Baby won't take a bottle

[LJC1991]

My son is 4 months old and EBF. I want to get him to have a bottle so he can have some time away from me and so I can switch to formula when I go back to work.
He just won't take one. He opens his mouth and let's us put the teat in but will not actually suck, he chews. I've tried different teats/bottles but nothing has worked. My other half and mum have also tried but no luck.
Any tips?

Hi there, I had a similar problem with my DD. I has gone from combi feeding to being able to EBF. But in the run up to returning to work I knew I was going to have to get her to start taking a bottle again for at least her feeds when I wouldn't be there and expressing really never worked for me, so I knew it would have to be formula. Because she'd had bottles, I was surprised when she refused her old bottles, so tried different ones and different teats etc and she wouldn't have any of it!
We changed the formula and instantly, she was happy to drink! This was with the original bottles too! I don't know if that might help you at all but it seemed to be the magic trick for us! (Kendamil is the formula we use. Apparently it's meant to taste a bit more creamy).
Also, once she was accepting the bottle, I made myself scarce if my husband was feeding her so I wasn't a distraction. Now she's happy to be fed with me there without any problems. Best of luck!

My dd was ebf and she just would not accept a bottle. Someone told me I should have introduced a bottle within a fews weeks of being born. I know not helpful. I ended up introducing a sippy cup when she was 6 months.

My daughter flatly refused the bottle too. And I tried early on so she would take both as when my first child was breastfeeding my husband went in to hospital for a few weeks and it made visiting difficult. The health clinic said there's no reason why the baby couldn't use a sippy cup, though it took a while for her to take to that. She never did take a bottle and she's 15 now and still as stubborn!

Im in the exact same position op, we've tried Nuk, Tommee Tippee and Avent so far, and breastmilk and formula and she won't take any DH is going to try again tomorrow while im not in the room 🤞

I had the same problem at 4 months with DD1

Eventually I told DH I was staying at home with her until I succeeded - I was prepared to try for days if necessary! I was so tired and really wanted DH to have the pleasure of feeding her too

• I used MAM teats, they are nice and soft
• express fairly fresh milk if you can, not more than a few hours old ideally
• I warmed it by placing her bottle in a small jug of hot water. If she refused it, I could put the bottle back in the jug to stay warm and try a few mins later
• make sure the milk is warm enough, it does need to be quite warm to match yours!
• warm the teat too; you can do this by pouring hot water over it before feeding.
• don’t try if baby is cross or crying. Pick them up, shush and sooth until they are happy; then try again
• if they only appear to be playing/chewing the teat, that’s ok. Let them. A tiny bit of expressed milk might be swallowed and as long as they are happy, it’s fine for them to learn to trust the teat this way
• try to walk up and down and Bob them up and down as you present the bottle. The movement is reassuring and just the right level of distracting.
• alternatively, my DD would take the bottle while sitting in her swinging chair, again the movement is reassuring to her

It’s an art more than a science but keep trying! You need your child fairly hungry too - say, if you normally feed every 3 hours, try and stretch it to 3.5 before presenting the bottle. Keep them happy by bobbing them in your arms while walking around or even stay out on a walk or in the car for longer - wherever they feel chill.

Hope those tips help

Once she gets it, don’t go back to the breast for a day or two ideally, until she really trusts the bottle completely :)

Hi OP, mine was a bottle refuser too.

I think part of it was that he didn't want to do any work, I have a strong letdown so he wasn't used to it. The other issue is that he needed to be hungry to accept it, if it was me trying it with him he knew that I would offer the breast eventually. In the end my DH managed to get him to drink out of a Sippy cup (which was free flow so he didn't have to work) and them moved on to Mam bottles.

I would also recommend pumping when baby is getting fed, I made the mistake of going out without my pump and was very sore.

Some just wont. Mine never did

DD never did take a bottle. I spent a small fortune on different bottles/teats to try, MAM seemed to be the most accepted but she still never actually drank any. I tried so hard and it got to the point where she would get herself in a total state as soon as she saw the bottle.
What age will your DD be when you go back to work? My advice would be to not stress about it, I spent so much time trying and worrying about it and i have some sad memories of that time because of it. Give it a try and if it's not happening just forget about it.

I returned to work when DD was 10 months and it wasn't an issue she just did without milk throughout the day then made up for it in the evening.
One of my friends said her DS would only take a bottle from her mum or DH and only if he wasn’t in his own house and she wasn’t there so maybe worth a try.