8 month old point blank refuses formula

[RIRO30]

I’m so stressed I could actually cry. My nearly 8 month old has a bottle aversion. I have been dealing with it for 2 months. I manage to get her formula intake with dream feeding during naps and bedtime. Last few day she is point blank refusing dream feeds. Yesterday she had 10ounce of formula only. She cannot drink lots of water yet and only has small sips.
There is no way of getting over her bottle aversion as I’ve tried every single thing. Currently practicing with her to drink through a straw and sippy cup hoping I can put the formula in there!
HV’s told me to just give her foods and keep eye on her nappies, not much help tbh
currently she is having two meals a day.
I am so stressed about her getting dehydrated or just not getting enough.
please has anyone else gone through the same and can just reassure me on their stories as this is taking over my life I don’t even want to leave the house! Today so far she has had weatabix with 1 or 2oz formula inside. Maybe drunk 1oz through straw, 3oz dream feed with morning nap, now she is refusing the dream feed for her afternoon nap. 😫😫😫

Has she always been bottle fed and she's stopped taking bottles or were you BF and she now won't take to bottles?

Have you tried other people giving her the bottle? Partner/Grandparents/babysitter etc?

Always been bottle fed, she was 50/50 breast milk and formula for 12 weeks. Then just formula. The aversion started around 4.5months

and yes she will not feed for anyone!

Dons flak jacket but you could try silver top cow's milk. It tastes a heck of a lot better and causes no harm to French babies. DD had it from 6 months and still loves it aged 27. She grew up perfectly healthy.

I don't think either of mine had much formula milk at 8 months. They were both breastfed but my eldest I was due to start work so tried, but she loved her food so much, I made sure she had plenty of yoghurt. I did worry about her fluid intake as she'd be dry overnight sometimes, bug week when she work she had breastfeed at bedtime at that age but can't have been getting much liquid.

Even now, she's 7 and she doesn't drink very much. Has tiny cups of water at a time, but has never had a UTI or kidney problems so a few years ago I stopped worrying.

My youngest did not like food much, was mixed fed with some bottles but never had more the 3/4 ones at a time. Then at about 2 years old he decides he will drink lots of milk.

I'm saying try not to worry too much, there's liquid in her meals and keep an eye on change in nappy patterns.

I have tried cows milk in her bottle to see if she will prefer it but she refuses it also . I think it is the sucking of the bottle she has an aversion to as she will not drink water from the bottle either

One was mine was like that. Paediatrician (we were in the US at the time so saw one for routine stuff) said it was fine so long as she was eating well, drinking plenty of water and taking vitamin drops which we added to her morning yoghurt. So pretty much in line with what your HV said i.e. don’t worry if eating food and staying hydrated. Getting DD to take water was a bit of a challenge initially but we gave her very diluted apple juice, which she would drink no problem, then over time gradually phased that out. Anyway she’s 8 now- healthy, average sized, drinks water no problem so it clearly didn’t do her any harm.

I was thinking about trying juice to help with the liquid intake. I think Tesco do a baby juice. I will have to have a look. Thank you. She currently sips the water but only tiny sips!

Do not give her juice! Teeth!! Baby juice is not actually a thing.

I'd take a few days off and then try again.

Never had any issues with teeth. It was literally a splash in water, offered with meals only and by the time she was 1 when the molars come in she was happily drinking plain water. Dehydration isn’t something you want to muck around with so if a baby literally won’t drink it’s definitely worth a try IMO. Also, not sure what you mean by take a few days off and how that would work when baby needs to drink regularly every day. OP does need to keep at it whether that’s with milk, water or anything else. But yes I agree baby juice isn’t a thing!

My nephew has used one of these ever since he needed any liquid not from a breast. I thought it was really strange at first having done bottles early on, then breast exclusively and then a sippy cup with my lad, but my nephew is a pro at it first from mum or dad and now at 2 doing it himself!

https://bibado.co.uk/products/silicone-sippit-cup

Thank you I got one. I will keep practicing with her x

This takes me back. SO STRESSFUL !!! DD1 went on a bottle strike at 7 months right before I went back to work. She had been mixed fed from birth and it wasn't an option to keep BFing when I went back to work so in the end she had to go cold turkey.

Things that helped for calcium and hydration
Frozen home made milk lollies [it was a boiling summer]
Weetabix with so much milk it was glorified broth
Soups
Tons of yoghurts, cheese.
Fruit - blueberries, grapes anything watery
Straws - had to teach her in a bath so it was like a game. No bubble bath obviously
Must have bought almost every cup and bottle going. The one that stuck was quite a small Tommee Tippee cup with two handles. The spout bit was rubbery rather than hard so she could also bite down on it*

*I think [sorry, long time ago now] that we finally twigged or read somewhere that sucking on a bottle made sore teething gums worse?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Browns-Soft-Spout-Transition/dp/B08TTQ4Z72?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A2KVF7QXNCLV8H&th=1

We weathered the year. The following summer was also very hot and she suddenly discovered a love for super cold milk so we never looked back.

Bear in mind that she's 8 months. She doesn't need 2 litres of water a day. Just because she's been having 4/5 bottles a day doesn't mean you have to match that fluid intake. Solid food should be accounting for at least 3 so focus on the nutrition.

I used a Doidy cup with all of mine
And don't be afraid of diluted 100% pineapple juice. FIL is a dentist and never allowed DH apple or orange juice as a child but he was allowed pineapple - less aggressively acidogenic especially diluted. A splash in water will be fine, and you could offer less diluted once they're happy drinking from cup

What about an open flow valve cup? Like a sports lid. Just pours in. Obviously extremely messy but worth a try

Otherwise what about strawberry milk?

Thank you ladies.
😫😫

Today she has had
Few sips of formula from a straw cup in the morning
Half a weatabix with about 1 or 2oz of formula
Some Greek yoghurt
Fingers foods offered - 2 strawberries & some toast with cheese and tomato spread (doesn’t eat much of the finger foods yet as they’ve just been introduced mostly sucks them)
4oz of formula dream feed
Petits filous with added vitamins
3oz of formula dream feed
Mashed carrot & avocado
Finger foods offered - Pastry , a tomato. She sucked the like out of 3 quarters of the tomato
She managed to drink about 2oz of water from straw cup!
She is asleep now, I will go in a try to dream feed her, hopefully get a couple more ounces in

But honestly to me this does not seem like enough liquid?!
When I give her the petits filous should I give her another meal instead? This is lunch time.

😫

just managed 4oz dream feed before she refused

There’s actually quite a lot of water in food. You can look up the water content of some of the things she’s eating and see that she’ll have taken some in through her food.
My kids went off feeding when they had ear infections; they would take milk or water from a spoon.

This is going to sound bad but I was desperate like you, I EBF and had to wean onto bottles abruptly when I got diagnosed with a health condition that needed me to take meds I couldn't BF on. I used to put a tiny bit of hot chocolate powder or vanilla extract in the bottle to entice him to take it. It worked and now he takes his bottle no bother with nothing in it x

She’s probably not drinking much formula because she’s full up on food. That’s a lot of food for an 8 month old baby, she doesn’t need loads of milk when she’s eating so much. If she eats well then I’d worry less about the milk and work more on water.

Porridge with formula mixed in.
Hydrating fruits.
Try a bottle before solids; waiting longer between offerings to ensure hunger.
Make bottles/foods more available in smaller amounts.

Remember they go through their own likes/dislikes plus growth spurts. It could also be that your dc has gone through a growth spurt so hunger has settled. At 8 mos rapid growth of a NB has now slowed.

She does not eat the finger foods yet?
so she really only ate half a weatbixs , yoghurt and mashed avocado & carrot

Has a cause for the feeding aversion been investigating? My daughter had feeding aversions cause by severe silent reflux and multiple food allergies. She didn't want to feed as feeding hurt.