5 month bf baby won't take a bottle of expressed milk.

[tinker2012]

Hi all,

I breast feed my baby exclusively. When she was 3 months old, after 2 weeks of trying she was happy to take bottles of expressed milk when I had to leave her for a few hours with my parents or hubby.

She's now 5 months, and stupidly I didn't continue to give her a bottle of breast milk regularly. And now she absolutely refuses to take one!!!!

We have tried a few times, and she has cried blue murder each time. Absolutely screams and cries til she's exhausted and falls asleep. She kicks, throws her body about, turns her head away from the bottle.I've tried absolutely every way I can think off as suggested on the kellymom website. She just won't take it. It's gotten to the point where, the bottle just has to come near her mouth and she will start crying.

I have some work training to go to in 2 weeks time that I absolutely need to go to. It's an hour away from home and I'll be away 8am to 6pm each day. It's only for 2 days but I'm starting to get worried about how she is going to cope?! She generally feeds every 2-3 hours. And if she won't take the bottle at all, is she just going to scream and cry the WHOLE day???

What do I do?!

 

[TTC LADY]

Sorry - no advise, but totally empathise. I am going thru the same issue, I tried him on a sippy cup and still no joy. I hope he will take it when we start to wean and off to Dubai on vacation in October and he will need t keep his intake of water up due to hot weather.

Perhaps try different bottle , get someone else to feed - suspect you've tried both of these, never worked for me either

 

[tinker2012]

Sorry - no advise, but totally empathise. I am going thru the same issue, I tried him on a sippy cup and still no joy. I hope he will take it when we start to wean and off to Dubai on vacation in October and he will need t keep his intake of water up due to hot weather.

Perhaps try different bottle , get someone else to feed - suspect you've tried both of these, never worked for me either

Yeah, we've tried that too. She won't take it from a sippy cup either.

It's frustrating isn't it? It's still the same milk!! Lol. She just loves booby too much lol. Im gonna be too scared to leave her. I don't want her to be so upset the whole day. Plus how will my hubby cope with her like that?

I hope you manage it by your trip! Enjoy Dubai, I've heard it's great there!

 

[ThinkPositiv]

I'm in same boat except my babe will take the expressed breast milk from me but no one else!!!!

 

[seaweed eater]

Who will be watching her during your work training? Daycare providers are generally pretty experienced with bottle refusers and can have a bit of a magic touch.

What about syringe feeding if all else fails? Would she take that?

 

[Calif]

Have you tried having someone else feed the expressed milk while you're out of the house? My baby won't take the bottle anymore unless I haven't been around.

 

[tinker2012]

My husband will be looking after her both days.

I went out on Friday for 4 hours and her mouth was clamped shut the entire time. She wouldn't even take the milk spooned to her. Even tried it with baby cereal/porridge and he only managed to get in a few spoonfuls. But most of it spilled every where!

Eek, what to do? Any other ideas? Anyone actually gone through a whole day away from their baby, how did the baby cope? Did they eat eventually?

 

[_Lexi_]

Have you tried lots of different bottles/teats? My lo was fine with a bottle, then didn't have one for a month and started refusing. We tried about 6 different style bottles, and now she'll take 3oz from an avent natural bottle with number 2 teats. She won't take more than 3oz at a time though x

 

[Annie77]

I got an aldiri natural nurser bottle and it has been successful after failed attempts with nuby, avent, tommee tippee, pound shop bottle etc. it is expensive though.

 

[doggylover]

My girl won't either, so I just gave up trying!!

 

[Piper84]

Bottle refusers usually accept the bottle eventually when they realise they're not getting milk from anywhere else. It sounds harsh, but LO will eventually get so hungry that she'll accept the bottle. I think some babies even wait it out and then feed more when their mum's home. Good luck!

 

[tinker2012]

I've tried different bottles but I haven't tried different sized teats. I've only been trying the slow teats. Would this make a huge difference do you think?

I have to go on this course next week! Do you think, it's better just for my husband to stick it out with the baby at home even if she cries and he struggles with her all day. Or make the 1-1.5hour journey to me so I can feed her at lunch? I'm just worried she's gonna be crying and distressed all day. Has anyone done this? Anyone left their bottle refusing baby for the whole day and how did they cope?

I know she won't starve and I'll feed her when I get home. But the thought of her crying non stop or crying til she's sick is a bit worrying!

 

[helloeveryone]

My son wouldn't take any milk out of bottle tryed for months,when he was 2 months old in the end I gave up and here I am still feeding him 2 years later....sorry I can,t be of any help..xx

 

[_Lexi_]

I was told to go straight onto number 2 teats as number 1 would be too slow after being used to breast.