My son refuses to take a bottle. For a while using a bottle warmer worked and now he won't even consider a bottle. He's not a huge fan of pacifiers either. Any advice? I only need him to take one one to two times a week but I'll be gone an entire day and am worried about what to do then ( and for my poor husband who will be with him). We currently use dr. Browns wide mouth bottles.
Try a bunch of different types/brands of bottles.
Try them all now before you go.
Look at the nipple holes.
Only you will know if he needs a small (slow suck) hole or bigger hole for
faster sucking.
Who gives him the bottle now? You need to make sure that you are not around when someone is trying to give him a bottle - the baby should not be able to see, hear or smell you. If he knows you're there, then he thinks he has no reason to drink from a bottle instead of nursing. So make sure you're nowhere nearby.
You may need to try a different bottle. Sometimes babies will hate one brand but do fine with another.
What are you putting in the bottle? Is it pumped milk or is it formula? Can you pump right before you go so the milk is fresher? Sometimes, breastmilk can get a sour taste to it after sitting in the freezer, so you may need to give him milk that is freshly pumped or at least coming straight from the fridge and not the freezer. There are things you can do to your milk to make it not get the sour taste, but I forget what they are. I know you can google it.
People always say "if he's hungry enough, he'll eat it." Talk to his doctor and find out if it's ok to feed him right before you leave and again when you come home, and how much he REALLY needs in between to be safe and healthy. It may be that he can get by with only have a couple of ounces in between, if it's only once in awhile. I have no idea... just something else to consider and look into.
Try another bottle, or try having your husband offer him bottles when you are not around/not home.
kellymom.com has bottle feeding tips.
My daughter would NEVER take milk from any of the bottles made for breast feeding moms. We tried a few different brands.
The ones she took? The old-school cheap ones. Seriously. It's like she wanted either the real boobie, or a bottle. No pretend boobies. Lol.
My kiddles would only use the Latex nipples from Playtex Drop-Ins. They wouldn't use the Silicone, they wouldn't use any other bottles, and they were formula fed after the first week or so. I would try lots of different bottles. Good luck!
When he is hungry enough, he will take the bottle.
He just doesn't have to right now because you keep giving him an alternative.
Here's what we did:
When we decided it was time for him to learn how to use a bottle, I had my husband be the one to feed him. (I was nursing.) We used the FlowVent bottles with a regular nipple (not breastfeeding one, which he didn't like anyway). We waited until a natural feeding time, when he was giving cues that he was hungry, and then I handed over a warm bottle of breastmilk and let he and his father figure it out. I actually went for a walk so I wouldn't be tempted to 'rescue' them. Worked fine.
I hear advice telling moms to wait until 10 weeks to avoid nipple confusion.. I think if baby is nursing easily with mom, introducing a bottle sooner than later is actually the better idea. Only wait if there is a nursing /latch issue.
My son didn't either. I finally got him to - just in time for me to go back to work. But I know other people suggested those sippy cups that a nipple like soft top? I can't remember what they were called. He liked those too, but he did finally take the bottle with my pumped milk. Never gave any of my babies formula ;-) Not sure if that's helpful. I found this on BabyCenter -maybe that was it: http://community.babycenter.com/post/a26919507/sippy_cup_...
I went through the same thing with my daughter. It's hard because we weren't ready to introduce solids, but I finally decided at about 4 1/2 months to do oatmeal thinned out with breast milk. We would do just enough to quiet her until I got home. I remember feeling like I was tethered to my daughter during that period, but it wasn't long until we were giving her more solids anyway. I hope you can find a bottle that he'll take!
My daughter went to daycare for 4 full weeks before she decided to take a bottle. Then she did. They won't starve and just keep trying and eventually it will happen. The thing with my daughter was that she did not fuss or cry the whole 6-7 hours that I was gone (she only cried when they tried to feed her!) and she just nursed more at the end of the day.
Having the bottle quite warm seemed important, and I tried several types of bottles and ended up just sticking with the one that was shaped most like me.
