Breastfed Baby Rejecting Bottle

Are you trying to feed her breast milk or formula? The problem might not be the bottle but an intolerance to formula. My daughter was fine at taking a bottle after I switched to soy formula.

I breastfed all four of my children. The first one until he was five months, the second nine months, the third eleven months, and the fourth 12 months. Getting them off the breast was easy for me. I introduced the bottle to them during the afternoon. If they didn't want it, they didn't get the breast. Trust me it doesn't take long for a child to figure that one out... an hour or so of crying, then okay I'll take that bottle. After two weeks I gave them the bottle at night, then eventually in the morning, until they accepted the bottle as their way of receiving their milk. Adjust the timing to your needs and it will work out. The hard part is mostly on your shoulders... mentally. You're breaking a precious bond, and that can make you feel extremely guilty. Don't give in to your guilt and you will have success!

My son stopped breastfeeding at 8 months at that time we were able to move on to the sippy cup or regular cup with help. Breastfed baby's don't always like going from breast to bottle because of the feel and texture of the nipples. A lot of what you are going to do is going to depend on you and your child.

I have a two year old daughter who never wanted the bottle, it was breast or scream. I breast fed her until she was 1 1/2 years. At 5 months your baby should be able to eat some solids, so try to transition into more solids and maybe a sippy cup, one that doesnt have a spill shield, and not with milk. Try juice and just feed her the sippy cup with water or juice when she eats her meals. This will help her indentify food with feeling full not just nursing.
I hope this helps.
M.
http://www.workathomeunited.com/M.

I had the same problem. My son is now 13 months. He has been in daycare since he was 12 weeks. I would send bottles with breast milk in them and he still would not drink them all day until I picked him up 8 hours later then I would have to nurse him. At around 6 months he would take the bottle for everyone but me but, only would drink about 2 ounces. Still to this day only drinks about 4 ounces.

My decision was then to breastfeed until one year then could give him whole milk. He hates the whole milk and gags when I put in the sippy cup.

I guess my advice would be to try different nipples of bottle that look like your nipple. I switched from Dr. Browns to platex bottles with the drop ins. he drinks them better but still prefers me. They are so smart and they look at us as comfort.

Still nursing at 13 months, wish i could stop. He will have no choice I'm starting to dry up!!

good luck

Hi!

My 5 month old baby is having the same problem but we are slowly making progress. I'm using a new bottle that really looks breast like, the adiri natural nurser. You can get it at Babies R Us and some other places. It's pricey ($13) but apparently it's more succesful with breastfed babies. Here's the website:

http://www.adiri.com/

She used to scream and scream and even refused after 10 hours! I started offering the bottle when she wasn't super hungry so that she was in a better mood- I let her play with it in her mouth and gave her lots and lots of positive reinforcement just for letting the bottle near her. Now she actually opens her mouth for it! Her problem is that she doesn't understand how to suck from a bottle even if milk is dripping from the nipple! I'm hoping that more practice (I offer it almost every day with pumped milk) and reinforcement she'll get it.

Good luck! If you're successful please let us know how!

Hi N.,

I went back to work when my son was 4 mos old. I pumped for him, but he would refuse the bottle and scream for hours! I finally had a consultant from nursing mother's council come to help out. She attached a very thin flexible tube to the end of a medicine syringe and filled the syringe with my milk. When it was time to feed, she had the caregiver place both the bottle nipple and the tube end in my son's mouth and gently push some milk in. This force him to swallow, but also made him realize that he could get milk out of a bottle. BTW, I don't remember the exact type of nipple that worked, but it was one that was very wide and simulated the type of latch on to the breast.

After our son figured out that he could nurse from either me or that bottle, things went much better. He never seemed to have any nipple confusion, although he did self-wean at 8 months, which was a little earlier than I would have preferred. I've since learned that his is a normal time for showing reduced interest in nursing, and had I worked through it I might have been able to get him to nurse for a few more months or possibly up to another year.

Good luck!

Hi,
the same thing happened to me with one of my sons. He was six months old when I returned to work and for the first week, he refused the bottle, except for little sips here and there. By the second week, he was fine and had no problem with the bottle. I had tried before and he would not take it, until he absolutely had to. I would suggest making sure someone else gives her the bottle and you be nowhere around. She can smell your milk. She will get the hang of it eventually, but be prepared to letting her struggle with it. I have heard of people using the sippy cup, but my preference was the bottle, just because I felt the soft nipple of the bottle was more comforting than a hard plastic spout. THis also happened to my friend with her son when she went back to work and he accepted the bottle after a few days. We both just nursed right before leaving them with the babysitter and those first two or three days, they didn't really eat again until we got there to pick them up and nursed them. Good luck, because I think it is harder for us as a mother to think we are letting them starve, but she will take the bottle when she gets hungry enough.

Hope this helps.

MY BF baby wouldn't take the bottle. I always nursed her under a cover when we were in public, so one day I made her a bottle and walked around the mall for a little bit with her. I put on the cover and put the bottle in her mouth and sure enough she took it. I made sure she wasn't super hungry when I did it. For the next few times I would always put the cover on before I fed her, and I would walk around to distract her. From then on she took it no problem. Of course, she was backwords for a while and would only take the bottle from me (unusual for a BF baby). But now she takes it from anyone. Good luck!

My daughter rejected the bottle from day one! We tried pumping and feeding her from a bottle at about four days old and kept trying until she was about five months, she NEVER TOOK IT. She's a breast baby and she won't have it any other way... so now, she's almost seven months and we have started training her with the sippy cup, she's taking to it really well, so there's just going to be no bottle. Look at it as a blessing, breastfeeding really is what's best, its a great bonding time with your daughter, and its one less thing you have to "wean" her from. It seems so many moms have problems getting their children "off the bottle"... so I just count my lucky stars that I have one less challenge.

Hi N.,
I have 2 friends that had this same problem. They went from nursing to using a cup. They looked for a cup that had the closest they could find to a bottle/nipple. It worked.
Hang in there. Try to be patient, its tough, but your little one is only little once. Try to enjoy the time.
God bless,
M.

N.,
Try this.. try putting somehting that she really likes (breastmilk) into the bottle and something she doesn't like so much to drink (water?) into like a sippie-cup or something.. keep it up for a while and sooner or later she'll have no choice.
*M.E.

Hi N.!
My oldest daughter, now 20, wouldn't take a bottle from me. You might have someone else try giving it to her if she is refusing it from you.

As a doula, I have used a syringe (the kind without the needle) for newer babies, however, that can get a bit messy. Your baby might be too old for that method.

M.

I had the same problem. I went back to work when my daughter was 5 months old. I would nurse her before leaving, come home for lunch, and nurse her when I got home. She never took a bottle. She will now drink water from a sippy cup but not milk. She learned how to use the Born Free sippy cup found at whole foods. It has a soft spout and is the only thing she will drink from. Good Luck.

I don't have an answer but I will commiserate, I had a breastfed baby who NEVER took a bottle. He would starve for 8 hours at a time rather than take a bottle. So good luck to you!

from my experience after 3 kids. i added baby food to the formula just to give it a kick, about 2-3 tsp. for a 6 oz. bottle. yes they whine and fuss for a while but eventually they get it. it's harder for us moms, but when they are hungry enough they will take the bottle. try giving your child a pacifier only because they can get use to the feel and suction of a nipple and also babies just like to suck for comfort and security, especially at night. it really worked for me and one of my friends,who was having a real hard time with her 8 mo. old and now she finally stopped breast feeding at night.she tried the bottle during the day and breast at night and she got no sleep. you might also try to find the right formula for your child, because that was the case for me. i tried 4-5 different brands til finally there was one he liked. you just have to keep trying and have patience, your child will come around, we're creatures of habit. good luck to you!!

All 3 of my children refused the bottle. So when they could sit up they all started drinking water from the sippy cup. Nuby has a soft, bottle like nipple but placed more on the side of the top, making it more like a cup. This way they at first kinda chew at the opening and the water sneaks out and they figure out how to suck.

You will also be amazed at how soon they learn to drink from a straw. My #2 child would not drink any milk from a cup, only me. But when the milk was in a cup with a straw, "Magic," she drank it! One thing for sure, I never had to ween a child off of a bottle!

My daughter NEVER took the bottle. I spent so much money trying different kinds of bottles, even the expensive 'BreastBottle', which I had high hopes for. Spoon feeding the breastmilk or using a syringe helped a little in the beginning, when she were just starving. Sippy cup (non-spill proof) was a little bit more promising. Nubi cups/ bottles were OK for a while.

She eventually reverse fed- which meant she from breastfeeding in the day to breastfeeding at night. SO, she drank very little breastmilk during the day and made up for it at nighttime. Which sucked for me cuz I lost some sleep while having to work full time. But it was worth it for her. And it became a non-issue after a while.

I figured out she could still have breastmilk during the day by mixing it in with her cereal after she turned 6 mos old. And in the next few months after that, she learned to drink from a straw. We used those rubbermaid juice boxes from then on for any fluids. Easy to keep in the diaper bag. And we could even squirt some of the drink into her mouth if we wanted.
http://www.rubbermaid.com/rubbermaid/product/product.jhtm...

Dear N.,

My mother-in-law strongly recommended weaning to a cup. I think her suggestion was to start giving them sips from a cup when you are feeding them their solid foods.

I was told to wean my daughter at four months. She had been taking a bottle at least once a week since I had returned to work. She refused to take the bottle when I was told to stop nursing her. I tried breast milk in the bottle - no go! My mom ended up taking her for a weekend. She said that she finally figured out that if she let my daughter suck her fingers, she could slip the nipple in next to them, and eventually she would remove her fingers keep sucking on the nipple. (I have an awesome mom!)

Good luck!
B.

Is your baby teething? Are you getting engorged? Do you have a breast pump to carry you through the nursing lapse? Is your nursing environment peaceful for you and your baby? Also, did you know the 4th month is when baby's eyes start to see in color? Up until then they just see in black and white. She might be very excited about the world that is unfolding around her. Imagine if that were to happen to you all the sudden. I know it would consume all of my attention!

Babies loose interest sometimes and then regain it in a week or so. It is not uncommon. I researched it a bit when my son lost interest at 12 months old for a week and a half. Nursing totally slowed down, and then he suddenly was interested again.