Getting baby to take a bottle

[Wreckingball25]

Evening all

I'm looking for advice on how to get our (almost) seven month old breastfed baby to take a bottle again.

She's started weaning quite well and eats a fair bit at lunchtime and a little bit in the morning and evening, loves baby-led and feeding herself so doing a combination of purées and other stuff.

I want to start mixed feeding her as we're getting married next month and then having a couple of nights away without her. We booked the wedding for when she was eight months so that she would be either mixed or formula fed by then!

She's always taken the odd expressed bottle fine, any type of bottle offered, up until last week when I tried her on formula. She's now refusing any bottle, even with fresh breastmilk in (maybe she thinks I'm trying to trick her?!) and went 48 hours with hardly any milk when I left her with her dad this weekend, she finally succumbed and took 7oz of formula at 5am on Sunday but then refused again until I got back 11 hours later.

Does anyone have any bright ideas? I've tried letting her watch TV to distract her, not being here (for quite some time!), different bottles, different milks (three formula types plus the expressed) and all I've managed is 1oz in half an hour. She clamps her mouth shut or chews the teat and then cries if we persist

Thanks in advance

Can't help very much as both of mine were bottle refusers but if yiu search the NN archive you may get sone useful tips

We're had a similar problem with our almost 4 month old. She'd refuse (as in: scream at) expressed milk after we let the daily bottle slide for a few weeks. We tried everything for weeks, no success. Then yesterday she suddenly took a bottle with no sign of protest. The only thing we changed was to make the milk very warm. might have been coincidence, but perhaps worth trying...

Does she drink water from a sippy cup? Have you tried using a sippy cup for milk?

If she did eventually take a bottle, then presumably sometime during the two nights away she'll cave and take some milk. If not, then she'll be ok with food and water until you get back.

Have you tried different teats? The old fashioned brown ones are good.

At 7 months I wouldn't bother with a bottle and just try a selection of cups instead. Try it cold from the fridge. If she refuses still then focus on getting fluid and calcium via food. Plenty of yogurt, fruit purées etc.

Thank you all so much! Yes, she'll take water from a sippy or doidy cup but not milk totally odd! Where's your survival instinct, kid?!
I tried her today with a tiny splash of vanilla extract in the formula and she necked 4oz and shouted for the bottle so that'll be our go-to tactic if she refuses I think... and that was cold ready-mixed formula.
Cheers