Getting 3m old baby to take a bottle

[voucherwowcher]

My baby is 14 weeks old and breastfed. We’d like to introduce one bottle a day and just have the ability for her to take a bottle. We had no issues with our first child so I wasn’t expecting it to be difficult and haven’t tried as early as I’d have liked to.

Does anyone have any tips?! I’m slightly stressed at the prospect of not being able to leave her for months for more than a couple of hours.

we’ve tried

1. Dad giving the bottle
2. breast milk fresh / frozen / warm / cold
3. formula
4. 4 different types of teats (MAM, lanisol, the teat with Kendamil and Tommy tippee
5. TV whilst feeding
6. walking around whilst feeding
7. morning and evening and daytime

she doesn’t resist the test in her mouth but won’t suckle

Honestly I just gave up but by 10 months was able to leave for 4 hours xx

Philips Avent worked for us. I know all the lactation consultants hate them because they're not nipple shaped or whatever but for some reason it was the only one my baby liked.

Firstly, anyone with a 3 month old reading that will find that extremely disheartening. 10 months is a long time to wait to be able to leave the house on your own for an afternoon.

Secondly, at 10 months a baby should be on 3 solid meals a day so you should have been able to go out all day, not just 4 hours.

Could you try breastfeeding a maybe once or twice a day using a nipple shield? Then the next day try a bottle again? This has worked for a couple of people I know, because initially they’re still getting milk from you, everything feels the same just the shield in their mouth. Then they’re essentially used to what a bottle could feel like and may begin to take it!

I get what you're saying but the poster was just sharing their reality and from what I've seen this is just as common as babies who combi-feed great.

My DC1 and DC2 would have breast or bottle no issue from birth.

DC3 resolutely refused a bottle completely til they were 8 months. Even then they would only have the tiniest feed in a bottle, very reluctantly, if I was gone for a few hours and they were visibly and audibly unhappy about this. I couldn't leave them for more than a couple of hours without them being distressed. They are 11 months now and I left them for 5 hours this week on a KIT day as I'm returning to work soon. They were ok and had a small but bigger than usual bottle feed whilst I was out (they were with dad). They're obviously much more ready now than when they were younger. They still eat hardly any solids even though we do offer 3 meals a day. Out of my 3 kids only one of them was well established on solids at 10 months. And that was the other one who was breastfed at that age, the one who was bottle fed then hardly ate anything til past 1 either.

That being said I do have some advice - have you tried a latex teat? We tried so many bottles and teats but were late to try a latex one and in the end that's all he will take. It's the Nuk latex ones we use but they're quite difficult to find these days unfortunately, I think they might be ending the line given the lack of availability. Ours are from Amazon.

Assuming no tongue tie, we were advised a few things:

• Try a different teat, lanisoh or dr browns were preferred
• make sure there's milk in the teat
• practice a gentle rig of ear with a sunny to encourage sucking
• don't give the baby a choice and do a whole day of bottle feeding. Once they've got it, give a bottle every day.

It can be that their muscles aren't strong enough. Most women go to work at 3 months here so we're advised to start a bottle at 4 weeks. If they don't get it, see an infant logopedist

We are all different and have different experiences, that was mine. I didn't mind too much, the end was in sight. It's not always to do with solid meals if baby naps to sleep for example or is still getting milk feeds along with solids. Milk is meant to be their primary source of nutrition for the first year so I would not be leaving my 10 month old for a day without it.

That's nonsense! At 10 months milk is still the main source of nutrition. You should be offering 3 meals /day by then.

OP this isn't what you want to hear but we gave up trying a bottle at 4 months. We introduced an open cup at 6 months (doidy cup). My son was at nursery for 2 full days/week by 10 months.

I woild persevere if you can, try a few more teats if poss. You can cover the outside of the teat in milk, don't be too precious about slow flow. Let the baby play with the teat while not attached to the bottle.

Thank you so much, that was just my reality. And I gave up with the bottle trying as it was causing so much stress it was easier to stop and continue feeding. I got to leave eventually was what I was saying meaning there's hope and the end is in sight. I realise 10 months might seem long at 3 months but it was just my experience. I do think there's some kind of crash at 3/4 months too when the adrenaline of a newborn wears off and you're just exhausted and need it to end, that's when I wanted the bottle to work but then it just passed and the start of solids is in sight and I would have left for a couple of hours by 7 months which is something aswell. I didn't mean to be disheartening at all but if OP is very stressed and the bottle doesn't work its good to know that it won't be forever.

Thank you

It’s probably not what you want to hear but we’re six months in and have never got past the bottle refusal. We’ve tried everything like you.

We started trying with an open cup once DS hit five months and are having some success. I’ve managed to do a couple of KIT days with timing breastfeeds and drinking from a little cup but until that point I’d never left him for more than 2 hours. I think it’s just how some babies are

Thank you for all the replies, I’m going to persevere because she’s not distressed at all with the bottle in her mouth, just doesn’t suck…

will be ordering some latex teats and nipple shields today to give those a try.

i don’t mind breastfeeding at all, and fed my first child until 14 months, but know that being able to give one bottle a day works for our family and for when I need to go back to work so will keep trying!

Have you tried a fast flowing teat? This can sometimes help.