BF baby won’t take a bottle- feeling trapped

[SecretSquirrelTV]

Hi,

I’ve EBF my 16 week baby fairly happily for the first 12 weeks. Now I’d like to stop and have been trying to for just over 4 weeks.

Baby has taken a (MAM) bottle a couple of times (initially she took 3oz from my mum, which has never been repeated!) and now I’ve just started to try a NUK.

The issue being that my little girl will tolerate it in her mouth fairly happily but won’t really suck, and has only really had an ounce maximum on both mam and Nuk bottles.

I (but usually my mum) have tried the mam bottle every day for 3 weeks with little or no improvement. And I’ve just started the Nuk this week (myself) but still only an oz down her each time.

At first I found BF freeing but now I’m feeling trapped by it and want my body back. Plus the ability to leave her, I’ve got a friends wedding coming up and I don’t want feeding to dictate it.

I’m not sure it’s the bottles but a wilful girl!

I don’t really want to start the great bottle merry go round on the basis she’s had 3oz from a mam (admittedly only once) but can do an oz at a time with both mam and nuk.

Any help appreciated as I’m starting to get frustrated by it and like there’s no end in sight!

thanks x

You could try cup feeding?

I have been to two weddings whilst ebf and by the time baby is five months you have every chance of being able to feed baby before and after the ceremony, then before the meal etc so it will most likely be absolutely fine.

You could also try a slower or faster teat size. My baby is 9 months and on size two because needs a slow flow. Will take 45 minutes to drink 3oz and doesn't like to be rushed 😀

My DD is also 16 weeks and wouldn’t entertain a bottle until we tried the next size teats. The Mam bottles we’d bought came supplied with size 1, but with size 2 she took it no problem.

You might not want feeding you dominate your time at your friends wedding but a BF is a great way to calm a fractious baby down during the ceremony/speeches/any other time you need them to be quiet!

DC2 never took a bottle so I do feel your pain.

Are you trying formula or expressed milk? And are you going out and leaving your Mum to try the bottle? She is much more likely to have success than you are, especially if you are not there.

The thing is, I don’t want to bring the baby to the wedding!
Moved up teats on the bottles as I’ve got a fast flow from my own feeding, that’s what she had when she had the 3oz for my mum, thought I’d cracked it!
I’ve been mainly using my own expressed milk and have left the baby with my mum and sister and gone out- she hung on 4 hours last week! Usually feeds every couple of hours during the day!!!

I’ll take a look at cup feeding, assume it’s a very slow process!!

This was 3/3 of my kids. Very frustrating! Ultimately by 5 months we were able to get them onto a soft-silicone sippy cup for about half a feed. Before that, on the rare occasions I had to go out without them, my DP would feed them with a medicine dropper 1ml squirt at a time, or with a tea spoon. It’s not a perfect solution (!!!), but if no bottle or sippy cup is working in time for the wedding you can at least know that you’re baby won’t starve.

By ~7 months all of my kids were very reliable with a sippy cup, and we could let the nonsensical medicine dropper go. Hang in there!

We had to go cold turkey - I left the house for a day so DS couldn’t smell me or my milk and DH looked after the baby with only a bottle. DS held out for a few hours but eventually gave in and took the bottle when it became apparent there was no alternative.

I combi feed with elhee bottles and I’m the opposite of you 😂 would rather BF more but he prefers bottle xxx

Try a cup or a beaker. Tbh, breastfeeding is how I got into gaming. Totally understand where you're coming from