6 month baby on bottle strike

Charmieology

New member
Hi guys!
My baby just turned 6 months and is rejecting to drink from his baby bottle ever since he got well from a cough last week. He would only drink a couple of ounces every 3 hours but if he drinks direct from me, he will drink a lot. He use to drink a lot from his bottle, with no problems. Anyone experiencing the same thing? Most importantly, how do I solve this and make him drink a lot again from his bottle? Thank you!:)
 
My little one did something very similar at 61/2 months. I had to take a tough approach as I was spending a night away and needed her to take a bottle. I only offered her a bottle for feeds, no breast. She held out for 18 hours, then took a bottle. No problems since. I am lucky, she's a happy baby and so wasn't fussy in between feeds (or feed attempts!). If she had cried her eyes out between I might not have been able to stay tough :)
 
When my daughter was younger she did the same thing! Would go for hours without eating/drinking until I offered her the breast again! Maybe teething and wanting extra comfort? I think that's what happened in our case. Took a couple of days and then she was happy (kind of...) with bottle again.
 
Try having another person feed with a bottle and you completely out of baby's sight. Babies are smart, if your breasts are right there, why choose a bottle? ;-)
 
My 10 week old has just started to refuse the bottle. Ever since birth she has taken both breast and bottle with no problems. But in the last three days has been refusing to take a bottle feed. She has to take a bottle feed as I am returning to work. Any suggestions?
 
try having someone other than use bottle feed her...sometimes when you bottle feed your baby they will smell the breast milk and if they prefer that, it will be hard for you to do both. i am sure she will drink when she is hungry - but try having someone else feed first to get her slowly accustomed to it - like say a meal or 2 a day and then slowly increase - perhaps you could use EBM instead of formula too so that she will not just associate breast milk with you but that it also comes in a bottle....
 
Having done some research we tried the following EBM warmed slightly more than I would normally, also warmed the teat. Then gave baby her dummy. When she was calm removed dummy and gave her the bottle. So far so good. Three feeds and no problems. We also fed her a little earlier than normal so she was not starving. Will reinforce it tomorrow by doing bottle feeds all day. Fingers crossed it continues to work!
 
Back
Top