Refuses to take from bottle - still refusing. Help!!

[millie15]

For the past few nights have been trying to get Niamh to take EBM from bottle but she just plays with it in her mouth, pushes it out then screams so I feel guilty and give her boob. Both me and OH have tried to no avail. FWIW am using the tommee tippee back to nature bottles. Please have some advice, I need her to take a bottle for when I go back to work!

UPDATE 14 Feb
I have tried a variety of teats including the variflow and the only one she took it with was the NUK bottles, and that was when my mum was doing it. Unfortunately, my mum lives 150 miles away and was only here for the weekend! Now I'm back to square 1 with her screaming every time. It's breaking my heart. Can anyone help??

 

[charlie84]

I think perserverence may be the key hun.
Calleigh refused just like your LO by pushing the teat out of her mouth etc and then crying so i just gave her boob. She has never got the hang of a bottle.
I have heard letting someone other than you and OH having a go is supposed to be a winner, not sure if you wanna try that.

 

[lisa282]

What teats are you using hun, could it be that? Conventional teats will just persistently drip/pour milk into baby's mouth, so they can get a bit frustrated with not being able to stop the flow for a rest. Or they can have the opposite effect if on newborn slow flow teats, and your boob has a fast let-down, so the teat will frustrate her that its not fast enough to start with. Have you tried the vari-flow teats? They allow baby to regulate the flow for their own comfort, so it is more similar to your boob x

 

[millie15]

bump

 

[Urchin]

Have you tried breastflow bottles? They are supposed to mimic the let down etc of breastfeeding.

Apart from that, unfortunately its just perseverance

 

[CorrieFan]

I had a similar problem with Lily. She loved breastmilk so much it was heartbreaking to try and get her to take a bottle. She would take an oz out of sheer hunger and then wail and wail and wail. So then I'd usually start crying and cave in.

Our break through came when I sat with her for about half an hour when she wasn't particularly hungry and just let her play with bottle. I held her in a bottle feeding position, offered her a 3oz bottle and just let her push it around and get used to it. She started to enjoy having control over it and would push it away from herself then pull it towards herself, play with it in her mouth and then push it away again. The next proper feed time she was much less worried about the bottle. Try it!! Good Luck!

 

[millie15]

Thanks. The breastflow bottles look really good - anyone else tried these?

That sounds like a good idea Corriefan - I am getting stressed about it and I am sure she senses it , OH doesnt really know what he's doing which I am sure she also senses, whereas my mum was just calm and confident and bam! no probs!

 

[Chrissy1]

I had very same thing with my LO about a month ago and I've just put a long reply in the other thread so you can have a ready of that but my general advice is to be strong and don't give in!!

I ended up just having a PMA of if you want milk it's in this bottle...YOU ARE NOT HAVING BOOBY!! and after about an hour and half of screaming she took the bottle!

 

[millylillyrose]

ive probably tried once a week since india was about 2months old. shes almost 6 months now and still refuses! and we've tried EVERY teat out there.
Hope you have better luck than us!

 

[aramintalovegrove]

I gave up with Es she will take a bottle but not for me or in our house, guess it just smells of booby, but Lo today I got madam trainer cup from ASDA its one of their own brand ones and has a soft spout and by jove she gets it with water in so next I am going to put boobie milk in to see if she will take that when hungry, I will try to remember to report back, if i forget and your interested PM me

sorry NAK so typing is rubbish

 

[Nicky_Jones]

I had very similar problems with Ellie when I was returning to work. I started back when she was 5months. The nursery were really good. They suggested I send her in with a muslim cloth that smelt of me. Also she would take some milk (only about 1oz but something) from other people (Daddy and nursery staff) if I wasn't around. Because of the problems I arranged to go back on slightly shorter days so that she was only in nursery from 8am - 4pm. She would to start with take 2 x 1oz milk during the day and then fill herself up when we were back together. However over the first few weeks this increased until she was taking about 14-15oz over the 2 bottles! I am sure she will be fine, I know how it feels the fact that she took some from you Mum is a really good sign.