Baby refusing bottle - any tips?

[Bellenden Belle]

Baby Belle has always been very easygoing when it comes to milk. Bottle or boob, expressed or formula - he didn't care as long as he got it.

He's six months old and has taken to solids with some gusto. He'll happily eat three meals a day. But obviously he still needs milk.

For the first time this week he has started refusing anything but breast. I am due back at work in two months and so this has come as a bit of a shock. Have other people encountered this? Any advice? My next move is to bypass the bottle entirely and encourage him to drink milk out of his Tommee Tippee cup which he loves taking water from - is this the best approach?

[nikki73]

How frustrating. Not sure whether it's the best approach but it was the only one that worked with my eldest. you've probably thought of this but could it have anything to do with the flow of the teat?

[Ruth_Baldock]

I would give the sippy cup a go tbh, make a big novelty out of it?

[cashewnut]

We had a similar situation. We'd been giving a bottle of expressed milk for the late feed then dropped it only to find a month or so later the baby refusing a bottle. We tried a sippy cup with a soft spout (NUK) and had no problems.

[mrs f]

try different cups and bottles... you never know

if all else fails then just feed first thing and at bedtime if your work schedule allows... he is prob only having one other feed a day by that point which they will take when you aren't there... or if they miss it it won't be a big deal

then when they are over one go cold turkey with cup/bottle whatever as if they don't drink it it's no big deal...

that is what we did anyway... you might not be able to / want to feed for so long..

[Bellenden Belle]

Huge thanks to everyone who replied.

Nikki - I hadn't thought about changing the flow of the teat, having already changed once at around four months - so that's my next move. Thank you.

I have now tried the Sippy Cup with milk. Oh my! The first time I think he was properly hungry but he wouldn't touch a drop - just screamed when I put him back down until he got boob. Then I tried it when he'd already had milk and was in a superb mood - he held the milk in his mouth whilst he shot me a look of indignation and promptly let every single drop out of his mouth, all down himself. Gave him the sippy cup again with water and he was happy as larry.

Agggghhhhh!

Obviously I can just breastfeed him each day until I go back to work but I do have a few working days in the meantime when Granny will be looking after him. So mrs F I will probably follow your route and just make sure that on days when he is with Granny he gets milk in the morning and evening and we just sneak it into food during the day.

But oh - I'm gutted. We were going to let Granny have him for the night of my birthday - so we could have a day and a half of drinking cocktails and pretending we're child-free and that plan's totally scuppered. One day.....

[verds]

My baby, who's eight months, refused every bottle going.

So if you need to try a few different ones, I have a selection you're welcome to!

We chanced upon a half-teat half-spout type thing in Sainsbury's, just a cheapo one, and she took a while, but eventually drank from it. She still tries to flip her head round for a feed, but we're introducting it gradually.

I do sympathise! I had the world's most boring 40th due to still feeding...

[goldilocks]

Baby goldilocks was v similar. He would drink water quite happily from a tommee tippee sippy cup but not milk so i figured he was just confused by me changing the contents. We started off with a nuby beaker from Sainsburys with a soft spout that he would drink a little milk from, but then also switched to the NUK beakers with soft free flow spouts (he's now 18 months and still can't do any beaker with a valve). It took a long time for him to drink a whole feed from a bottle - for a long time he'd have a couple of ounces and make up for it in the evenings (and overnight) but he's fine with his beaker now.

[cashewnut]

You might find he'll take it from Granny... has someone else given it a go while you're not there?

PM me if you want to try our NUK beaker. Judging by your username we live close by.

[buggie]

I second the cheap sainsburys bottles with soft spouts - can half suck half chew & was Bugglet's bottle of choice for a while (plus at <?2 you don't feel so bad if they don't like it :-)).

Fingers crossed solution is found - has Granny tried bottle feeding him without you around since this started?? Could it be a bit of Baby Belle knowing you've boob to offer too?! x

[esme]

I wdnt care what he took it out of - if it's Tommee Tippee all the better as no drama weaning off the bottle :) Good luck!

[Bellenden Belle]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm afraid my panic started precisely because I left him for a day whilst I was at work with Granny and she didn't manage to get him to take a drop all day. He's been with her many times before and never has this been an issue.

But I agree with esme - I don't really care if something is cheap if it works!

I also made a cheese sauce for him today and suddenly realised that there is no way I would be able to get enough milk into him through food ....he's got a great appetite but even on his porridge he only took 50ml.

[nikki73]

B Belle I wouldn't worry too much about baby belle not getting enough milk. He'll stop being fussy when he really needs the milk I am sure. Like others say he'll catch up in the evening. I second the idea of a half soft/half sippy cup type spout, if tommee tippee does,nt work. I also did something that's not recommended but it worked for us: crushed a bit of banana in the formula, and progressively (literally a matter of days) stopped. Maybe you could try something similar? With my second I added vanilla flavoured cereal to her milk to her first formula feed. Was trying to make it as appealing as possible to avoid having any problems. There's probably loads on the market but the one I buy is babynat. There are several flavours. Also my fussy girl only ever accepted Hipp formula. I really feel for you. I got so worried about returning to work because of it. I am sure she picked up on it. I hope you manage to sort it out before your birthday. and on a positive note my fussy baby went on to wean off the boob really easily, took to cows milk straightaway and at close to 3 still loves milk.

[scareyt]

Hi we had a similar thing and the Nuk bottle/cup was the only one that worked. He still loves it for bedtime milk at 2+ but now drinks happily from normal cups at other times.