Fussing with bottle

[AK89]

My 2.5 month old DD is exclusively breastfed and we feed her the odd expressed BM bottle. We introduced the bottle at about 3 weeks and had no problems at all with it. I have been pumping once a day since she was about 2 weeks, for times when I won't be here or fancy a drink (especially over Christmas!) so until recently I've been mostly saving my milk in the freezer. I have still given / had someone else give her the odd bottle when needed so she's never gone longer than a week or so without a bottle I'd say..

She was always such a pro at the beginning but in the last month or so she's been having some problems with it.. just every now and then she outright refuses it. She'll take a couple of sips, sometimes chokes on it 'cause it seems like she's gulping it too fast, and then cries her eyes out and won't take any more! It then takes a good few minutes of shushing and bouncing to calm her down. Sometimes she doesn't even choke on it, she just takes it seemingly fine for a few seconds and then spits it out and cries.

This REALLY worries me 'cause it makes me feel like I'm always gonna have to be there to feed her and sometimes I won't be able to, like when I go back to work! And for example the other night we took her to a family party and I had a glass of wine and took a bottle with me and she would NOT take it and was screaming the place down. I felt so guilty that I couldn't feed her and we ended up just taking her home and I fed her as soon as I could..

It's not every time.. On Christmas Day I bottle fed her for about 6/7 hours while I had a drink and she had no problems whatsoever. And she has fed fine for other people too. It's just like it sometimes won't do! But that makes me anxious 'cause what happens when I'm just not there to do anything about it

Does anyone else's LO do this? Any ideas on what to do?? My plan for now is to keep pumping once a day and just feed her one bottle a day so she can practice and until I'm confident that she's fine with it..

Is it just something I should expect in the first few months? That she'll want to breastfeed for comfort?

 

[Missyann]

This has happened to a couple of people I know. With them, their frozen/refrigerated then thawed/warmed milk tasted like soap. Their babies would refuse the bottle after a few sucks. I would make sure that is not happening.

If that is the case, scalding expressed milk before storage will fix the problem.

 

[luna_19]

What about having someone else feed the bottle when you are not present? Also just FYI you are fine to bf if you have an occasional drink, if you feel OK to drive you are OK to feed

 

[AK89]

Well sometimes I've tried her with freshly expressed milk and she won't take that either so it can't be the taste.. sometimes she decides she won't take it before she's even tasted it! Others she takes a bit and then spits it out and cries.. and others she's completely fine with it and drinks the lot! I tried her today while OH was out at work and she wouldn't even entertain the idea.. probably 'cause it was me giving it her. But it's not always me. In fact it's usually others that have tried. So it's not just me that she won't take it from. It's confusing and worrying I don't feel like I can ever leave her now in case she refuses the bottle and needs to be fed.

 

[Pink Sarah]

My lo has just started doing this too! He is 10 weeks old was quite happy to take a bottle from me or anyone else had one every evening before bed but now he won't entertain it and just wants breast

 

[AK89]

Bump.

Anyone?? Any ideas? My OH tried her today and she got hysterical outright refusing the bottle. He tried her with it upstairs while I was crying downstairs feeling guilty and heartbroken!

 

[mara16jade]

At that age, the same thing seemed to happen to us. I'm not sure if that's when they start to understand that mommy = booby and they like booby more. Or if they just realized that the bottle feels different.

But by 4 months we were back to having no problems. Until recently... and that was because we were still using "slow flow" nipples. Now that we upped it to "medium flow" he's eating much better, less fussing, etc. He needs a few weeks to get the hang of the higher flow, but he's getting better. I'll probably switch him to "fast flow" in a month or so. I should have had him on "medium flow" nipples a month or so ago. Oops. We didn't feed him by bottle very often, but now that I'm back at work - it became more apparent he needed a high flow nipple.

ETA: Just keep at it. I know that sounds hard when they're crying and fussy. Make sure LO is good and hungry, then offer the bottle.

 

[AK89]

She's taken a bottle twice today! Once off my mum while I was upstairs and once off my OH while I was in the kitchen. These babies...They never cease to amaze me!

Still don't think I'll feel comfortable leaving her for any extended amount of time until she's consistently feeding well from the bottle. Will just keep it up offering her one or two every day and go from there! Sat here pumping now while her dad looks after her downstairs.. I do love breastfeeding and I love being that person in her life that she loves and needs so much but it can feel a bit tying from time to time.. think this will really help give me a bit more freedom