Does anyone have a breast fed baby that refuses the bottle?

Kate - posted on 03/07/2010

My son has issues with the bottle too! he has taken a bottle when he has needed to if I am not around but he hast to be really hungry! I have tried so many differnt things, he really dpsn't like formula so stay with brest milk in the bottle for now. I have herd some brestfreed baby's only will use a sippy cup. keep trying differnt bottles and different nipples but i bet it only will work if he is real hungry! keep trying and ps soon she will not eat so much during the day so it will get eaiser!

Fallon - posted on 03/06/2010

All four of my kids dont like the bottle...first two flat out refused! and my twins will take it but mostly just play with it...it's not uncommon...Good luck..but if you don't actually NEED her to take a bottle just wait...she'll be ready for a sippy at about 6 months...good luck

Amanda - posted on 03/06/2010

Are you giving her breast milk or formula? My son would only take water out of a cup or bottle and refused any milk at all, until I worked out he only liked cold breast milk out of a bottle, won't touch formula though. Its just a lot of trial and error, is there any way you can postpone going back to work or have someone bring her into work so you can feed her?

Ashley - posted on 03/06/2010

My efforts would be spent on writing letters to my government about this atrocity. There is no reason why the USA should be one of the very last countries on this planet to not support mothers to stay at home and be able to breastfeed for at least a year. I'm incredibly thankful to live in Canada.

Use a spoon or a cup to feed. Good videos of cup feeding are here:

Cup Feeding:
http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_...

And also read:

When mother is working outside the home:
http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_...

Finger & Cup Feeding:
http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_...
feeding&catid=5:information&Itemid=17

Starting Solids:
http://www.nbci.ca/index.php?option=com_...
(early solids are proven safer for a 3-4 month old baby than potentially dangerous formula)

Hope you find some help in these links!

Ashley - posted on 03/06/2010

My boys had no desire to use a bottle. Although, we didn't try very hard. u can use a medicine syringe and put ur pinky (fingernail down) in her mouth and let her suck a bit, then use the syringe at the corner of her mouth and slowly squirt the milk out. Some babies will do this and others won't. It won't hurt to try.

Heather - posted on 03/06/2010

my daughter had the same problem and we never could get her to take a bottle @ 6months she would use the soft spout sippy cups.

Princess - posted on 03/06/2010

I went bac 2 wrk when my son was 2 1/2 months and his dad was keepin him... He wouldnt really eat like tat at 1st and i was ready 2 quit my job. This the only one of my kids i didnt stay hme with for a yr..... I gave it a shot when he was real hungry he eat.... I knw if u r around when other ppl is tryin 2 feed her u nt going let her cry u goin take her & feed her... I told his dad 2 take the shirt i slept in & put it on top his shirt & bsit him straight up 2 feed him.... Tat wrked out for us, so try tat.....

Amanda - posted on 03/06/2010

i have the same issue with my 7 month old he used to drink water from a bottle then oneday stopped i have lots of different bottles and teats none really appeal to him one is sometimes ok he will drink from it its a mam bottle target sell its about$10 aus per bottle other then that he will sip from a cup not a sippy cup but a cup all the best let me know if you find something that works please

Kasmira - posted on 03/06/2010

My son was like that. To start with he would, especially if i wasn't holding him (i'd put him in his pram) but then from 3 months onward he refused to drink from a bottle, then at 5 months he suddenly accepted it and was quite happy to drink from a bottle anytime. Good luck

Helen - posted on 03/06/2010

Hi, my 6 month old refuses. Have wasted many an expressed feed before giving up! Now I just use a cup. She won't even use a spout, just likes to sip. Probably some form of stubborn independance. At the end of the day, if you go to work, she will get hungry enough to make the effort I am sure, otherwise it will just have to be milk from a cup! And why not?

MeganClaire - posted on 03/06/2010

My baby refused the bottle at one month old when I offered and he has never taken a bottle. He is almost a year and I am still breastfeeding.... I tried bottles that are supposed to replicate the nipple, there is also a bottle at Babiesrus that looks like a boob with a nipple, maybe that will help :) But if you have to leave her and she needs to take a bottle. they will eat if they are hungry enough, I was just lucky to be a stay at home mom and go to college on-line that I never had to rely on a bottle. If you get ot stay home with your baby then they say it is fine to not ever use a bottle and to always breastfeed. Hope this helps :)

Jacky - posted on 03/06/2010

katelyn has a hard time taking a bottle. She is 3 months and has only had a handful of bottles so far. last week i was pretty sick and took some medicine......before i realized it might pass into the breastmilk, so i had to pump and dump for 24 hours. MAN SHE HATED THAT! She just about refused the first breastmilk bottle..... i had to feed it to her.
here are some tips....
get a little blanket (we call them snugglies) and hold it on you while you are nursing, to get your scent on it. then let her have it when she is away from you. if someone is giving her a bottle let her hold the blanket.
also, try to trick her and pull her in luke she is about to nurse, then put the bottle in her mouth.
katelyn would really only take the bottle if the breastmilk was REALLY warm. you could try that too.

i am sorry you are having problems....but please dont regret your decision to nurse. You are doing great! keep it up!

Jacky

www.mummiesnummies.com

Aicha - posted on 03/06/2010

have you tried different nipples and bottles my daughter refused bottles until I found the right one I use BREATFLOW it is exactly the same as getting her to latch on to a breast she uses the same muscles and that is what worked for us, also have someone else try feeding her and keep at it it will take time

Alicia - posted on 03/06/2010

Both of my sons refuse the bottle from my husband and myself. When I left them with a baby sitter they took the bottle after a little persuading. I think they realize that is all they are going to get until Mom returns.

Hend - posted on 03/06/2010

My son aged seven months,from two weeks come to like the bottle, and hi take Smillak milk, of course, slowly, slowly, from hunger thake him.Does not dictate, try to take the bottle to the child, I'm tired and tired of breastfeeding
good luck my dear

Shelbi - posted on 03/06/2010

Don't be regretful over breastfeeding even though this is a difficult transition.
Breast fed babies are less likely to be obese later in life, less likely to develop diabetes. Their risk for cancer, leukemia, and childhood illnesses go down a lot even if you can't nurse for the full 6 months.
They also have higher IQs and they typically have less trips to the doctor.
I use playtex vent-air bottles - I got a set that came with 2 types of nipples. Slow and fast.
I pump so I can do other things from time to time and when I do I use the slow nipple.
If you put the nipple at their nose just like you would if you were presenting the breast, it helps. It may also help to feed your baby away from where you nurse, and strip the baby down and get whoever is feeding her to lose their shirt.
Babies love the comfort of being at the breast and a lot of that has to do with trying to get as much skin to skin contact as possible.

Ashley - posted on 03/05/2010

mi son usto take the bootle wen he was born and i usto give him 1 b4 bed every night ..then i stopt because he was sleeping alrite just off mi breast... now hes nearly 7 months old and wont have a bar of the bottle but loves tommee tippe cups..

Victoria - posted on 03/05/2010

Hello, I had that same problem with my little one. I don't know if you have tried but the Breastflow bottles by The First Years really saved us. That got her used to the bottle then we were able to slowly move to others!! I hope this helps!!

Abbie - posted on 03/05/2010

My second baby never took a bottle. I went back to work at 3 months. She waited for me. We were reverse cycle and night nurse. I nursed her in the morning and as soon as I picked her up from daycare...and we nursed throughout the night. She was perfectly health, albeit wasn't as chubby as her baby friends.

Kelly - posted on 03/05/2010

I started expressing as I was getting loads of milk, my lil one took from the bottle up until a few days ago (6 wks old), he just total refused it but I found it has made it easier for me to breastfeed because I know he is happy with what he is getting from me. x

Kerry - posted on 03/05/2010

My son is now 10 1/2 months old and I am still breastfeeding him because he refuses to take a bottle. I am a stay at home mom though so it is ok. Recently what has worked for me is that he likes sucking out of a straw so I have gotten straw cups for him to drink out of. The problem I now have though is that he'll drink water and such out of the cup but he refuses to drink formula because he has always been breastfed. He had a few bottles of formula when he was very young but then one day he just refused to take them anymore. With my son we found out that his frenulum was too close to his tongue and he recently got it clipped in the OR. Maybe have a doctor check and make sure his frenulum is good. I know what you are going through, hang in there and I hope everything works out for you!

Suzanne - posted on 03/05/2010

Clio didn't like the bottle either, no matter what nipple I tried. So I tried a sippy cup!

Elaine - posted on 03/05/2010

Wow, lots of replies, so I am sure you will come right, JUST DONT GIVE UP! My son was exacly the same, I became so frustrated and I cried because I thought he will never take the bottle! I tried every nipple/sippycup, ect. He will drink juice or water out of cup or bottle but refused milk, so I went to our local clinic and got quite a few tips, hope this will work for you.:



1. I refused to give him anything else (no boob, no nothing) until I knew he was very

hungry (that was about night time before bedtime) and kept trying and kept trying

until he knew he wasn't getting anything else but that, eventually he would fall

asleep, and JUST BEFORE HE WAS FULL ASLEEP I would pull out his dummy

and replace it with the bottle, and he started sucking.... I kept doing this (making

him fall asleep in my arms and just before he falls into a deep sleep I put the bottle

in his mouth) and after 3 days he forgot mommy has a boob and drank his bottle

like a champ, sometimes he still pulls away but I keep putting it in his mouth and

eventually he starts sucking.



2. The nurse told me to put some tea in his milk (herball / or those you use for infants)

So what I did was make his bottle and make very strong tea in a small bit of boiled

water seperately and added that into his bottle( so the milk gor a bit of a flavour)



Hope this helps, just don't give up, just remember his instict is to survive so he will never go hungry, the first few days might be the hardest and try to put the bottle into his mouth when he wakes up at night, coz he would still be half asleep.



Good luck and let us know how it goes

Luisa - posted on 03/05/2010

Yes! buy the "Nuby" bottle. The bottle and nipple are soft silicone and it realy recembles the mom's nipple; plus the soft bottle helps you squees some milk in her mouth. Do not introduce the bottle for an entire feed. What I mean is, give her the boob as usual and the bottle with 1-2 oz as a snak in between,. This way she will get use to it, with no pressure and she wont be too hungyr to try something new. This is the way I am currently doing with my son and it is working!

Lindsey - posted on 03/05/2010

My son was the same way we finally got him to take a sippy cup he will only take it if its during the day his before bed feeding has to be boobies. I have a gerber and a nuby brand he likes both.

Stephanie - posted on 03/05/2010

I pump my milk so everything she is getting is breast milk and I try to make sure to warm it to the same temp and it is straight from the source. She just has a wonderfully strong irish temper. I mean sometimes this stubborn little girl is even picky as to what boob she drinks from (her favorite is the left.) I have nearly 200 bottles froze of milk and I am just hoping that someday she will take a bottle so it does not go to waste.
Again, Thank you for all the suggestions. We will keep trying. If I know she will eat at least a little bit from the bottle then I will not be so stressed about going back to work.

Eva - posted on 03/05/2010

I breastfed my DD till she was 14 months and she also refused bottle from the very start. She took it later when she was about 10 months though. I was lucky to go back to work then so by then she was on solids and did not mind the bottle and I continued BF during nights. I have 2 month old DS and he also refuses the bottle so I will do the same.
Do not feel like prisoner, this time is the only time you can truly bond with your child and will never come back again, so enjoy it. If you have to go back to work and there really is no other alternative ( statutory mat leave is 6 months) then do not worry she will not starve. When she is very hungry she will have no alternative but to take it. To make the transition easier, use breast milk and get someone else give her the bottle as she might not take it from you as she knows there is better alternative. Be prepared for fe tears though probably from both you and her.
Good luck

Michelle - posted on 03/05/2010

My sister in law had a hard time giving her little girl a bottle. To begin with she had to get her husband and friends to fed her daughter as she refused the bottle from her. Also she said if she put on one of her husbands jumpers and fed her daughter. It's tough. Enlist lots of help I am sure your friends and family will love it.

Melody - posted on 03/04/2010

my dd is 14 mos old, took a bottle at about 2 mos then hubby got sick and we didn't offer it, never took it again. however the breastfeeding support group had a lot of great ideas. one thing the head nurse stressed was trying only one brand/type of bottle and sticking with it, we didn't know that at the time. we tried many... also suggested by another mom is have dad feed with baby on lap leaning on belly/chest facing away...as i recall more suggestions, i will post...

Maria - posted on 03/04/2010

is the milk warm? are you trying to feed her? cuz if you tryingt o feed her it helps to have someone feed her for you since they can smell our boobs right next to them. i think they prefer our breast milk then formula. if it is formula maybe she doesnt like it. are you pumping? my daughter was the same way...i went from buying the cheapest to the most expensive bottles then she finally took the soothie bottles. the bottles nipple looks exactly like the pacifires that the hospital give you. the green ones. good luck...i know its hard to see that with your baby... just make sure you get a patient babysitter who will sit with her and encouage her to feed. if shes really hungry SHE WILL take the bottle. LOL

Rachelle - posted on 03/04/2010

are you using formula or pumped breast milk?
if formula its possible she doesnt like the brand?
my son was extremly picky about the formula he had. i breastfed, but i also substituted in here and there with a bottle. and he hated the bottle and hated formula.
try rubbing some of your breast milk on the nipple of the bottle and see if she will will take that way.
good luck!

Victoria - posted on 03/04/2010

It took me 2months and about 10 different bottles to get my baby girl to feed out of a bottle. I found the flat nipples worked in the end, but it was just perserverence. I found that if I gave her a bottle when she first woke up she would take it, but at first she would only take it off her daddy and i couldn't be in the room. Heating the nipple and putting some milk on the end seemed to help a bit too, also feeding her before she was crying for it, so she still knew she didnt have to scream to get fed.
Just keep trying, you will get there!

Ashley - posted on 03/04/2010

Im going through the exact same thing...My daughter is 5 months and refuses any type of nipple/bottle. Since nothing works I guess I will just continue to feed her from the breast...

Breanne - posted on 03/04/2010

yes, my son! He's 16 months now but I tried at 6 months to give him a bottle and it was a no go.

Melissa - posted on 03/04/2010

My daughter is 8 months old and has always refused a bottle (and binky)!! I tried probably about six different types and got other people to feed her while I was out on an errand, but the result was always the same. I have been trying the sippy cup for over a month now and she just wants to chew on it. I completely understand where you are coming from! My daughter has to be with me constantly because she is what I call a "snacker" and feeds very frequently. It's very hard to not get any alone time for myself, but at this point, I have no choice and my daughter comes first. As a result of this, I had to quit my job because I couldn't find a sitter that would agree to watch her. One night I had to go to my best friend's bachelorette party and she REFUSED to take the bottle and screamed for 5 hours with daddy before she finally gave in which was when she was 4 months old. If you can handle it, I would maybe try giving her no other option but the bottle and the first few days will probably be really hard, but eventually she will learn. I had to do this with sleep training and it killed me the first night of crying but it was the best thing I ever did with my daughter. When my daughter was first born I had to sometimes put sugar water on my nipples to get her to latch on, you could maybe try putting that on the bottle to see if she will at least suck a little she will realize it's mommy's milk in there was well. Good luck to you Stephanie!

Jemma - posted on 03/04/2010

i know that feeling!! im having the same problem. i gave Ava a beaker that helped a little!

Stephanie - posted on 03/04/2010

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I guess we will just have to keep trying things to see if any work. I would never have waited to introduce the bottle to her if I knew this would be the outcome. I love knowing the she is getting my milk and I would not change that but I would have been pumping right away and having her dad give her a bottle.

Kathy - posted on 03/04/2010

I have had that problem with all four of my boys. They would not and my youngest still will not take the bottle. Only my youngest one has even taken a binky. Not sure why. When I went back to work with my third son he wouldn't even take the bottle for the sitter. I would nurse him before I left and he would refuse to eat until I got home 8 hours later. Then he nursed like it was going out of style. Sitter said he was never fussy though just wanted to wait for mommy I guess.

Siri - posted on 03/03/2010

Well my daughter is 10 months and about 2 months ago I got sick and tried to give her some frozen milk, but she wouldn't take a bottle cause it had been about 2-3 months since she had one last and wouldn't take it, she didn't even take it from her sippy cup. good thing i could feed her the next day. It sounds normal. I wouldn't take a bottle when I was a baby.

Francesca - posted on 03/03/2010

My Ella is ten months. She refused the bottle. Still. And I have tried every make and model. She took sippy cups for a while and then flat out stopped. I have the best time to get her to take a cup with a straw. She loves the novelty of it. She has been doing that since 4 months old. However, I do not use this as a mode of getting pumped milk to her. She will use it for water, mostly. She likes the boob to much. Last time I tried to get her to take a bottle, she tried to pull down my sister-in laws shirt and latch... Its a huge joke now that you can't wear low cut shirts near my daughter.

Jessica - posted on 03/03/2010

My 6 month old daughter wouldn't take a bottle either, nor a pacifier. She has been taking a sippy cup once a day for about a month. She is doing well with that - I use the Nuby brand.

I don't know if a 2-3 month old would take a sippy cup very well tho.

Mallory - posted on 03/03/2010

yes my son is 8 months old today and REFUSES the bottle, the bottle can have my breast milk in it but refuses to drink it and throws a fit.. which has been a nightmare gettin to have any time to myself.. i got him to take the bottle last week for 2 whole days by putting warm formula and a baby jar of apple sauce in the bottle weird i know lol. but it worked for a whole 2 days lol.. i hope you find something to help u and let me know what u find out i would love to know what to do also

Kim - posted on 03/03/2010

My son hated bottles but there were some situations where I wouldn't be home until after a feeding and my husband had to handle it. We would actually warm the milk and them feed it to him from a dropper. It was that way until we started giving him a cup at 9mon. Then we just gave it to him in a cup. Good luck :)

Keisha - posted on 03/03/2010

My daughter did the same thing at 4 months. I found these really great bottles that mimic breastfeeding their called Breastflow by First Years. Heres a link since their hard to find in store http://shop.learningcurve.com/breastflow...



Good Luck!!!

Ashley - posted on 03/03/2010

My son did this, but we didnt introduce bottles until 10 months. Babies like breast because its also a comfort for them. It might be easier to do this when she is older. If you absolutly have to give her a bottle, make sure someone else always does it so that she no longer associates you with the breast and bottle.

Nikki - posted on 03/03/2010

do you feed her with the bottle when she's already hungry and unsettled, or do you try and get her before she realizes she's hungry? and when you leave the babysitter/ your husband wait til she's starting to get frustrated? try giving it to her right after she wakes up or like 15 to 30 mins before she would typically get hungry.... but like the PP said, she doesn't have to have a bottle, even with you working, she can get used to a little cup... and don't start getting frustrated about breastfeeding.... you still have a month to get the transition to a bottle, be glad you didn't wait until the week before you returned, things will work out

Stephanie - posted on 03/03/2010

Shaina ~ Yes I have tried to leave and it just does not help.

Larissa ~ Did you or your sister have to work? I don't see how I could ever be OK with it if I have to be working fulltime in a month from now.



I am starting to feel regret for even breastfeeding at all.

Larissa - posted on 03/03/2010

My son and my nephew were the same. Neither of them EVER ended up taking a bottle, but my sister and I were ok with that.

Shaina - posted on 03/03/2010

Have you tried a cup? We used a shot glass. Or smothing else thats small for them. Also, have you tried leaving the room or house when your husband feeds her? I hope that helps. Good luck!