Can I encourage a five month old to take a bottle or cup?

[Elisianna]

Sometime in the last couple of days my baby gnawed on my left breast or something and I have extremely intense, toe-curling, tear inducing, stabbing/scraping pain in my left nipple. I hardly slept last night because of it.

Unfortunately, as I have posted recently I have major supply issues on my right breast at the moment, so I cannot keep her satisfied for long on it.

Last night I tried feeding her on the right through most of the night. I woke up and the left was understandably very engorged so I pumped it.

She has never taken anything but my breast... Is there any way to encourage a baby of this age to take a bottle or cup or something?

 

[MommyJogger]

Have yourself and lo checked out for thrush first of all- white spots on your breast or the inside of lo's cheeks/roof of the mouth. That toe-curling pain is a symptom and you would have felt lo gnawing enough to cause that kind of pain.
I assume she's refused the bottle before? If so, a lot of it can just come down to trial and error: different temperatures (some like it very warm, some like it cold), different positions (some will only take a bottle facing out, some have to be held as though bf, some take a bottle if you walk around with them in a sling feeding them), bait and switch (offer your right breast and then discretely switch it with the bottle once baby is feeding), and sometimes they'll only take it from non-mom people or when they know mom's not around. Lots of trial and error. Good luck and I hope your pain goes away quickly and it's not thrush.
PS. You can try a cup, but IME and observations it takes babies a while to master the cup, be it regular or sippy. I know some cup feed from birth, but mine at that age would have been too "grabby" to successfully begin cup feeding.

 

[Elisianna]

Thanks. I will get checked for thrush. I haven't noticed any white spots on my nipples or in her mouth... But we will check! I have had pain like this once before and it resolved itself in a couple of days. The pain was not as severe but it was still similar.

We actually never tried the bottle before, but she certainly has been refusing it this morning! I tried to get my husband to do it but she just wasn't having any of it! I will try what you suggested.

I ended up giving her my left nipple for a few minutes while she calmed down. It feels a bit better if I am pressing her quite firmly into my breast so that the nipple is nice and deep in her mouth... And admittedly as soon as I am soothing my daughter's crying my pain becomes a whole lot less!! Haha