refusing a bottle...please help!!

[Chrissy1]

Poppy is almost 12 weeks old now and since day one my husband has given her at least one bottle a day of expressed milk with no problem at all. Over the past week or so she's started to get a bit fussy over taking it and only took it after playing with the teat for about 30 seconds or so. The past 3 days she's just flatly refused to take it and has screamed the house down every time the bottle has been anywhere near her! We tried everything to get her to take the bottle for 45 minutes last night until we eventually gave in and gave her booby.

We've tried hubby feeding her, me feeding her, me leaving the room so she can't sense me there, we've tried it hot and cold we've tried taking her off boob after a few minutes and giving it to her then but every time the bottle goes near her she screams. I've even tried squeezing some of the breast milk from the bottle into her mouth so she knows what's coming but now she's getting older and having her own preferences she just will not have the bottle and will only take milk from my boobies.

I really want to keep her with one bottle so I can feel ok about leaving her for a couple of hours if I want my hair done or if I leave her with my mum for a few hours or so.

Do any of you have any advice on what I can do to get her to take her bottle again???

p.s. I'm pretty sure it's not nipple confusion because she's always had a bottle and breast from day one. I think she's just being a little madam and trying to get her own way

 

[Nicky_Jones]

What flow teat are you on? IIRC there is a 0-3months, 3-6months and 6months +. Maybe she wants a faster flow.

The other question is what bottle are you using. When I was having trouble getting Ellie to take a bottle (for leaving her at nursery), I was recommend the Nam ones. didn't help with Ellie and I found the Tomee Tippee Closer to nature ones we best for her, but may be a different teat shape would help as well.

 

[Chrissy1]

I've always used the Avent ones and she's always taken them fine. I thought the same thing about the flow so I got her the 3 ones which are 3-6 months (she was already on 2 which are 0-3 mths) but it's not made any difference at all

 

[EllieL]

I'm having the same problem, Claudia has always had a bottle before she goes to bed, either formula or expressed milk. For the 4 nights she's refused it and I've ended up having to feed her myself till she drops off. I so don't want to get into a routine of doing this as previously she was great at going to sleep on her own once she'd had her bottle, now she screams if we put her in her crib and leave her.

I had to leave her with OH on Monday monring as I had a exam, and she wouldn't take a bottle the whole time I was away which was from 8am to 1pm, although she did have some solids for lunch at 12pm.

Normally I go to college one afternoon a week and I've always left her with my mum, but now I'm really worried she won't take a bottle and as I'm gone 9 hours it will be too long to leave her without a feed.

My friend's baby rejected the bottle at about 8 weeks and she hasn't been able to make him take it again, and just has to feed him herself all the time which has been a nightmare for her as she has 3 older kids. I really don't want to be in the same situation, so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[kalia]

Could it be she wants the slower teat? DD is still on 2 - we last tried her on 3 a month ago and she was not happy so even though she is 8 and a half months she has size 2.

 

[Sandi4Paul]

we had the same problem at about 14 weeks, tried different teats, different person and different contents. He then popped two teeth through at 17 weeks which may have been the problem (pr maybe not, who knows)

now at 6 months he still wont take one. i would recommend perservering, we didn't and it is still a problem. We now plan to wean him onto a sippy cup (well my mum will while we go off for a holiday).

i have no idea why they do this, but its really inconvenient and my Dh misses doing that feed with him.

Sandi

 

[Chrissy1]

Thanks ladies.... I didn't realise that so many babies did this. I'm really going to try my best to perservere with it and hope that she goes back to taking it again.

 

[millylillyrose]

i have the hardest time leaving india as she refuses the bottle full stop. ive tried every teat around, no sucess. last night though i fed her and let her then play with the bottle teat like a dummy, which theyre not supposed to do, but i was supervising. then i put a tinyest amount of water in the bottle to get her interested. i thought this might help cuz its only when she sucks and milk comes out that she refuses it ang gets all upset. and she played with it for about 5mins. today im going to put a little amount of breastmilk in and let her play again after a feed.

i hope it works, i get so nervous going out as no-one else can feed her. i dont leave her often, but when i work its stressful.

 

[lisa282]

Have you tried the vari-flow teats hun? They allow baby to set their own flow depending on how hard they suck, so it is much closer to simulating your breast flow. I had to use them with my son when we first introduced mix-feeding, he wouldnt drink form any other teats cos they were either too slow or too fast These worked a treat tho x

 

[Strangeness]

Tamzin flatly refuses to have a bottle, she started doing it at around 10 weeks and I've never been able to get her to have one since. She now will have a sippy cup but refuses to have milk from it, she will only have juice. Girls are fussy madams