Trying to get a breastfed baby to take a bottle

[Plums]

Hi all,

I have been trying to get my 4 month old breastfed baby to accept the occassoonal bottle but she refuses!! I've tried both expressed milk & formula (s26) with no luck.

I am finding it stressful to leave her in another's care for more than an hour because of this.

Any tips to try to get her to accept a bottle would be greatly appreciated. I've tried Avent & the Tommee Tippee (more breastlike) bottles.

Thanks!!

[aquamum]

i had the same prob with DS (5months) i tried cold EBM instead of warming it and he loved it! i think touching the cold bottle was a bit of a novelty for him, but he drank it so im happy!!
i no how u feel not being able to leave them for more than a couple of hrs. so give this a go. hope it works!!

[SPC]

Try a facewasher over a sippy cup?

[BabyPaparazzi]

Pigeon is highly recommended for breastfed babies, it worked for us with DD1 after refusal of 3 other major brands first (IMO are far from truly breast like, they might look like a breast, which is just clever marketing, but don't act like one)

Sometimes if you are the one who tries to give it to her she will reject it as you have the most favoured option with you, and they can't understand why you won't give b00bie to them, as well as they fact they can smell it a mile away. Have you tried someone else giving it while you are out of the room?

Also try giving it when she is extremely hungry and another time when not very hungry. Sometimes they get to worked up about being hungry and won't accept something different, or they are that hungry the don't care how they get it. It can be different for different bubs.

EBM is the easiest to help accept it, they already know what happening there. S26 is a very very strong flavoured formula, Karicare is alot less in taste. Also stay away from the golds, they are very strong in the way of nutrients and a bubs tummy that isn't used to it may get upset from it.

Like aquamum said the temp can make a different to. Naturally bm is not very warm, more like a room temp. If we warmed ours to much it was rejected, instead we had to defrost in the fridge and sit in boiled water only until the chill was taken out and it remixed.

I hope you get somewhere with it, its nice to have a break without worrying, although it will be in the back of your mind anyways.

[missymoo9]

Ds1 was bottle and breast feed but at six weeks refused to take a bottle, i tried every brand of bottle and every brand of formula, sipy cups... nothing worked i tried this till he was 14 months and after preserving with cows milk and a nuk bottle after two months he took a bottle. Sorry i know it doesnt help but some babies are just too addicted too boob! Others are soooo flexible. Good luck, ive heard bellamys is accepted easier by bf babies.

[Tarabear]

I use the TT Closer to Nature, which at 10 months is still the only bottle my DS can manage. It took about a month to get him to take a full bottle when I started trying (because I had to return to work). It's so stressful, but try not to get worked up when offering a bottle. Bub will sense your anxiety, and get more distressed.

Personally, I started with only 10mL at a time, immediately before a BF. When he took that, he got lots of praise and BF straight away. I then slowly built up the amount of EBM in the bottle.


I"m interested to know how the facewasher over a sippy cup works. Never heard of that before :confused:

[Bubbles10]

At 4 months you could also try a sippy cup rather than a bottle.

[BigRedV]

Have you tried not being in the room or the house and have someone else try and give it to her? Babies can smell your boobies :D

[MamaBleech]

I'm sorry, I don't have good news. My DD was the same and still at 15 months has never taken a bottle.

Don't despair though it becomes less and less of an issue and you are through the really hard part.

From about 9 months I was happy to leave DD for up to 3 hours during the day. Now we're up to about 4.5 hours and she could probably go longer.

Once they start taking some solids and you can stretch their feeds out a little when you need to it gets easier.

I have still never left DD for an evening, but I don't want to so it doesn't bother me.

DD will take cows milk from a sippy cup, and although I don't like giving it to her I like the comfort of knowing it is there if needed.

[Plums]

Thanks for all your suggestions ladies, I have a few things to try!! I still have a few months before I have to return to work so hopefully something works!!!

Thankyou!!

[ginzy89]

Try the pigeon peristaltic teats. Worked for us :) can use them with avent bottles

[linkspurr]

Try the pigeon peristaltic teats. Worked for us :) can use them with avent bottles

I second this advice but it did take some perseverance. We then switched between TT closer to nature bottles until DD decided she only liked TT but we still use 0-3 mth teets.

There was a lot of screaming at the start but we got there and DD is 1 today and still bf's like a demon when she gets the chance (I'm a full time shiftworker including night shifts)