BF baby not taking bottle

[PurpleIvy44]

Well at least in my opinion. So everyone says to not introduce a bottle until around 4 weeks once you've established a good breastfeeding relationship. So that's what I did but when I went to get ready to go back to work and start her using a bottle at 4 weeks she flat out refused. Here I am 7 weeks later and she still refuses to take a bottle or pacifier. We've tried all sorts of things like different bottles and times and people feeding her and still nothing. She goes to daycare and thank the Lord I work about 2 miles away so I can go and nurse her twice a day but I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't close.

Once I started doing some research I found it's a bigger issue that I ever thought. Most of the outcomes are not good while some ppl find just the right bottle and the baby takes it. I've tried 8 different kinds of bottle/nipples. I spoke with her pediatrician about it and she said that she's heard that not taking a bottle is a bigger issue than not taking the breast.

Someone gave me a soft feeder today that I'm going to try to get her to use and I'm also going to try a nipple shield to get her use the the feel of silicon in her mouth. I think it's the texture that throws her off b/c she knows it's milk. I'm also going to try a sippy cup sooner than 6 months.

I've spoken my hospital's lactation consultant and she said we've done everything right so far and just to keep trying but honestly since I can nurse twice a day at work and I work from home twice a week I will keep doing what we're doing and stop trying to get her to take it if the last two things I try don't work.

So the point of all this is for working mom's you may want to start trying a bottle around 2 weeks maybe once a day to get them used to it or whatever you're comfortable with. My experience has been extremely stressful to me and her and I hope to save someone the same trouble.

 

[Ellie Bean]

My son started having a bottle and pacifier within the guest couple days bc he had surgery and was in the NICU so I had to pump to get my milk to come in and then they would feed him at night with a bottle when he was 2-3 days old and he had a pacifier too. I did have to start with a nipple shield tho bc I had flat nipples bc I was so engorged. I hope that things get straightened out.

After my son's second surgery at 3 months old he started refusing the bottle and would only eat like 7-10 oz for the entire day that lasted a few months but now at 8 months he's finally better and we switched to MAM brand bottles and pacifiers and that did the trick.

 

[jessmke]

I started trying to get my DD to take a pacifier and bottle at 5 weeks old. Now at 7 weeks she will take a pacifier well (if she is in the mood, she doesn't always want it), the bottle is still a bit more difficult but she will take it. We usually have to get her to take the pacifier, then pull it out and quickly replace it with the bottle. We tried a ton of different bottles/pacifiers and she finally decided she likes the Nuk ones. I am breastfeeding but I want her to be able to take the bottle in case I have to be away from her. I have heard a lot of people who do cup feeding with babies who won't take a bottle, have you tried that?

 

[BlingyGal]

i didn't wait to introduce a bottle and my daughter has no problem with breastfeeding. She was in the NICU for a week and when I couldn't be there for nurse her, she was given a bottle of pumped BM. She does take longer to drink a bottle than breastfeed but at the end of the day, she gets what she needs. I'm just one person but I do wonder about that advice eg waiting four weeks until introducing a bottle. Every baby is different I guess. My preference is breastfeeding over bottle but sometimes the bottle is a great option. Sorry you're having issues.

 

[RaquelDee]

I've just returned to work and have an almost six month old who won't feed from a bottle. We started introducing a bottles at four weeks and she just never got it. We tried loads of different bottles but nothing worked. Once she was four months old we moved on to a cup instead, as at least she would take something that way. Now she will take perhaps 50-80 ml with a cup, and also has a little mixed in with food, which we started a bit early because of the bottle issues. Fortunately I work mostly 4 or 5 hours rather than full days, so it's going ok so far. I agree that it is very stressful.

A previous poster mentioned flat nipples and I wonder if that's part of the issue. My nipples are pretty flat so quite different from bottle teats, and bub just doesn't seem to understand what a bottle is for. I don't know that trying any earlier would have been much help, as we tried a pacifier earlier and she would not take that either.

 

[icegurl470]

Yes, I know what you mean. With my first I started at 6 weeks and it took awhile but she was taking a bottle fine by the time she started daycare at 12 weeks. With my second I started a little earlier, 5 weeks, and she's still not taking a bottle well. The first two weeks of daycare were stressful. There were a couple days she didnt take one at all the whole 9 hours she was there. daycare lady says shes taking one in the morning fine now but sometimes she has to try a few times to get her to take one in the afternoon. She figured because she knows I'm going to pick her up soon sometimes she just prefers to wait. So the issue isn't that she cant take a bottle its that she wont. I thought she would be fine with either by now, but I guess I just have a very stubborn little girl!

 

[noon_child]

I suppose the reason why it might come across as a hidden issue is that it isn't necessarily an issue with breastfeeding itself (the breastfeeding is going fine), its an issue associated with our lifestyles. We either need or want to be separated from our babies sometimes, but our babies have other ideas!

I really feel for mums who have to go back to work within the first few months as worrying about whether your baby is eating anything must be very stressful. Some parts of the world need to get much better maternity pay (or any maternity pay) in my opinion so that returning to work becomes a choice not a necessity.

However I've also seen the emotional stress caused by a baby preferring a plastic teat to its mothers nipple and I think the advice is there to try to protect people from that very real trauma.

Like you said it is about being aware of your own circumstances and trying to find something that works for you.

 

[PurpleIvy44]

Thanks for the replies ladies. She is so stubborn it drives me crazy. She holds the milk in her mouth and won't swallow! I had hopes after hearing someone got their baby to use the bottle using a preemie nipple so I bought Dr. Brown bottles. She would not take it, pushes it out with her tongue still. I bought two Nuk sippy cups awhile ago, one with a small flat spout and one with a much larger spout. The small one didn't work b/c she didn't know what it was. I tired the larger one and held it against the roof of her mouth and she used her tongue to try to push it out but it she ended up drinking a little bit of milk. I sent it off to daycare with her in hopes that she might drink from it for them. I have thrush in my left nipple right now so that really sucks. I've never had it and find it quite painful and of course she prefers my left side but after the initial pain she can nurse fine.

For any babies that are on solids now, did you find that they had trouble eating if they refused the bottle? I worry that if she won't swallow milk, she won't swallow food either. She swallows just fine from my breast so I don't know what's going on.

I've just returned to work and have an almost six month old who won't feed from a bottle. We started introducing a bottles at four weeks and she just never got it. We tried loads of different bottles but nothing worked. Once she was four months old we moved on to a cup instead, as at least she would take something that way. Now she will take perhaps 50-80 ml with a cup, and also has a little mixed in with food, which we started a bit early because of the bottle issues. Fortunately I work mostly 4 or 5 hours rather than full days, so it's going ok so far. I agree that it is very stressful.

Raquel- What type of cup did you use? I wanted to try a cup as well but think she's too floppy at this point. She's just 12 weeks so I think 4 mos would be a good time to try like you.

 

[icegurl470]

I would just find a bottle you think best and stick with it. I tried a bunch and ended up with the oriiginal bottles i had, medela slow flow wide based. She still won't take one for me or my husband if I'm around but she will take one for the daycare. Some babies just strongly prefer the breast and are really stubborn but if the daycare keeps offering the same bottle the baby will learn that's all they can get while they're there and eventually start taking it.

 

[RaquelDee]

Raquel- What type of cup did you use? I wanted to try a cup as well but think she's too floppy at this point. She's just 12 weeks so I think 4 mos would be a good time to try like you.

We started with a Closer to Nature explorer cup, and now use a tommee tippee discovera cup top, but screwed onto a small-sized tommee tippee Miomee bottle (the discovera cup itself is way too big for the amount of milk we're dealing with). With both cups, I removed the non-spill valve so that she doesn't have to suck - she never understood that sucking on a bottle was necessary, so leaving the valves in would have just caused the same problem. It's been a lot of trial and error.

I do think at 12 weeks you probably can't do much at the moment. The tongue thrust is a reflex that will disappear somewhere in months 4 or 5, and then she'll be better with a cup. She won't be able to do much with solids until that reflex goes, either. Since you work close enough to daycare, I'd probably expect to keep visiting to feed for a few months yet. Even with solids and the cup, the longest mine will go without breastfeeding is 6 hours max. I don't visit daycare Just to feed (5.5 hours is my longest work day) but I do BF when I drop off or pick up, or some days both.

Icegurl, mine won't take milk from a cup from me anymore, either. She used to, but in the last few weeks, she'll just push it away if I offer. She'll take it from anyone else, but not me. She's fine to drink water from a cup when I offer it, though - she clearly has strong preferences about how she gets her milk!

 

[Fit_Mama2Be]

Sorry you are going through this, hope it gets better.

Just want to tell you that I agree with what you're saying about not waiting too long to introduce the bottle - I don't think we even waited 2 weeks to give our son a bottle of pumped milk and he switches back and forth between bottle and breast no problem. I can see how introducing a bottle after baby has such an established feeding routine could be an issue. Makes me wonder why all the experts are so adamant that waiting 6 weeks is the only way to go.

 

[noon_child]

Sorry you are going through this, hope it gets better.

Just want to tell you that I agree with what you're saying about not waiting too long to introduce the bottle - I don't think we even waited 2 weeks to give our son a bottle of pumped milk and he switches back and forth between bottle and breast no problem. I can see how introducing a bottle after baby has such an established feeding routine could be an issue. Makes me wonder why all the experts are so adamant that waiting 6 weeks is the only way to go.

Because not all babies switch back and forth so easily. Some babies start rejecting the breast after just a few bottle feeds, and this can be very traumatic to a mother who primarily wanted to breastfeed. From a health policy point of view a baby refusing a bottle and preferring breast isn't causing health issues, but babies refusing the breast and preferring the bottle could do.

However as parents we don't have to abide by policy, we have choice. So its about being aware of the potential problems, assessing your own individual needs (how essential is it they take a bottle? how devastated would you be if they rejected your breast? etc.) and making a decision based on that.

Between 4 and 6 weeks is the best compromise to allow MOST babies to accept a bottle but not reject the breast.

 

[PurpleIvy44]

Well since my last post a few weeks ago she still is not taking anything besides the boob. I stopped trying to give her a bottle b/c she's not showing a bit of interest and still refuses. I don't send it to daycare anymore either. The last two times I did they would try to give it to her and she would get so upset and crying that she would swallow so much air and get terrible gas. Then when I do get there to nurse her it would take more than 15 minutes to calm her down enough to feed and I just don't have that kind of time to spend since I'm working. I normally go at 10:30 and still plan to unless they call because she does not want to nurse as soon as she wakes (unless it during the night). She needs to be up for about 30 minutes before I can nurse her, she has her quirks!

I just ordered a boon spoon (feeding spoon) and a sippy cup where you can regulate the flow. I'll be getting them tomorrow and will try those out. I've just started putting her in her high chair so that she can sit with us at dinner and watch us eat. Maybe by the time she's ready she'll be able to eat food and perhaps drink from her cup more easily.

She's just one of those babies that never take a bottle and have come to terms with it. It's too stressful for both of us to try to get her to take one. I do keep trying to get her to take a paci since she's been chewing on her hands a lot later. Still no luck with that either.