Exclusively BF baby won’t take bottle

[Jessie2024]

My 9 week old girl has been breastfed since she was born, however I have managed to give her the odd bottle of expressed milk every so often, after lots of fighting against it. However, she only takes a bottle every once in a while, and most of the time just screams and screams until I eventually give up and breastfeed her. She hasn’t managed to have a bottle for a few weeks, and it seems like she’s becoming more and more against it. I need her to become confident with bottles, as I would like to share the feeding with dp during the day sometimes, and I’m also graduating from university next month, so I can’t feed her during that! I’ve always used mam bottles, so I’ve ordered a few other brands to try out with her. Just looking for advice on how to help the situation, or reassurance that she will eventually take to bottle feeding! Thanks!

Vvv annoying isn’t it. I have 3 kids and breastfed all three. The first two would happily take a bottle and I was very sceptical of anyone who said their baby would never take one, but then my DC3 would never take one… We tried everything, feeding him when hungry, not hungry, sad, happy, asleep, mid play… no joy.
I ended up breastfeeding him for a year and when I started weaning him at 6 m
I started giving him a cup with milk instead of a bottle during the day and lots of yoghurt etc. Hope you have more luck!
(sorry, not the response you were looking for)

Try a tiny cup like a shot glass size or from a spoon, they don’t have to have ebm from just bottles.

It needs to be someone not you. Baby knows your boobs are right there; why would they accept an inferior substitute? Your DP or other non-you person needs to do the work around persuading them to take a bottle.

My second was like this. We got him to crack in the end with Nuk bottles but mostly with daddy being really persistent. A few times, from quite young, he also just opted to go quite long spells without until he could breastfeed again. I wouldn't stress about your graduation, baby will be absolutely fine without milk for the duration anyway unless it's a 12 hour affair.

This is why we used bottles from day 1. But hindsight is a great thing right?
Afraid persistence is your friend.

Lots of babies are like this. Never cracked it with my one!

Definitely needs to not be you trying to give the bottle - they can smell the breast milk is right there!!

Persevere with different bottles. I know someone who used to squirt it in with a syringe so dp could try that

We use bottles from 3 weeks but we went through multiple bottle aversions. We managed to get her back on bottles on one occasion by offering 1oz of fresh breastmilk after each breastfeed during the day. In 3 days she went from not going near the bottle to accepting a feed.

I think I had high lipase levels and she only accepted fresh breastmilk.

I don't have any answers I'm afraid. We tried everything.
I loved BF but really wished he had taken the bottle too. It was exhausting.
I went to a BF class before birth and I'm pretty pissed that they didn't mention this is something that can happen if the bottle isn't given early enough..! He was an abysmal sleeper - waking every hour for 16 months and never settling without the boob, so yeah v v annoying..! I feel your pain.

Funnily enough, he also hated being spoon fed when we started weaning and insisted on feeding himself. Maybe strong willed babies are just like this?

"It needs to be someone not you. Baby knows your boobs are right there". This!
Ask others to give them bottle why you aren't in the room.

Also, different types of bottles might help. Mine loved the Tommie Tippee ones and was ok with Dr Brown- never took Phillips or Mam bottles.🤷

Absolutely 100% this

We went through this with DC1. I had to leave the house while DH wrestled with it and DS cried and cried. It was horrible.

Didn't bother at all with DC2. Not worth the effort for me. But if you want to then leaving your partner to it entirely and walking out for an hour is worth a try.