Breastfeeding and getting DD to take a bottle!!!! HELP!!!

[pevie]

My DD is now 12 weeks old. She has been fairly unsettled and so we probably werent as consistent as we could be in getting her to take bottle of expressed milk although we did start trying at about 5 weeks. First time she screamed, 2nd time took a little but has never taken any since. We initially only tried every 5 days or so, but spoke to HV and she suggested doing it every day, even few times a day. She will now happily take bottle in mouth if not starving but just pushes it around her mouth, no sucking. A few people have told me horror stories about going back to work and them still not taking it, so dont want to get into that position. Also wouldn't mind leaving her occasionally with someone!! My DD1 took bottle no problem although I think we tried it at 4 weeks. Any ideas?? Please dont tell me any horror stories about how you never got them to take a bottle!!!

I had a similar problem - at approx 4 months DD suddenly started refusing bottle of ebm even though she'd had at least 1 bottle of ebm every day of her entire life! All the others in my antenatal group who were BF also had similar problems. We tried lots of types of bottles; warmed milk; cold milk; different sized teats and we tried at least once a day every day... in the end we did find a combo that DD would take (though at first she would only take from me not from DH). The combo that worked for most of our group was NUK bottles and warm ebm.

I'm not sure whether it was just a phase and she would have grown out of it even without all the expensive bottle purchasing - especially given that she's now gone back to the tommee tippee bottles (although with a larger teat) that were unacceptable before!

If it helps, there were 7 in my antenatal group who were BF and started refusing bottles and there's only 1 who didn't find a 100% acceptable bottle combo (and even he takes a bottle most days) so the odds are good if our experience is anything to go by.

Do you do a dreamfeed, or a feed when dd is very sleepy? If so, do a bit of bf'ing, then try sneakily slipping the bottle in. It may help if you do this in the dark so she can't see what is going on.

you don't want horror stories you say. Humm, best step away from thread
Best of British

Thats reassuring that most did get there in the end, although I know theres the odd one who doesnt. Had heard NUK bottles possibly best and had wondered about doing it when sleepy!!! Will persevere, any other thoughts welcome!! Anyone else had to do the letting them cry all day or waiting until they were able to take cups?

Boots do a good bottle/training beaker combo which worked for my DS after buying every bottle on the market. When he went to nursery he took it like a lamb but battled with me for a while. Good luck , you will get there in the end, but it takes a bit of patience, especially when the firstborn was perfect!!

Had exactly this problem with my first, he never took to a traditional teat, but he would drink through one of the advent spouts (they have white and green ones) but only if I took out the removable disc thing that made the spout non-spill. Really feel for you, was tearing my hair out before I found this. Also, he only ever really took to it properly after I stopped breastfeeding him (when he was about 8 months old). Then he loved his bottle. But this is only my experience, I am not suggesting for a minute that you stop breastfeeding!

Had this problem big time with both dds. Dd1 eventually caved in with rubber not silicone teats (softer and more malleable) and would only drink with this sort of teat. Dd2 never drank from a bottle despite trying every kind and went straight on to a particular sort of beaker from Boots with a very small hole so flow wasn't too fast. She took so little milk at nursery that I ended up continuing to breastfeed her after I got back from work and all night until she was 13 months (I went back to work when she was 6 months) and actually was really happy with this (nobody told me it was possible with dd1) until she got teet and started biting. As soon as I completely stopped the breastfeeding she then happily took the milk which I realized she probably would have done in the first place if I'd just stopped the feeding and persisted (as was the case with dd1 but I was actually really happy I'd continued with the breastfeeding did mean I couldn't go out in the evening or leave dd2 at night though...