Getting Her to Accept the Bottle

For my son it was finding the right nipple that did the trick. He would try and get frustrated until we found the right nipple. We use the Born Free bottles and nipples, but those breast-shaped ones someone mentioned earlier look very cool, too. They have both these bottles at Whole Foods in Oakland. We had luck feeding him from the bottle before he got too hungry and frustrated, once we found a nipple he could latch on to. If its a question of wanting Mommy, as is often the case, then I've heard leaving the house works well.

1) try lots of different nipples
2) have someone else give her the bottle when you are not nearby
3) put breastmilk on the nipple, also squirt a bit into her mouth
4) will she take a pacifier? dip this in milk to get her used to the idea.
5) try a spoon to give her a bit of milk so she will accept milk not from the breast.

good luck. just keep trying!

Congrats on the baby girl! When we first introduced the bottle it was very hard. We first had to find a nipple she liked. We used a nipple that was shaped like the pacifier she uses. Maybe she doesn't like the nipple you are giving her? My husband would feed her from the bottle for as long as she would take it. It may be confusing for her to take a bottle from you. When she started to fuss or cry a lot, we'd stop, then I'd breastfeed her. We didn't want to make the experience difficult or traumatizing. The first few times will be very hard, our baby didn't take it at all and she was always looking for my breast. But, Practice makes perfect. My husband had to hold a shirt that I had worn while he fed her, which worked. We bottle fed her once a day, then increased it to two times a day, etc. Eventually, she started taking the bottle. Just keep at it! She'll take it soon enough.

I used to work in a pre-school infant center. When I first started we had a lot of newborns at one time and a few of them had trouble accepting the bottle. I had the most success when laying the baby in my lap with feet on my tummy down the length of your thiegh, head nestled between my knees. tricking them and holding close didn't work as we don't "smell" like mommy. Once they didn't have to devote time into seeing who was giving them the bottle or bounce the tiny lil' face against something soft looking for a breast they could focus on filling up!
Good Luck.
Mom of four, full time mom, retired pre-K teacher.

That is a hard one. I brestfeed all 4 of my kids for a year+. And also found it very hard to get them to take the bottle. Well what ended up happening is they cried until they took the bottle. I did not give in to there cry and brestfeed. We did also try first everything from turning them in the postion to brestfeed with the bottle, to special nipples. Not one of my children took the bottle until they decided they where hungry enough. After they took the bottle for the first time I longer had a problem giving them a bottle when needed. Just thought I would let you know my experiance.

i found that the type of bottle made a difference when my
daughter was a baby. i was trying to get her to nurse again
after i had to stop for a period of time, but maybe it would
work in reverse regardless. there are a few bottles made like
mom's breast. the one i used was the "breast bottle nurser."
they can be found online...all soft silicone with a similar nipple to mom's, and large like a breast...hope that helps.

My son never ended up accepting the bottle. HOWEVER...my sister had similar challenges and found that if she was completely gone - out of the house - Mia would drink from the bottle just fine. Babies are so in tune with what's going on, if she was in the house at all (even at the far end, not speaking or making any noise) Mia would know and cry and cry until my sister came out to nurse her. I think they can seriously sense and smell us mommies :)
Don't know if you've already tried that, but give it a whirl and see how it goes...have you also tried several kinds of bottle nipples??

K. ~ mommy of Derek, 2, and McKenzie, 1 month

Congratulations on your little girl and Happy Birthday.

My son took the bottle so I really had no issues. My friend though had the same problems that you are having. I found a bottle and told her about it. It is a little pricey, not too bad though. She bought it and her daughter took it right away. You can find it on www.onestepahead.com and it is shaped like a breast. It is called the adiri nurser if the link doesn't work.
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

If not, I noticed the Nuk has bottles now and they seem to be more shaped like a breast than most bottles out there. Good Luck and hopefully you will be able to make it to your birthday celebration.

It took us a while to get our son OK with a bottle. We tried different nipples and found those to be a factor. I wouldn't be around, even leaving the house so he knew there was no chance I'd be there. Maybe try it when he's not really hungry, but not full either. I've read trying different positions, like holding them sitting up facing away from you. I read somewhere that one family could only do it if their baby was sitting in a bouncy seat and they gave the bottle from behind. Good luck!

We bought our daughter the 'First Years' Breastfeeding bottle. We found it at Babies R Us and it has a large nipple with an inner nipple inside. It worked wonderfully. There are more parts to take apart and clean, but well worth it.

Hi J., congrats on your baby girl! Its been almost 2 years since my little one was a newborn.. but my niece almost didn't want to take the bottle! What really worked for her is warming up the milk, for some reason, she refused room temp milk.. so that helped!

And my little one prefered the Dr. Brown bottles with those nipples as well. For some, Advent seems to work too.

But here is a little more info, I found for you!

Good luck! Oh, and Happy Birthday!!

http://askdrsears.com/html/2/T025000.asp

Congrats on your baby, and on your upcoming birthday! My oldest daughter was also very willful (about everything), including wanting to breastfeed and not bottle feed as a newborn. What worked for us was that I pumped, and then handed the bottle off to my husband, and left the house. I made sure to say goodbye to my husband and the baby, so she could see me leave. And then when she started to fuss and wanted to be fed, my husband warmed the bottle and fed her. She wanted to be breastfed (and was very adamant in letting Daddy know what she thought about this trick of his!), but she was very hungry and knew Daddy couldn't breastfeed her, so she finally gave in and drank from the bottle. After that she never had an issue with taking a bottle.