Getting baby to take a bottle - any ideas?

Pisces

Some advice please :-)

Our nearly six month old has been breast fed all his life. He is starting nursery in the next week or so and now won't take a bottle. He's had bottles of expressed milk and one bottle of formula in the past but now refuses both.

I have tried the following:

Different brands of formula (Aptimel, Hipp powder and Hipp Follow On)
Expressed milk
Different bottles (Avent and Tommee)
Different feeding positions
Different feeding times
Different stages of hunger (peckish through to starving)

All he does is cry and cry and cry. Eventually I give in and feed him because I hate to see him so upset.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get him to take a bottle that doesn't involve leaving him without milk and screaming his heart out for a day or two please? I'm pretty desperate!

MrsBartolozzi

Have you tried a sippy cup? Something brightly coloured might be different for him.
My DS2 never would take a bottle at all, which was fine as I didn't have to work while he was preschool, but he took water and juice and some cows milk (later on) from a cup from about 6 months.
Can you get another person to feed him while you are not there? The smell and familiarity of your being near might be confusing him?
Good luck on this as I can imagine it is heart wrenching for you.
MrsB.

lola321

Hi,
Have you tried getting someone else give him the bottle? I know with my baby he wasn't keen on taking a bottle from me, but would from my husband. the midwife said it was because the baby could smell my milk.

Lola

Krystaltips

I second the sippy cup idea, at 6 months there's no real need for a bottle he can go straight onto cups... Also, how long is he likely to be in nursery for? If it's part time then he could probably go without a milk feed while he's there and make up for it with breastfeeds when back with Mum... A lot of babies do this when in childcare anyway...

Pisces

Thanks both, my son's grandparents and my OH have tried with the same (crying) result. Admittedly they haven't persevered as much as I have so I think that will be our next trick.

Did it take long to feed from a sippy cup? Our son isn't keen on water from a tippy up type cup but I think it might be option of last resort for the nursery if he really won't take a bottle at all.

SatansPlaym8

You need your OH needs to persevere with the bottle/cup feeding whilst you are not around. Its going to be difficult to begin with as he is used to mummy milk. Babies sense when you are stressed so you need to all stop stressing about this matter. Is baby old enough to begin weaning?

Pisces

Thanks, he is weaned and is up to three meals a day. He loves his food!

He will be in nursery from 8am and won't get home until about 6pm, so that's at least two milk feeds he will miss :-(

Rikki

Krystaltips wrote: »

I second the sippy cup idea, at 6 months there's no real need for a bottle he can go straight onto cups... Also, how long is he likely to be in nursery for? If it's part time then he could probably go without a milk feed while he's there and make up for it with breastfeeds when back with Mum... A lot of babies do this when in childcare anyway...

Mine too both went from breast to feeder cup.

As he is having three meals without milk as a main meal, I see introducing a bottle for milk as unnecessary. Try the trainer cup.

SatansPlaym8

well is it not possible to add more milk to his meals and stress less as he will be picking up on this and reacting to it and it is hard when its so much simpler to give in and give him what he wants (the breastfeed). when he settles into nursery you may find that he will take his bottles for the staff being in a different environment. Or as children like to do to prove mum wrong lol.

MummyMoo

I went back to uni when Alyssa was 3 months but breast fed til 9 months. I used the closer to nature tommee bottles.

My freind breast fed then went straight to cups because baby would not take to anything else. plus she wouldnt accept any other than mummy's milk, so she used to have to flavour it with strawberry or a tiny bit of milkshake mix!

Pisces

Hi all, I just wanted to give you an update and say thanks for all the advice :-)

We tried flavouring the milk, little progress. Tried various spouted cups, little progress. Tried letting him cry, absolutely no progress. Our HV suggested just adding milk to his food, so I've been doing this knowing at least he won't dehydrate completely.

On everyone's advice here I did a Google search for 'sippy cup' and came across the Doidy cup.

After (another) unsuccessful morning with a bottle this morning, the Doidy cup arrived so I tried it out straight away. Our son took three gulps of formula and didn't cry! Hooray! What a complete relief. I now have a couple of weeks to get him used to it and taking milk from it (judging by today's progress shouldn't be too difficult) and he will be ok all day at nursery.

Thank you all for your help and advice, I thought I was going mad there for a while!