Advise on bottle feeding please

[totallyaddictedtocheese]

I have a 3 month old baby who is exclusively breast fed. He feeds brilliantly and I've had no problems with his feeding at all.

I've been trying to feed him expressed milk from a bottle for the last 3 weeks now but he just won't take to it. Sometimes he plays with the teet for a while and then spits out all the milk and other times he just flat out refuses the bottle. I've tried leaving the room whilst my partner feeds him but it makes no difference.

We have theatre tickets in a week's time and the plan is to leave the baby with my mum for the evening (about 6 hours). Basically, does anyone have any advise on getting the baby used to the bottle by next weekend or am I fighting a losing battle?

Hi OP. Have you tried a different bottle / teat?
It could be the shape of the teat or are you heating it up enough? My DD has her bottle warmer than normal. She will refuse and spits it out if it’s colder than she likes.

Hope you find a solution so you can enjoy a night with your DP.

Agree about the different teats. My DD didn't get on with Tommie Tippee bottles, but loves the MAM bottles.

Feeding position might be another variable too. Around 2.5 months DD started refusing to take her bottle when sat upright or in my arm crook and will only take her bottle when laying on her back or side.

Feeding is a sensory experience for babies. There are feelings and smells that she might associate with feeding and she can't understand what the bottle is for.

You could try breastfeeding with a nipple shield to introduce the silicone feeling of the bottle teat.

Also wrapping the bottle in your bra can help it smell familiar.

Good luck.

Cup feeding?

We have been using Mam bottles but we did wonder if it might be the teat that he doesn't like. I'll try a different one and see if it makes a difference. Heating the bottle is a good idea too. I've been giving him milk as soon as its been expressed so that it's still as close to body temperature as possible but if I'm not there he will need to get used to it being warmed up instead.

I haven't tried cup feeding but at this point I'm willing to try anything so I'll give that a go today. Wrapping the bottle in some clothing is a good idea too. Hopefully one of these ideas will work. We bought the theatre tickets 2 ahd a half years ago but the date was changed a few times because of covid. We never would have guessed back then that we would have a 3 month old baby. Its funny how quickly life changes! 🤣

I'd recommend the Lansinoh bottles

Also, I know you have tried leaving the room, but have you actually left the house too? It was definitely clear for us that I had to be out of the house if she was going to take any milk that wasn't from me. So fussy!