Do some babies never take bottle?

[Stripeyshirts2450]

LO is 12 weeks I've been trying him with bottles since week 10. I admit I may have left it a bit late.

I want to express breastmilk and use a bottle just occassionally like if I go out and give DH a chance to bond and do the odd night feed. I have already tried a few different teats but he just cries hitting it away and I feel so guilty for trying to make him take a bottle and also frustrated that I've spent time pumping and wasting my milk.

He doesn't take from me but also DH, sister and MIL have tried. Any tips? A part of me wonders if I'm just being selfish and should stick to breastfeeding as I do love it, but I also feel like it's important to have the bottle option.

I also left it late. I'm afraid my LO never took a bottle, but eventually accepted a cup.

Mine never have!

My DD never did. I don't know if that's because of something I did wrong, but I did try hard because I could have done with the break once in a while. I am sure all/most babies will take a bottle eventually, but think some take to it a lot easier than others

It's not selfish.

My girl never had a bottle until I stopped feeding her at 2 and a half and my now 1 and a half year has never had a bottle either and never will.

It's not selfish, it's natural and as you just stated... you love it!!

I can't think of any time that it would be less effort to just curl up and feed your baby, than clean, sterilise, pump, feed, clean, sterilise etc so even if you are ill, what's better than slow down, sit and feed. Time out, guilt free!

You will gain confidence at feeding while out, if that is an issue.

Oh no! What age were they when you tried?

Anyone got good stories of it happening?

Mine never did either. My 7 month old will chew a lansinoh momma sipping cup and gets smalls amounts of milk that way and sometimes a Nuk sippy cup. He's starting nursery next week so that will be interesting!

Sorry, you probably wanted better news. I know I did. Once we started weaning they went longer between feeds and i could leave them for up to 4 hours by 7-8 months.....

Oh and with the fist I started at 5 months so with my second I tried from the 2nd week. Still no joy.....

Argh, sorry OP, I think it might be too late. My DSis is a paediatrician and suggests that, if you want a baby to take both bottle and breast, you need to introduce a bottle of expressed milk as soon as they've cracked latching without several minutes of fussing. For me with DS that was about 10 days, DSis helping, but every baby is different of course.

I've heard that others with older babies have had success with more 'natural' teats like Minbie, so don't give up! You'll need to go out for an afternoon though, because although DS has taken a bottle from early on, if he thought there was a chance of a breastfeed he'd refuse the bottle and cry.

Mine dd never did. I tried at 6 weeks which is when they say it’s less likely to confuse them. I found it a total pain trying to express and was not very successful at that, so might not have tried that hard, but she never drank more than an ounce out of a bottle. In the end I decided it was far easier and less hassle to just ebf.

DD refused completely. We tried it from very early on but she simply wouldn't have it. I ended up breast feeding her until she was 14 months or so and then she moved straight on to a sippy cup.

Dd wouldn't. She would have milk from a sippy cup from 6 months. I did go out a couple of times for a few hours before then and left dh with a bottle, it was messy and difficult but she had a little. She loved my boobs..

Mine took a bottle for a few weeks. Then we stupidly (in hindsight!) left a gap of two weeks and he has refused a bottle ever since. We're just going to move on to a cup rather than keep trying a bottle.

I don't mind feeding him, he gets really upset with trying a bottle and he'll need to use a cup eventually anyway,

Mine all took a bottle of expressed milk when tiny (2-4 weeks) but 2 of the 3 of them started bottle refusing within a few weeks. Ironically those 2 were the dummy addicts.
We tried and tried but they weren't having anything other than the boob.

DS refused formula/expressed milk in every form. We tried every combination of everything. MIL sent me out one evening adamant she could do it - I think they tried for an hr before giving up and phoning me.

He wouldn’t have it at nursery either when I went back to work at 7 months. He was weaning then though and I breastfed him each morning/night until he was 1yr. Then he went straight onto cow’s milk no problem.

He is still stubborn...!

It depends on the baby. Mine didn't really do it so I tended to go out after bedtime and didn't really have any significant length of time away from him until about 9 months. He'd take a bit but not enough for a full feed.
But then at 11 months I left him for a weekend with a sippy cup and between DH and MIL they cracked it.
With my DD who is now 9 months, I tried at 3 or 4 weeks in and it wasn't successful so I just sacked it off and as a result I'm much less stressed about it. I've still gone out but it's just been at 8pm and my friends haven't minded.
I'm going away for the weekend again when she's 11 months and hoping history will repeat itself.....

What I would say is just try little and often - with the same bottle. Then they will get to know it and practice their technique.
And I think having a deadline may inadvertently cause you stress so just try as much as you can in a calm environment. Maybe when he's in the pram and you stop for a minute and try, or maybe at the end of a baby class or something.
So there's focus on something else as well. Not just the bottle.

Good luck!!

DS did from about 3 months. Just enough so that I could go to a hen do for 6 hours when he was 5 months. Occasionally after that. Took a lot of trying though with DH being really patient and me having to leave the house.

With DD I tried twice but couldn't be arsed pursuing it. Had no hen do to get to so no motivation to deal with the hassle!

Mine never did and I stressed so much about it. Before you know it they are sitting up, on solids drinking out of a sippy cup....

We used little cups about the size of an egg cup when mine where tiny then moved onto doidy cups and then onto Tommee tippee free flow cups. They did not take much and seemed happy to wait and catch up when I got home! As they had never had a bottle and had always been used to a cup of some description we never had problems later on with weaning them off the bottle!!

3/4 of mine didn’t. There isn’t really much need though. Once they’re eating some solids it gets easier to leave them with someone else. It’s easier just to breastfeed them tbh.

Mine didn't. We tried multiple times from around seven weeks, but he never once took it, regardless of who gave it to him. I wasn't overly fussed, but it would have been handy at times.

Mine didn’t and I went back to work when he was 7 months old!! I worried he’d starve. He didn’t! He did manage a sippy cup type thing though at that age, so BF morning and night (a lot of the bloody night), cup/bottle thing (with a sippy type teat thing) during the day.
BF till 16 months (with ‘real’ food too).
Strapping 17 year old now! Bloody pain at the time though.

@WeirdPookah I meant I feel selfish wanting to use a bottle as we spent so long getting him to breastfeed and it's natural. I agree with a lot of what you said. He sleeps through a lot of the night but cluster feeds a lot of the day so would have real anxiety being out without him e.g. I want to get back into exercise and do the odd class. Also feel like it's a bit unreasonable always needing him with me when I see friends.

When do they start drinking from cup?

Yep, mine never ever drank from a bottle. She also won't drink milk from a cup, though she will drink water. 🤷

I breastfed my LO for the first 4 months and ended up resenting it so much. She went to stay at my mum and dads on an overnight (around 2 hours away) and we hadn’t even thought if she wouldn’t take a bottle?! Eventually if they are hungry enough they’ll take it but it’s better if you aren’t around - I think they can smell etc.

I persevered with my LO and did a mix of breast and formula then eventually just formula probably when she was 6 months?

Best thing I did! Also health visitor told me to get old school bottles from Asda - their own make as the teats were smaller and they worked. They look like old fashioned bottles!

Good luck.

My 16 week old baby has forgotten how to take a bottle... he was having formula top ups in the early days as I was having problems feeding. Since BF established he’s had less and less. Had a 2 week gap and he’s forgotten how to take the bottle, I went out for an afternoon thinking he would be fine and my husband couldn’t get him to eat :( have tried a few more times since then but he’s not interested.
So yes I guess some babies won’t take it. I’m looking at trying to introduce a cup as I want to be able to leave him with my mum or husband for the odd hour or two.