Bottle refuser - it's stressing me out!

[Doubtfyre]

Hi all, so I appreciate my baby is still very young at 3 months old, but I go back to work when he'll be 6 months and I'm so stressed that he won't take a bottle. It's like he literally forgets what to do with his mouth. He'll suck on it a bit, look really confused, lick it, and then just push it away.

I've tried the mam bottle, the cheap Tesco one, the lansinoh bottle, and the Nuk one. I then decided to try one of those sippy cups (where you have to sort of bite down on it?), which he does get milk out of, but hardly enough for a full feed! I've tried feeding him with a doidy cup, which does work in that he swallows what I pour into his mouth, but it's hardly efficient!

So, has anyone got any advice or can recommend any other bottles? Or should I just wait or out and hope at 6 months he takes something? I know people say just skip straight to a cup at 6 months, but even that will take practice and I just can't imagine him getting enough milk with me at work!

Thanks for reading

I was in exactly your position ten years ago. We eventually had success with a free flow hard plastic tommee tippee sippy cup. He wouldn’t take anything soft and nipple like.
we also started him on porridge and yoghurt two weeks before I went back to work (so 5.5mo old) and used the porridge to get ebm then formula into him. I worked shorter days for a couple of months and by 8mo old he was eating enough to keep him going. I did only work 3 days a week at first though. Are you going back ft?

DS would never take a bottle, went straight to a free flow straw cup. The one he preferred was Tum Tum brand with weighted straw but no valve (apparently that's not as good for oral development). I'd say he was about 4 months when we started trying the straw, by 6 months he was well used to it. You have time, but it might be trial and error, and obviously baby has to learn the skills to use a straw/sippy/open cup