My baby won't take a bottle

[Sugarplummy84]

She is 4 months and I want to stop bf but she screams and doesn't seem to associate a bottle with food! She won't suck it. Any tips?

no. sorry. I tried and tried from 4-5mo then gave up, introduced food at 6mo and then a cup and am now trying to give up bf (10mos)... my ds was happy with a bottle till around 3.5mo then just decided no and nothing is changing his mind.
sorry. probably not what you want to hear.

She won't associate a bottle with food, there's no reason why she would particularly.

I would just keep trying at the same time each day maybe. Some people find it can help if someone other than you gives the feed to begin with, with you out of sight/smell.

Are you giving expressed milk so it tastes the same? Mine will only take a bottle with a variable teat from anyone but me and there has to be no distractions and it is still difficult but getting better

have you tried different types of bottles? also, different types of formula? I was advised to use Aptamil because apparently it's the closest to breastmilk. Don't know how true that is but both my ds were fine with it though to begin with, they just seemed to mess about with the teat . they must have been about the same age as yours when I decided to switch to bottles and once they got their heads around the idea, they seemed to prefer it. DD (pfb) never did but I didn't persevere with her!

Give her an empty bottle to play with whilst on her play mat. She'll find her mouth at some point. Then add a little expressed or formula milk.
She'll then find the treat. Eventually she'll take it.
Hopefully!
I fell into the trap of buying all kinds of fancy bottles. Not necessary!!
Stick with one type. Play with it. Take the pressure to feed off.
It takes time.
Good luck!! X

VampyreofTimeandMemory, Aptamil is not "closest to breastmilk". By law, all infant "first" formulas have to contain the same ingredients, with only a few unimportant ingredients being allowed to vary. That's why it's called formula. Therefore there is very very little difference between formulas, and none of them are any "closer to breastmilk" than any other.

Formula manufacturers are explicitly banned from describing their products as "closer to breastmilk" since about 2007 (I think), as it is meaningless and misleading. Yak milk is closer to breastmilk than Diet Coke - doesn't mean that giving yak milk to babies under 6 months old is a good idea! Somehow the myth of Aptamil being better than the other formulas seems to be very persistent.

I mixed fed and both mine had aptamil in tommy tippee bottles. However, they are probably all similar so just persist.