3 Month Old Refusing the Bottle Help!

My girlfriend had this problem and what helped her was to have her husband do a middle of the night feeding with a bottle. They started a bit later than you and if they started around the 3 month mark like you, it may have worked smoother. Because the baby was sleepy, he was able to sort of trick her into taking the bottle. It didn't always work well the first few times, but they tried it every night, sometimes a couple of times before the baby would take it. Once she took it once a night, they tried 2 times a night, then moved one to a daytime bottle. I think it took a couple of weeks. Also, they tried many different bottles and what worked for them was the Adiri bottle (which are on sale right now for $9.95 on Onestepahead.com

My two month old recently refused the bottle, which confused me since we supplemented at every feeding the first two weeks. After much angst I discovered he needed a much larger nipple size than his age (my flow is fast), and he needed the milk warmed (because he is now used to body temp milk)! The solution was as simple as that and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner since this was my second child. None of the expected problems like nipple confusion, not wanting to take a bottle from mom, etc.

Hi K.,

My daughter wanted nothing to do with the bottle for quite a while. What we did is we bought a whole bunch of different bottles and found the ones she liked better. I wore the nipples in my bra to give it my scent. The best one was the Adiri rounded nipple bottle. Get the slowest flow as the milk came too fast from most of the bottles and she ended up choking. The nice thing about the Adiri bottles is that the dome is soft, so if she is refusing to initiate sucking you can gently squeeze the top and dribble a few drops of milk into her protesting mouth. The taste of milk will sometimes get them going.

Another bottle that is nice is the MAM brand. Its a wider flat nipple that is similar to mom's nipple. (I love their pacifiers too, or my daughter that is.)

The most important thing to remember is that when you attempt to feed her, stay calm and don't show her that this is stressing you out. Pretend like if she doesn't take it its no big deal.

Also, have you tried a cup? We have been using cups since about three months and they can learn to take milk from there as well. Not a sippy cup, but a regular plastic cup. Just try it a few times and see if she will take a few sips. She may cough initially if she takes too much fluid at once, but she will figure it out.

Ultimately, when she is hungry she will drink, so the person feeding her will have to just keep trying back every 1/2 hour At three months I don't recommend that she goes without eating longer than four hours. Even if its just a few ounces every 1/2 hour, she needs the calories and the hydration.

Good luck!
L.

Have you tried different nipples on the bottle? Sometimes that helps.

You could also always try a sippy cup with a rubber straw- that's what we finally had to do with my daughter! The cup was bigger than her, but we were desperate and it worked! LOL Your son might still be a bit young for it, but its worth a try - my daughter was 5-6 months when she stared to use it.

Also, if you're not there, I think your son will eventually see that "he has no choice". If he's hungry enough, hopefully he'll take it. Why don't you test it out first - leave the house at feeding time and have your husband or someone try and give him a bottle. Tell them to just keep trying every 20 minutes for an hour or so. If he does take it, good! Peace at mind for you. If not, then try something else until you find something that works (different person giving the bottle, different bottle, etc...)

Hope this helps you!

Good Luck!!!

**Adding this... Also, some people don't realize it, but you kind of have to put the "whole nipple" in baby's mouth, not just the " pointy part". Many parents are reluctant do this because they feel like they are "shoving it" in baby's mouth, but they actually NEED to have the whole thing in their mouth, not just the "tip", and they aren't really able to do that themselves yet - so don't be afraid!! ;)

I also have a 3 month old and am having difficulty with her taking the bottle. I have bought at least eight different types of bottles. The Adiri (very expensive at $14) and the Gerber (the absolute cheapest) seem to be the two that work the best. When we do have success, it is because of the following:
Feeding earlier in the day rather than in the late afternoon/early evening when babies are a little more fussy
feeding at the very first hunger clue or even before, if she's too upset, there's no use trying it just won't work
let her play with the bottle, get some milk on the nipple and roll it around her lips, gums and even cheeks
preferably have someone other than you feed your baby, you should be out of site and hearing
take a small burp cloth or other item and sleep with it to get your scent on it, wrap it around the bottle or hold it next to baby when trying to feed
temperature didn't matter but some people have better success with a warm bottle
sing and play with baby while trying to feed
I personally found that if my daughter actually starts to suck, under no circumstance remove the nipple (unless she's choking), even if all of the milk is running down her neck
Try feeding at the same time every day

Good luck!

Oh K.! How I feel your pain!!

This was a major battle in our house, too. When I went back to work (just one day a week) I was close enough to still BF because grandma brought my DD to me to nurse every 3 hours or so. BUT, I had to have surgery when DD was 4 months old, so I knew there would be a need for bottle feeding. She took a bottle when she was very small, but then at 3 months rejected it. She had trouble nursing too at that point, so who knows?! We worked at it a ton, tried 6 different bottles, we even went out one time and left her with a trusted friend. 5-6 hours later, she was asleep, and the only time she'd cried was when the bottle was offered! The day before my surgery, we got her to eat an ounce.

Well, I think it is true what they say...when starving, a child will eat! The day of my surgery, my hubby offered her a bottle, and she refused it, screamed her head off for a couple of hours, then slept for a long time. When she woke up (it had been about 8 hours since she'd nursed at that point), he could not get milk in the bottle fast enough! She was hungry, but also tried holding her in a weird way. He laid her with her head resting on his knees so they were looking at each other, and she helped hold the bottle. It worked! It was the end of the bottle strike, and nursing got better too.

I know how scary it is! But I really do believe that your DD will eventually come around if she gets really hungry. I have heard of babies that don't take much from the bottle and then make up for it by nursing a lot when mom is around. As long as she is showing normal signs of growth and communication, I don't think she will let herself starve - it's our human condition to make sure that our needs are met! Try different bottles (although in the end, my DD came back to the first one we'd ever used!)...does she take a paci? Maybe look for a nipple shaped like that? Try lots of different holding positions, too. Is someone else trying to give her the bottle? She may feel your stress - and smell Mommy!

Let us know what happens - best wishes to you all!

try a faster flow nipple..i used Dr. Brown's..they have different levels of nipples..maybe a faster flow easier to get the milk out of the bottle nipple will help

when I was returning to work and knew he would have to take a bottle during the day, we started getting him used to it. He had only had a bottle once before, and he took it with no problem. Then, when we were trying to get him used to it, he refused it. But we had no choice; he HAD to have a bottle. So, at first it took 45 min worth of crying before he would finally give in, then a half hour, 15 min, 7 min and eventually he would take it with no problems. Whole process took about a week and a hlaf. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to be patient and relaxed. They can sense when you're frustrated, and it affects them too. She'll get hungry enough to take it eventually and it won't be so much of a battle each time. Just be consistent with it.

Good luck :0)

Try having someone else give her a bottle outside of the home. That is how my daughter started taking it. Good luck...I know your frustration!

Hi K.,
the same thing happened to me. I breastfed and my duaghter wouldn't take the bottle when I went back to work. I tried everything, different bottles, different nipples. Then she started to take a teeny bit of pumped breastmilk at grandma's. I'm talking 2-4 ounces a day -- at 4 months! Not much. What I read from Dr. Sears' book is that babies will compensate and power nurse once mom gets off work, and into the night. Sure enough, this is what happened to us. So we rearranged sleeping and baby then shared a family bed with us so that she could nurse at night. Or you could do a co-sleeper as well. Sure, I was tired during the day, but your body learns to cope. Good luck!!

Hello, Our little grandaugter had to learn how to drink from a bottle after surgery made it difficult to digest breast milk and had to go on fat-free formula. First she was on a feeding tube, then had to be reintroduced to the sucking. Our daughter wanted to try different nipples and had problems with the hospital staff allowing her to. Finally, one nurse allowed her to try other nipples. She found that the baby preferred the "Breastflow" nipples. They are made by "The First Years" and can be found at Babies R Us as well as online. These nipples are most like mother's breast. It could be that the reason your baby is not taking to the bottle is just that the nipple is not right.
Good luck with your precious child.
K. K.

Hi K.,
Try to put the nipple of the bottle on your nipple and have the baby drink out of it. it will give the baby the sensation that its coming from our breast. It worked for my oldest and his 17 know:)Good luck!

Try many different nipples. I had to change several types before my daughter would latch on. The natural latch, really soft worked for us. Avent never worked for her...too hard.

Hi K.,

I have had friends with this same problem. One way to try to solve this issue is by going to the store and buying different kinds of nipples for the bottle. Perhaps your child doesn't like the type of nipple you are currently using. Keep working on it and your baby should respond. It is imperative that your new baby get much more food than that for healthy weight gain, growth and brain development. If worse comes to worse, ask your pediatrician....Also, try not to get too frustrated with the process, your baby may sense your anxiety and refuse to eat. Also, another friend of mine had to get her mother to feed the baby with the bottle. Her son would not comply because he knew Mom would eventually give him the breast (babies know the source).

This is a very difficult transition, hang in there...you are doing a great job!

We had the same problem. It may be that she doesn't like the feel and taste of the nipple that you are offering. It turned out that my grandson was refusing the bottle, not the breast milk. When we tried some different nipples we found one he would accept and then he nursed.

I suggest that you try an array of different bottle nipples until you find one that she accepts.

I only want to add that when our baby was refusing the bottle, we qualified for early intervention and saw a feeding specialist. We experimented with nipples and actually had to go down in flow to a preemie nipple (Dr. Brown's) for a while and I constantly had to re-evaluate add change levels. But the most important thing was not to force it. It can become a battle of wills even at that age. The specialist taught us to have him root for the bottle as he would for a breast. just place the tip in the corner of the mouth and once he was ready he turned and latched on. And we also didn't stop to burp him or the moment was lost. We let him go for it and eventually he got to the point where he sucked down 6-8 oz in 5 min flat. A huge improvement over the hour it used to take. Good luck and I wish you well.

Wow, that really is not enough intake for a baby that age.
AND they can get dehydrated as well... it's just not enough calories/nutrition... a baby needs to be fed on demand...
and I can understand your concern...

For me, the "MAM" brand bottles & nipples are SUPER... you can get it from www.amazon.com
Try it.
These bottles are also BPA free.
My son LOVED these bottles and me too.

You may also want to make sure that your baby is feeding/latching on properly... some babies don't know 'how' to suck/drink. I baby-sat a baby like that once... the baby barely drank 1-2 ounces ALL day... I told the parents something is wrong, and they said that before she was even 6 months old, they had to take her to the ER twice, for dehydration (which is not normal)... they didn't realize that a baby is supposed to drink more than that and that a baby may not "know" how to nurse/drink whether from a bottle or a boob.

If she continues to refuse bottles... you MUST make sure she gets enough intake... you can try to have the care provider use a medicine dropper to let her suck on and "drink." This is what one of my friends had to do, because her baby was out and out refusing to drink from a bottle.... even if she was hungry. People say that a baby will drink if they are hungry... but no, they do not always do that. So you cannot only go by that.

ASK YOUR Pediatrician now... for advice... and for a "plan B" to have in place, should your baby continue to refuse bottles and thus, she will not get enough intake... and you don't want it to affect her growth/weight gain, pee output etc.

Good luck, I know it's worrisome... but I wish you the best,
Susan