Breastfed baby suddenly refusing bottle

[SLACK124]

Any advice welcome please!!

We introduced a bottle of formula for our son at approximately 2 weeks old and he would take one every couple of days - sometimes a little reluctantly but after afew goes he would latch on and take it. He is now 3 months old, and we have an afternoon/evening coming up where I will be away from my little man for a good 7-8 hours.

Unfortunately due to a number of reasons (poorly 6 year old, other half on crappy shifts and a ton of house decorating taking place) we missed out a bottle for about 4-5 days and now he will point blank refuse it! HV was round today and said to get straight back to offering one every day if we want any chance of getting him back to taking one happily, but my question is how do I do it?

Past 3 days I have tried him with it again but he’s getting to the point where he is fairly upset and refusing it and he is not an unhappy baby by any means so it’s hard to listen to! Today he fell asleep after an hour of trying and afew reluctant sucks, 2 previous days I gave in and fed him as he was very upset. Do I literally not give him my breast til he takes some from the bottle? Or do I build it up by putting the teat to his lips and hoping after afew days he will latch back on? I’ve been taking the bottle away and calming him once it begins to upset him but it gets to the point where as soon as it touches his lips he’s crying and I feel like it’s of going to help in the long run doing it this way 🤦🏼‍♀️

side note - whoever said bottle feeding was the easy way out is mental 🤣

Do you have to do the afternoon evening? That's my first question. Could it be postponed until baby is older / feeding less often?

You can keep offering an oz at a time at random bits of the day and see if they will take it. They can also take milk from an open cup at this age (they kinda lick it up a bit)

You can't force it or you'll both be stressed out.

It’s a day at the theatre with my daughter, already booked and it’s a specific show. This was top of her Christmas list and would feel terrible to cancel it as it will be the first thing we’ve done together since her brother has arrived.

I am with you 100% on the forcing thing, it’s not going to help either of us. Just hoping others might have some tips from being on the same situation before! 😖

Are you giving the bottle? Get your husband to do it and go out with your daughter for an hour or too. I found with mine they could smell the milk, but if I wasn’t there they would happily take it.

Can your partner not go to the theatre with your daughter instead? It may not be ideal, but are you going to enjoy it if you are constantly thinking about whether the baby has had any milk?

Have you tried different bottles? We use MAM bottles alongside breastfeeding and our baby takes these well. He doesn't like cooler milk though, it has to be on the warmer side. He also, for some reason, point blank refuses a size 2 teat. Size 1 or nothing. I guess because it comes out too quickly? Who knows. He can tell every time though!

There’s absolutely no way my breastfed baby would take a bottle with me nearby OP… do you leave entirely when it gets given?

Could husband take her? I know it's hard but you could promise another trip once baby is older.

It's hard juggling more than one child. Sometimes though, fights aren't worth having.

Thanks for all the replies.

My OH could take her if it was a last resort, much to his joy 🙄 so I’m not worrying overly much. The ideal situation would be for him to stay with the little man and us to go to the theatre though, so I’m planning in the hopes this can go ahead.

Since he began taking bottles he would happily take them from either of us. I will certainly try being out the way for tomorrows bottle though. It was his dad that managed to get him to take the very reluctant bottle today whilst I was upstairs in the shower - maybe not a coincidence!

I should have said we use mam bottles and HiPP organic ready to feed formula. Don’t think changing any of these will help so have no intentions of doing so.