Hi all,

I would like to move from BF to FF now LO is 6 months but she won't let me... refuses milk froma bottle or beaker though will drink water from beaker. Any tips please?

Should I just refuse to BF until she drinks formula or is that too harsh?

Will she drink breast milk from a bottle? Maybe you could try pumping for a while to ease the transition. I don't think you can just refuse to feed her...babies are stubborn, you don't want her to be undernourished. Is she eating solids now? Just curious, is there a reason you have to quit?

she is on 3 meals a day and she has never refused any solids we have tried her with, so can't understand such a strong objection to milk from a cup or bottle... i have tried using expressed milk but it makes no difference. I have no particular reason to stop BF other than just wanting to move on!

I ebf my daughter till 6 mths. I found when switching her she needed vari flow teets, have u tried them? Also we tried lots of differnt bottles before she settled on 1. Also I expressed for a few days to wean her then mixed in formula then cut breast milk out. It took us a few days. I completely get why u want to stop.
Xxx

My friend didnt feed her baby for 14 hours (!!!!) when she was 4 months until the poor baby took a bottle. THought that was pretty harsh! But she also has never rocked her baby to sleep, and has never picked up her baby when she cries

Have you tried a cup?

U can try a doidy cup u can get them on amazon. My lo won't drink ebm from a bottle but is a little better with the cup. I agree with the poster saying maybe pump for a bit to ease transition. X

I guess because breastfeeding is more than just a drink to them it's a comfort too they prefer it x I hope you find a gentle way to wean her off x pumping your milk so she still has the familiar flavour at first is a good suggestion x

Thanks for all the responses... the update is that we used the Easter weekend to work on LO and she is now on formula for all feeds except before bed and middle of the night!

In case it helps anyone this is what we did...
Filled allthe cups and bottles we had with water and let LO play with them/shook them around top hear water splashing then out of the blue one afternoon she just picked up a cup and started drinking. At first she was only taking 1oz formula from cup and then topping up from me, but over the 4 days she started taking more formula so she now has two full feeds of formula each day!

I think we must have had a lot of luck too and she still won't accept a cup for her feed before bed and in the night,, but it's a start! I think she likes the taste of formula (?) but she needs the comfort of BF.

Thanks again

I am really interested in your post as we are trying to get our LO to have formula during the day and only BF at night. I think you have done really well. Is Anya now taking her milk from a cup or from a bottle? Also, if it is from a cup can I ask what type? We have been experimenting with a cup for a while and LO will only take small sips.

Thanks in advance and again well done - I bet it feels great to have 'cracked' it!

I have been doing exactly the same thing I have to give up breastfeeding because I am going back to work in 5 days My LO has had a bottle of EBM up until 3 months when I got lazy!

He continued to refuse a bottle for 3 days so I started replacing one feed at a time with a bottle. It didn't matter if it was breastmilk or formula, he just wanted to breastfeed, I must add it didn't help that he fell asleep feeding on a regular basis.

it was really hard as he cried and cried and cried for ages when I wouldn't bf him. he would go for hours without any milk if i didn't bf which was really hard I hated seeing him so upset knowing I knew what he wanted. 3 weeks later he has ff in the day- now 5oz per bottle which is still low but is a lot better than 1/2 ounce each feed and he BF at night before bed and through the night when he wakes (about 1/2 times)

he is weaning as well and when he ate he would make nom nom noises because he was so hungry.

anyway they will get it in the end, even though for me it was really hard. in hindsight i should have continued to offer a bottle a day!