8 Month Old Rejecting Bottle

My son (breastfed except for when I work) started refusing bottles at 7 months and he never took one again. I had terrible mother guilt and started nursing him a lot at night (whenever he asked) to make up for it. Ultimately, though, he just ended up eating a lot more food during the day. It took him a long time before he would drink any quantity of liquid from a sip cup (he preferred regular cups). I'd suggest trying a sippy cup - your son may be perfectly happy with that once he gets the hang of it. But either way, I would just keep trying the bottle too. Don't push it - offer it to him once or twice each feeding and if he refuses, move on to some solids and try and give him sips of formula/water from a cup between bites. Don't worry - he'll eat when he's hungry.

Hi L.,

How about trying a sippy cup? It's worth a try. We used the cups with a handle on each side to start...good luck!

Kids go through phases where they eat a lot and then really don't want to eat at all for maybe a couple of days and then they'll eat again. Like a previous poster mentioned, it could be tooth pain or mouth pain. If he's not acting sick, it's possible he just isn't very hungry. He'll go on a growth spurt and won't be able to stop eating. It happens, though it drives us parents crazy!

In terms of getting enough liquids, though, I'd definitely try a sippy cup.

If it's sudden, and has only been a couple of days, I would wonder if it was teething pain that hurts only when he sucks. Or if not that, check his mouth - does he have a canker sore, thrush, something that would hurt when he sucks but not when he swallows other food? You could try a cup or a sippy cup, or even try giving some tylenol a half-hour before one of his scheduled bottles and see if you notice a difference.