Baby refusing bottle

[premama]

Hi,

My 3 month old is refusing to drink from the bottle - at most he will only drink 20-25ml. I leave breastmilk for him when I go out but as he refuses to drink a lot, I always need to rush home to feed him (and the defrosted/just expressed milk goes to waste).

I am worried that he will continue to refuse the bottle when I go back to work in just over a month ....this is my 2nd child and I never had any problems with my 1st taking the bottle so I don't know how to deal with this situation. I would be grateful for any advice/tips.

Thanks!

 

[yonge]

Dear Premama

My first refused the bottle as I was getting ready to go back to work. I was told to try the sippy cup as well as the cup and spoon at 3 months, but he didn't take to those either. In the end, I asked the company to allow me to work flex-time, to accommodate breastfeeding, which they were surprisingly happy to do - allowed the company to brag about their family-friendly environment later. I would go into the office by 7:30am after the morning feed, go back home for a lunchtime feed at 11:30am and knock off at 3:30am for the aftrnoon feed. That allowed me to get an evening feed before putting him to bed and he would wake up 1-2 more times in the night. I would make myself available for conference calls in the evening after that. He probably would have woken less a night if I could have squeezed 5-6 feeds in during the day, but I figured that was the price I had to pay to keep working. Hope your line of work and your employer are accommodating, as I really treasured being able to breastfeed him until he was weaned at 17 months.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

What I noticed of my thaw out breastmilk was that it was a bit stinky and yucky, quite different from the fresh stuff I was pumping out. My baby also refused it (but it was more of a bottle issue for him). I read that babies prefer bottle milk that is a degree or so warmer than fresh breastmilk, and also some will refuse the bottled breastmilk if they know the real stuff will be coming soon. If you don`t mind giving him formula, you can try putting that in a bottle for your helper to give when you are away. I didn`t want him to drink formula at that time...then again, I was there 24hrs a day for him to drink at his leisure.

 

[LeahH]

Can you try a different type of bottle, maybe the adiri natural nurser (I've never tried it, but it's supposed to be more like the breast shape wise).

If he's refusing 'just expressed' milk, I guess it is not the taste of the milk that is the issue.

Have you tried going out for the whole day, for more than one feed or two, so he get's really hungry? My friend was down to the wire before going back to work and had to do that. Her husband took two days off work, she went out in the morning and came home at night, he stayed home with the baby and worked at it until the baby finally took the bottle.