Back to work but refusing bottle..

[krc]

Hi - I wondered if anyone had had to deal with this and how! Would love to hear others' experiences... My ds is 6 months old, I'm going back to work f/t (with out of hrs too) in 6 weeks and am worried how to manage. He is now on 3 meals a day but not really very substantial (no meat / cheese etc. yet, though will probably do this soon). He's still bf 2-3 times during the day (when I'd be at work). He's interested in cup but not taking enough yet. Am also hesitant to ask cm to give him milk from cup as will be messy +++, though she is very accommodating. Will also need to leave with dp who clearly cant bf either! Would rather avoid a bottle battle if possible but time running out!

is it ebm?
coz apparently defrosted ebm tastes different, but theres something you can do to make it better... search on here, is where i read about it.

and re the bottle itself, theres a fair few different designs of cups and bottles and its a bit of trial and error... and persistance im afraid.

gawd i remember this frustration so well

a couple of my own experiences: haberman feeder is one type of bottle where the adult feeding has some control over the pouring of the liquid... and ive found anywayup cups to be too hard from any of my dc to suck through.

also, if he manages without milk during the day i dont suppose it will kill him iyswim. he may be so stubborn about it not being you that he refuses all other mediums... but im sure he'll either cave eventually or be able to make it up at beginning and end of each day...

krc wanted to give you support, this happened to me when DD was 6.5 months. I had to take an extra month mat leave as couldn't get DD to take a bottle of formula or EBM. I was so stressed. In the end didn't bother with a bottle and went from breast to a cup of formula. She was on 3 full meals including meat.

At 7.5 months he'd be fine all day without breast milk. He could have water/juice or cow's milk in a cup and plenty of soggy food - yogurts/fruit etc.

I would keep trying him with different cups though...mine liked the ones with zany cartoon charaters on (from Tesco??) with 3 holes that are really fast flow.

I'm assuming that you'll be able to give him a bfeed morning, pick up and bedtime so he'll still be getting most of his milk intake this way.

HTH

Thanks everyone - nice to know others have managed! I've tried EBM (frozen and fresh), various different bottles and cups, but not yet the haberman feeder - might give this ago! Otherwise, I'll persevere with the freeflow cup and hope cm doesn't have too awful a time! Also good to know that he should be ok with just morning and evening feeds, will get him eating lots of yoghurts. I was due to go back to work now - thank god I took an extra month! Thanks again

just a warning - you may find he starts waking for one or more night feeds ('reverse cycling') once you go back...

That's true Mrs Badger - the bedtime feed has to be llloooonnnngggggg!!!!

Oh no! He's only just starting to sleep at night. Oh well, thanks for prewarning me...

On the other hand he'll be so tired from playing all day he may well sleep better - you never know.

Thanks for that glimmer of hope laundrylover! Will prepare myself for any eventuality..

krc you have my sympathy - I had same problem with dd and it was very stressful. In the end I had to dash across the city every day during my lunch break to bf her at nursery. This was stressful in itself but definitely worth it as would have been very unfair making her go all day without a bf - she would have been utterly miserable. I did the lunch time dash for several months until she finally took a bottle.

If she is with a child minder, I would consider getting the child minder to bring her TO YOU at lunch time or when you have a break and meet somewhere quiet very close to your work in order to bf. That way both you and the baby will be much happier. It might seem like an extreme solution, but will not last forever and it is stressful enough going back to work without having this worry too.

Actually I am caught in same problem AGAIN with another baby refusing bottle, but luckily I work from home now so it is not an issue. Good luck krc!