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Taking a bottle.

Andrea - posted on 02/10/2009 ( 10 moms have responded )

Hi. My daughter is about 5 1/2 months, will be 6 months on the 28th. I've tried pumping ever since she was 6 weeks and haven't been successful. At first, I would save the one ounce I could get each time, and after a few weeks, I would have enough to feed her a feeding or two. At that point, she took a bottle no problem. Since then, however, pumping became even more difficult, and I finally gave up, because it was exhausting me and because her feedings are bigger, so it takes forever to get enough for just one feeding. Now that she is a little older, I feel like if I gave her a little formula here or there so I could get a break, it'd be okay. Problem is, NOW, she won't take the bottle. She screams and cries. Even if I give it to someone else to feed it to her, she gets upset, whether I am there or not. But as soon as I give her the breast, she's fine. I don't really want to give up on this, because I would really like to get a break now and then, but I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions??

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Andrea - posted on 02/12/2009

Thanks for the suggestions. I picked up new formula- concentrated- today. I'll keep at it, any more suggestions are much appreciated!

Joanne - posted on 02/11/2009

I had the same problem with my little one. She is now 6 months on the 15th and we tried for a good 3 weeks. We eventually found that she hated the powder formulas so she gets the concentrate from Enfalac. She also went through a ton of nipples and now we have her on the Playtex Nurser with the latex nipple. It seems to be softer than the silicone one. Don't give up, keep at it! Good luck!

Tara - posted on 02/10/2009

i am in the exact same boat as you. my daughter is 5.5 months old 6 mos on the 26th and refuses a bottle every time i try. i do manage to sneak one in once in a while during her night feeding. i use a "mam" bottle bcause the silicone nipple flattens out like a natural breast would in the mouth but she's sleepy so how could she tell?! during the day it doesn't matter if its formula or breast milk in the bottle, she won't take it. just be persistent, try every hour but don't give her the breast. she'll eventually learn to take the bottle and she won't starve. i went through the same thing with my 10 year old.

Christina - posted on 02/10/2009

My daughter is 6mo old now and I am still breast feeding...I have been bottle feeding her since she was 4mo old. We tried the Avent bottles and she wasn't too sure about those so then I intorduced the Breastflow by the first years! They are great! She loves them. Now I only breast feed at night right before bed and in the morning. Try those and see what happens....it might take her a minute but keep trying. They are just like the breast. Let me know if they work out for u. Good Luck

Lisa - posted on 02/10/2009

You could try using a sippy cup. They make sippy cups that have a rubber-type top (sorry I don't know exactly what it's called), that are similar to a bottle. Since she's already 6 months old it would be nice to cut out the bottle completely, then you won't have to break her of the bottle later on.

Terri - posted on 02/10/2009

we are using Enfamil A+. We tried Similac advanced, Heinz, Nestle Good start (this was my son's second choice but still was a little fussy with it), and finally the Enfamil.

Kerry - posted on 02/10/2009

I'm not sure if I'd have fancied doing this myself due to the pain in your breasts if you can't express but my friend had to go 'cold turkey' with her son who wouldn't take a bottle and that worked!! Don't know how long it took but he obviously became hungry enough that he realised he needed to get used to a bottle, but because she didn't express and had suddenly stopped feeding I believe she had a lot of pain. Personnally for me I had to use a different type of bottle/teat before my baby boy (now 5.5mths) would take a bottle but I did find expressing ok and gave at least one bottle every day from 2 weeks old. Good luck.

Kerry - posted on 02/10/2009

Andrea - posted on 02/10/2009

we've tried different nipples, but not formulas...what kind of formula did you settle with??

Terri - posted on 02/10/2009

Is it the bottle nipple she doesn't like or the taste of the forumla? With my son we tried 4 forumla's before we found one he would take. He also was picky when it came to bottle nipples, he wouldn't take the latex ones, it had to be silicone and slow flow. I know this isn't much help, but I would say keep offering it to her and try different styles of nipples.