How to get baby to take bottle

[Grotty]

Hello out there forumites,

I know this is an age old topic but I'm in need of advice/comparable stories/assurance it will all be ok!

My 5 month old daughter is refusing to take a bottle. Unlike my first daughter, I haven't done any expressing/bottle feeding with her at all so the bottle is a totally new thing. However, I want to be able to go out in the evenings/get hair cut in the daytime/have a bit of freedom so could really REALLY do with her taking the bottle, and she will have to in the next few months when I go back to work.

For 3 days in a row now I have offered the bottle just before bed when I know she is hungry - each time she wails as soon as the bottle teat goes in her mouth despite getting some milk drops. She just has no idea what to do with it. Each night she has cried until falling fast asleep, which is then a problem as she goes to sleep without a feed (wakes an hour later when I breastfeed) - First 2 nights I tried expressed milk, 3rd night I tried formula. We have done the same during the day with post-morning nap feed which my husband has done but still same problem. Tried 2 different teats - Avent and Nuk - same response.

I know this is all about perserverance - a friend of mine went to see an "expert" recently out of desperation and after an hour and a half of trying the baby caved in, but how to get to this?

My questions are:

Do you keep going with the teat in the mouth despite crying or calm baby down between each attempt?

How do you deal with the fact that baby is essentially missing a feed?

Do you really just keep going until they cave in or set time limits for trying before offering boob?

Is there a best time of day to be trying?

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks

[nunheadmum]

With my second, we introduced a bottle early on then, as she was taking it fine, didn't worry too much about doing it again as I wasn't great at expressing. Come trying it around the 4 month mark, she totally refused. We tried every bottle on the market and she still wouldn't do it.

We were advised to keep trying it at every single feed, before giving the boob. (We used formula rather than expressed so no worries about chucking it away.) I think the idea is to make them realise that it's going to be part of life. My LO refused it for near on a month or more....even the 'supernanny' we'd been working with on it had given up on her. Then one day we were out in the park and, not sure if she was just distracted and forgot to resist, but she took almost a full bottle. I couldn't believe my luck! From there on, I did a lot of feeding in the park!! (I was heading back to work so needed her to take the bottle.)

We were never advised to miss a feed or let her get distressed. I think that's the hard-line approach when you need a baby to change quickly. But if you're only doing it at one feed, I suspect the baby would do as yours is - hold out and then wake up later and get what it wants.

It's really tough trying to do it when their minds are set against it. It feels a little like having to prove that your will is greater than theirs!

Good luck!

[Fuschia]

Never and any success with child 1

Twins, the minder cracked it when I went back to work at 7m

Moral 1: baby can manage without daytime milk if it comes to it

Moral 2: sometimes they just accept it once you are out of the frame

[mammamia]

Similar story for us... We did try our 4mo on expressed bottle in his first few weeks & he was enthusiastic and seemed to take it well. So stupidly thought we had it covered! Fast forward a few months & we've been rubbish at keeping up with a regular bottle feed (so much easier when there's a toddler about just to do a quick breast feed!) and que his point blankrefusal to take bottle from daddy after mummy's been out on a heavily wine based catchup with old friend... So, in just the last week we've finally had a bit more success. We perservered with Nuk bottle (tho had been just about to start trying tommee tippee, breast flow etc) and it seemed to help first few feeds were expressed & then immed offered in a bottle. Also had him in his bouncer chair with TV on and I think this was prob key factor in our final success. He's still not got amazing bottle teat suck but has been taking around 4oz per night, & was even trying to hold bottle himself last night. Also might help if you are not around at all so no sight or smell of a possible breast feed. We also tried him with bottle well before next feed was due whivh seemed to reduce crossness levels that it wasn't a boob being offered! Keep trying! Fingers crossed you'll get there!

[Saffron]

Have you tried a Yoomi self-warming bottle? http://www.yoomi.com/ John Lewis sells them. I found that the teat on these was much softer and more realistic than any of the other bottles we tried. They are not cheap, but you might not need more than one or two if you're giving a bottle occasionally. I found the slow flow was faster than I expected, and certainly plenty for even a very young baby.