Breast fed baby refuses to take bottle

M

may.dj

Registered User
Hi need advise on workable solution to get my 4m to take a bottle of expressed breast milk. She will push the bottle nipple out, fuss and cries within 5 mins with the bottle. I mostly have my helper try to feed her during day feeds. Usually giving up after half an hr to an hr of trying. I plan on continuing bf at nights but would like her to take a bottle during the day (so I can start work again). Any advise on how to teach her to take a bottle?
 
There are a few threads on this topic if you do a search. Try different bottles/nipples, different positions and perhaps feeding baby while sleepy will make them less likely to reject the bottle. One thing that helped my breastfed baby was feeding her a bottle while in a sling. Keep trying!! Pumping at work isn't easy, but so worth it.
 
I panicked too when this happened with my baby but I persisted with the general recommendations for switching to bottle - have someone else feed the baby, try to leave the house during that time...I started off with expressed breastmilk so that at least the taste would be the same and I would do at least one feed a day in the bottle, starting a bit over a couple of weeks before I went back to work. I also had to switch to a different teat from the one I first tried...I fist tried Dr Brown's because my baby was colicky and those bottles had worked with my son; however she didn't like the Dr Brown's teat. I ended up with a Pigeon (or Nuk... ouff can't remember which) teat which is brown in colour and she took to that better. Unfortunately, then she pretty quickly started rejecting the breast so I persisted with just expressed breastmilk in a bottle for as long as I could.
 
Thanks for the encouragement. I am persisting. Hoping to eventually win against a 4m old!! I am trying all the usual recommendations. It's now week 3 of about 3 feeds a day starting with bottle (with eventual top up from me) but I think she's learning. Only getting about 20-30mls from bottle (i suspect half was spilled) but it's a start. I'm trying to not get too frustrated but sometimes it's hard. She's actually my 2nd. Luckily i had no issues with the boy he just took his food in any way shape or form... Are girls fussier??
 
Your girl might end up reverse cycling as mine did on a few occasions when she'd go on bottle strike. She'd sometimes go longer stretches of time during the day with little expressed milk and then nurse frequently when I'm home in the evenings and early morning.
 
One thing you can try is to make the bottle feeding as different to breastfeeding as possible. So try having the baby sitting with her back against you and bring the bottle from around the front. Four months is a time when babies like to try new things so often this approach works.

But it if doesn't work do remember that a four month old can learn to drink from a cup - this way you can avoid bottles altogether.

Best wishes,
SARAH
www.lotuslactation.com
 
Sarah, any other advise on feeding from cup? I'm thinking of doing this since bottle isn't really working and by the end of this week it will be 3 weeks or trying. Time for a change of tactics I think...
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Hi,
I'm not sure if this counts as a tip but the way I found easiest when starting to use a cup was to have the baby sitting on my lap facing out and bringing the cup up to the baby's mouth in a similar way to drinking myself.
My babies also enjoyed holding their own cups. I found ones with two handles were the easiest for them to manage.
I'd also suggest starting with water as they will spill it everywhere at first.
Best wishes,
SARAH
 
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