No to bottle. No to formula and double no to cups. Where from here?

[smithypants]

Hello (new to Mumsnet)
I have a 8mo who is v determined. I've been trying to wean him since May and it is going disastrously.

I now go back to work in 2 weeks and am really worried he is going to really suffer. I have breastfed since birth and am now down to 2-3 feeds a day.

I have tried everything to first get him onto bottles with breast milk, then formula, then repeated this with cups - nothing has worked and he would rather go without.

He does eat loads of AK puree and finger food (++ dairy etc) but I feel really uncomfortable leaving him at nursery knowing he is not going to take a single drink.

The reason I say he is determined is because he has taken a few bottles of bm at nursery and taken 8oz of formula with me. After this, nada.

Is he hydrated as long as taking puree?
Should I go cold turkey on the bf? I am desperate to stop feeling as I think it will end up killing me if doing my job as well.

Help me please!

Keep up the morning and evening feeds, does he take any other fluid from cups?

he'll be fine
carry on feeding morning and night, and maybe when you pick him up from nursery if you feel he needs it

does he drink other things from a cup? water?

Keep up morning and evening feeds. My DD was the same. HV said the amount she would be getting from 2 good BF and with dairy in her foods would be fine.

Also couldn't get DS on to formula when I weaned him, and he had blown out the breast at that stage (10 months). We got him to drink cows milk by lettinghim "share" our cereal in the morning, DH put full fat milk in his. After a week or two he would drink it in a cup, but for a while he would only have water.

(I know they aren't meant to have cows milk as a drink until after a year, but I figured it had more nourishment that water.)

The other tip I was given was to use formula in cereals etc.

Good luck with going back to work.

Hi smithy,
Know what you're going through - I went back to work fulltime when my DS was 6.5 months - he refused a bottle and wasn't a brilliant eater. Everyone reassured me saying that he'd take a bottle when he realised there was nothing else. He didn't. We both survived, though, and now he's 10 months old, drinks some milk out of a cup and eats well. Somehow we got through it but it's been tough - he increased his feeds at night and I felt I couldn't deny him these feeds because he wasn't getting any milk in the day.... plus I was back at work and getting more and more knackered!

So sorry, no magic solutions and probably not what you want to hear, but you will get through it!

My daughter refused bottles and sippy cups but willingly drinks from a doidy cup. Before I discovered that I spoonfed her water (!). PFB, I know. . .

It's kind of cheating, but maybe put a spoonful of juice in the water? Maybe not if your LO has teeth already, and I would only do it to get started.

If these things fail, add water to the purees -- that's what I did. It helped a bit.

Try not to worry -- I think we get very emotional about BF and weaning. You're probably apprehensive about returning to work, and the LOs pick all this up. It's entirely possible that someone at nursery will casually offer him a drink and he'll accept it.

I had this when i went back to work when my dd was nearly one and refused a bottle /cup etc . I spent the first day with engorged breasts in a state of panic thinking how dehydrated she would be ,only to discover when i picked her from the CM she had been happily downing bottle after bottle of milk , she has continued to be as contrary !

My daughter was similar. I know it's hard not to worry but so long as you're still feeding him morning and night and he's eating ok, he'll get fluids from his food and he'll drink if he's thirsty and it's offered to him. My 3yo still rarely drinks during the day but has loads of milk in her cereal for breakfast, lots of juicy fruit and will either drink nothing all day or down cups and cups of water depending on how she feels!

Oh and she will always drink at nursery! As well as trying lots of new food there but not at home, purely because everyone else does. You might find he'll drink from a cup if he sees all the other children doing it.