Help - won't take a bottle

[Nicky_Jones]

Ellie had her first phase in session at the nursery this morning. I sat in the staff room for ~3/4hr leaving her with the staff and leaving them with a bottle of expressed milk. She wouldn't take any of it from them. By 11am - 30mins after her feed was due I fed her from the breast. I then offered her the bottle and she took 1 oz. I have switched to 6month + teats as I hoped the problem was how slow the flow from the bottle is compared to the breast. I will try expressing of and giving her the bottle for all day time feeds between now and Monday when I go back to work, is there anything else I can do or try? We did interchange the breast and bottle quite a bit in the first 2months but haven't bothered recently as it was easier not to.

 

[skatty]

Hi do you think she'll drink from a 4 month old beaker? Maybe she will like trying something new. I did read that if this problem happens all babies will eventually accept the bottle if that's all that's on offer once they are really hungry.

I do hope you manage to get her drinking from the bottle so you can relax at work

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Thanks - she does drink water from a beaker (without a lid) but spills quite a bit which, with water I am not worried about. When we have offered her water with the lid on she just gets fustrated with it. I am concerned that if I give her milk in a beaker she won't get enough actually drunk to satisfy her hunger and would waste more than I can replace (if that makes any sense).

I started her last feed early (so that she didn't get too fustrated and worked up). She wouldn't take the bottle to start with so I latched her on, let her suck a few times then took her off the breast and gave her the bottle which she took some from before getting fed up. We repeated this on and off the breast, on and off the bottle. She took 30ml from the bottle by the end.

 

[budge]

nicky try letting someone else feed her her bottle. if she can see you and smell you then she will want your milk not the bottle. I cup fed all mine if i couldn't breast feed. have you tried that? They sort of lap the milk up like a cat. its quite cute.

 

[Nicky_Jones]

They tried to feed her in the nursery and she got very worked up. I was hoping that with somebody else feeding her she might be better. Trouble is I don't have anybody I can get to feed her until the weekend as hubby goes to work at 6:45 in the morning and doesn't get back until about the same time in the evening. I don't want to even try and give her a bottle for her last feed at 7:30 as I don't want her to get worked up just before going to bed.

 

[bagpuss]

Could it be the actual type of bottle that she has a dislike too?
We purchased some of the Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles,so Dad could feed,or for if we needed to go somewhere,Finn quite liked these.
The teat is shaped like a boob,and made of a silicone material,so it expands and gets warm,so it is similar to the breast and the action of a nipple when being suckled.I think they were about £8 for three from Mothercare,but I have also seen them in Morrisons.

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Thanks - those at the bottles I am using. She still wouldn't take a feed again in the nursery this morning but for her 1:30 feed she finally took the bottle. She polished of the 70ml I had expressed of into the bottle and pulled it back when I tried to take it away from her when was empty. I feel so relieved. Judging by how much she had off the breast afterwards, I reckon she needs about double the amount for each feed so I will make sure I get off more for her next bottle.

Thanks again for your help and support.

 

[skatty]

Yippee! 3 cheers for Ellie

 

[bagpuss]

hip hip.......!!!!That's great Nicky,I hope you feel a little better now

 

[Nicky_Jones]

Thanks - yes I do feel a lot better now. Still not exactly looking forward to leaving her in the nursery, but at least I am not so worried by it.

 

[cassi]

thats great hun!!