Getting 6 Week Old to Take Bottle

I'm having the same trouble but my little boy just turned 5 months. My advice is to train him now asap. It only gets worse. I have not been able to leave him yet for a long period of time. I have to make sure I can be there for him if he does not feed well before I leave him and he eats every 3 hours. He actually took a bottle a few times with in the first month, but after that he would cream if I tried to give it to him. I've let my husband, mother, and best friend try. He only bites on the nipple. He gets alittle bit out from it dripping but he has not figured out how to suck. I don't know if this is just a boy thing but I never had trouble with my daughter. Good luck

The best way to handle this is to continue to try different bottles and nipples. Our 6 week old would take the medela bottles (very short), but then stopped. Now he will only take the Avent. I thought it was a lost cause and then I just tried a bunch of different ones. Good luck

Unfortunately, even the slowest nipple is way faster than mama as you've found out. He may not like it when you offer him the bottle. Why would he? He prefers to nurse so it's probably confusing when you offer it to him. Have your husband give him the bottle and see what happens.

When I was nursing my youngest, I had to train him to take a bottle. It took several weeks of consistent effort. We started trying with a slow-flow nipple and he would not take it. Then we switched to a medium flow and voila! Problem solved. When you are first working with him, I would recommend just giving him a little bit of breastmilk in the bottle. That way you don't have to worry about thawing/warming more milk than he will want to take. Give it to him every day. Choose the feeding when he is hungriest so that he will be more willing to try to get something out of the bottle. It can be frustrating but if you are consistent, he will eventually take a bottle. :)

I had purchased the advent bottles at the suggestions of friends. But baby girl, 8 weeks old, was struggling even with the slowest nipple because the milk was coming out so fast. She too would choke. I used breastmilk in the bottles but milk would drip out of mouth and down her chin and neck. After a few times she stopped taking it and would cry. I then tried the Dr Browns bottle and there was less leaking. I also had Dad feed her everytime we gave her a bottle. This bottle did the trick and after a while she got the hang of it and the leaking out of her mouth got better.

Hi A.,

I don't want to concern you, but my DD would not take the bottle after about 3 weeks of age. I was nursing and didn't give it to her for almost 2 weeks; and then she just wouldn't take it. I didn't think it was possible for a baby to just refuse the bottle, but it is.

I bought every bottle and nipple I could find...but she refused. My mom, DH, and all of the daycare workers tried to give her a bottle, with no luck. I was working full time and extremely stressed when I had to go back to work when she was 10 weeks old. My boss allowed me to work out of a temp office closer to the daycare for 3 1/2 months so I could feed her during the day. When I had meetings, I told the daycare workers that I couldn't come in to feed her...so although they continued to try to feed her with the bottles I left, they ended up feeding her with a medicine dropper.

As she got older, I only had to feed her at dropoff, at lunch, and at pickup, during the workday...then of course at night. It wasn't easy...but that first year really does fly by, even if it doesn't feel like it.

You're doing a great job nursing your baby. Good luck with the bottle...more than likely he'll catch on...most do.