what I did that day - it was just sheer persistence. I spent a lot on different bottles and she ended up taking the milk from a normal tommee tippee!!! After that we didn't look back.

I am currently going through the same thing with my youngest (16 wo), 2 weeks in and he is starting to cave. Sorry I don't have an easier fix - there's lots of advice out there about how to position them when you feed and who should give the bottle to them but I found the only thing that really worked was wearing them down with persistence!

I hope it improves for you soon, hang in there

See if you can find Comotomo bottles in the uk, I know a lot of people for whom these were the only bottles that their BF baby would take. I also use them myself and they are great.

Stubborn persistence has got my 4 month old back to taking the bottle but it's taken ages (a month maybe by we didn't do it all the time sometimes).

Best things I think were somewhat forcing a dummy on her, she never had one before but I sat with her putting the dummy back in and holding it until she stopped chewing and learned to suck it. It was a look easier and less messy than a bottle. Have gotten a round dummy now to try and get her used to a different shape (she had a flatter one).

Then I tried the avent bottle she'd previously taken but she kept bending it with her tongue so I tried a mam bottle which she couldn't do this too and she took that. (The teat is more like the flat dummy)

Also the avent one aggravates her gag reflex which was also a hindrance so we spent a lot of time with her chewing our fingers and eventually sucking them a bit to get used to it. She's still a bit iffy with that bottle but can drink from it.

I didn't want to go down the road of buying all the bottles so I tried to look for what was she struggled with and depth was a lot of it. Was going to try the lansinoh bottles if mam didn't work.

Thank you all. I’ve been persisting with the bottle feeding and she’ll now take 2 Oz which I see as progress. She makes a complete mess of it though, spilling milk all down her chin, soaking through a bib. She’s also clicking on the bottle which she does on the breast too. She gives up after spluttering down 2 Oz. She definitely doesn’t have tongue tie now. Any advice on how to get her to drink more efficiently?

Faster flow teat? I think the clicking is when they suck really hard but I'm not sure

Mine would only take 2/3 oz to start- but it shows they know how to so clearly would prefer breast. Perseverance is the key, I found that going out and leaving baby for the whole day worked a treat.

@Penny321 Did you end up successfully bottle feeding your little one? Which bottles worked for you? X

Hello, I posted this a really long time ago now. My daughter is now nearly 4! If you are experiencing the same issues then I really feel for you, these were really difficult times for me but please know that you will get through it and it does get easier.
Yes I did get her on the bottles in the end. It transpired she had a milk allergy which was causing a lot of the problems and once I got her dairy free milk she was much better. With the bottles she ended up on the NUK bottles with silicone tests and I always had to use smaller holes than were recommended for her age. But the perseverance really paid off and once I got the right milk and got her on the bottles it was all much better. She has since outgrown her milk allergy and is thriving. Good luck!