Hello Mamas! I really need some suggestions! My son is almost six months old and he will not drink a bottle! I am a stay at home mom, so it hasn't really been an issue so far, but it's getting to the point where he will need to drink one on occasion. At the end of July I am going to New York City for the weekend for my mom's birthday and my husband will be keeping the kids. Obviously the baby will need to drink milk while I am gone so what can I do? I have tried several bottles, including the Adiri, sippy cups, feeding when he's not super hungry so he doesn't get frustrated, daddy doing the feeding, feeding in different positions, and I don't know what else to try! Any suggestions would be really helpful! I am out of ideas! This trip is around the corner and I want to have this taken care of! Plus it would be nice to be able to go out on a date with my husband and be able to stay out for more than a couple of hours :) Thanks in advance for your help!
Have you considered just taking baby with you to NYC? Six months does seem a bit early for separation from mommy. Good luck!
most of my 4 were able to use a sippy cup by 5 months....I'd start working on it.
One of my boys (I have 3) refused to drink from a bottle and because of severe medical issues I had to quit nursing him at 5 months. He drank entirely from a sippy cup from that time on. K.
My son has never had an issue and we used the Nuk bottles (and pacifiers and now learner cup). The nipples are shaped like the breast is during breastfeeding. My other suggestion would be to try a regular cup, as someone else mentioned. My son thinks its so much fun. It's messy at first.
Disregard the comment about not separating yourself from him. Negative comments aren't helpful. Enjoy your weekend and some time to yourself. Your husband will have a great bonding experience while you're away.
Take your baby to New York with you! It will be less stressful for you AND baby. I bet your mom would love to have him along. :)
My husband came up with this one: put a little bit of light karo syrup on the nipple of the bottle and then try to give it to him. It worked for both of our kids! We only had to do that the first few times and then after that they would take the bottle with no more problems. Good Luck! :-)
I had good luck with the "breast bottle" from onestepahead.com with one of my girls. It's shaped like a breast and when it's warm I guess it's similar enough. The other one we gave a regular cup & a little help, she thought it was really funny & cool. Not the same as a bottle at all and I think that's why it worked. With the breast bottle I would get her started at the breast and then switch her to daddy or grandma and the bottle and leave the room, there would be some fussing but then she was hungry so it didn't last too long. (She prefers an appetizer before her meals, we had no idea of that at the time but that preference probably helped) I never had any luck getting either of them to take a bottle from me, if I wasn't around they would take a bottle from somebody else, if I was there they wanted the real thing.
As much as you probably don't want to hear this....at this age it's quite possible that he will not take a bottle period. For evenings out, table foods could help fill the void, if he's started already. A medicine dropper could help. Keep practicing with sippy cups, Nuby bottles, different nipples, but when the time comes for you to leave, he will have to accept what is there or be hungry (which sounds harsh, I don't mean it that way). Eventually he will probably take something, but it will probably be frustrating for him and your husband. This might sound dumb, but is there a way to take the baby with you on your trip?
