Won't Take a Bottle

I had the same problem with my son. I expressed my milk but he wouldn't talk the bottle. My babysitter (I had to work so she had to deal with this) decided to try him on a sip cup. She held him upright in her lap and held the cup for him. He went right for it. By 3 month he sat up in a carry seat, held the cup himself and downed it without a spill.

My oldest son went from breast to sippy and the other went from breast to a regular cup with no lid when they were under 1 year old. Neither liked the rubber or silicone nipple of bottles. Try the cups.

Good job breastfeeding, you'll be so happy you made this decision. It is normal for her to not take a bottle from you, she MIGHT from someone else when you're not there if necessary, but many breastfed babies don't. I believe babies were designed not to be away from their mothers for long because you develop such a strong, protective bond that way. I understand it can drive you nuts sometimes, but try to remember that these months won't last forever. Someday soon she'll be waving good bye without a blink and not need that special cuddle time with you.

Hi C.! One thing that helped us with this, was to have someone else give her the bottle. She will likely want the real thing from you! I would always enlist my hubby for this task, and it proved to be good bonding time for him as well, because as a typical dad, he's a little more interested when they're older and doing more....but I digress. It will be met with vocal complaints at first, but they will both learn to like it within a few tries..
**one more thing...don't wait until she's crazy-hungry! She'll be too impatient and won't want to try for long....maybe when you or your hubby is holding and playing with her, try putting the bottle in her mouth to see her reaction.

Do you pump your milk? My youngest didn't like a bottle because the taste was different. If I put breast milk in it he chowed down. It was cute watching his face when he relized it was just like mommy.

I think it just takes time. My son had no problem at all going back and forth but my daughter was more picky. I found that using breastmilk in her bottle worked better than formula. Also, try different nipples. She used a Soothie pacifier and I switched to the Soothie nipples and voila! I think they just need to become familiar with the feeling of something plastic in thier mouth.

just so you know, my son still won't take a bottle and he's 12months old!!! at first i thought it was a big problem but then i realized it was just something i had to accept. not saying that your baby won't take a bottle, i'm just speaking from my personal experience. i say try all different kinds of bottles..... MAKE SURE you get the slow flow nipples though, otherwise 1) they'll choke on the milk b/c they aren't used to it coming out so fast 2) they might get accustomed to the milk flowing out so freely that they won't take to the breast anymore. believe me, i've done my research on this topic. just keep trying though. maybe have someone else give the bottle, it worked for my son maybe 5 times or so when my hubby would do it. but anything is worth a try. good luck to you!!

C. - At two months old, your milk supply should be established which is great. Keeping the baby from the breast prior to that could possibly pose issues. But I understand your desire to have some milk in reserves. I have five+ years of nursing experience and I've used my pump to store up frozen milk a lot. Techniques we've used have been: being completely away from the house so the baby couldn't smell me, trying the opposite and having me try to feed them the bottle, experimenting with different bottle nipples, waiting until the baby was really hungry to try, feeding from a sippy cup (the white Avent baby nipple), and feeding from a regular cup. Of my three children only the first really took to a bottle, the second refused at all attemps, and the third was somewhere in the middle. It could be a personality thing as often women have told me that their second child refused the bottle too. As you know, your daughter's babyhood is so short-lived. You are giving her the absolute best nutritional start to her little life in breastfeeding. Good luck & enjoy!

C.,

It took me forever to find a bottle that my daughter would use. I finally found the Breast Flow bottles from The First Years

http://www.learningcurve.com/product/detail/Y1130A2?local...

and yea!! she finally started drinking from a bottle, I finally had a break.

I also played around with the temperature of the milk and found that my daughter liked her milk quite warm. Remember that breast milk is always the right temperature, not too hot and not too cold.

The Breast Flow bottle's nipples are also interchangeable with the Soothie Bottles (also made by The First Years)

http://www.learningcurve.com/product/detail/Y1866A1?local...

The soothie bottles have the same shape as the soothie pacifiers so if your baby uses that pacifier she may use this bottle.

I hope that this helps.
Take care and God Bless,
M.

If you can wait until you start solids, try giving her a bottle in the highchair/bouncy when you give her her food.

My first son never would take a bottle, so I got him on a sippy cup at almost 6 months. My second son wouldn't take a bottle until I gave him one with his cereal at 3-1/2 months (reflux issues led me to feed him early).

I made his cereal with formula for several days. Then one day I gave him a bottle of formula right after the cereal, still in his seat. I think the key was to associate the bottle with the food and not the breast. Thats why it think it is actually important to use formula, not breast milk. That way it is a totally different food in a totally different way.

When you give a bottle with her in your lap, face her away. Sitting on a porch or by a window would even be better. More distracting. Have her on your lap like you are going to read a book. That way she isn't looking for the breast.

If you can hold her facing out and give a bottle, that usually works great. If you need to, use a front carrier. She will likely get so excited looking around.

He also would only use platex nursers. The type with the drop in liner. He never would take any other type of bottle. Could drink out of anything he wants by 8 months, straw, cup, sippy,....., but the only bottle that is acceptable is playtex nursers. My first son, while he never really drank from a bottle found the playtex ones the least offensive. The nursers have the great advantage of the baby being able to sit up and look around and drink. My baby loved to take a bottle once he figured out how. Then he could watch big brother and drink at the same time.

Remember, learning to drink from a bottle is different from the breast. Even with finally accepting drinking from one, you baby still needs to figure out how to get the milk out. I think my boy didn't actually have to suck from me. I had such a forceful let down he practically had to open up and it would shoot in. With the bottle he had to learn to suck.

I sympathize with you. I had the same issue with my youngest. Here are the things that helped with him. He seemed to be a little happier with the Advent bottles. I know they are really expensive, but you can get them used at Once Upon A Child. Also, when I was away and my husband had to feed him, he would lay one of my nightgowns,that had been freshly worn,on his chest so that my son could have my scent next to him. This also helped.
To be honest, he never was really good with the bottle thing. But these things at least got him some food while I was away. And we moved him to baby cereal as soon as his doctor agreed on it. This too shall pass. Good luck, I really understand.

Try a different nipple. My son really likes the Nuk nipples.

Unfortunately, it can be trial & error. She just simply may not like the ones or even just the nipple that is being offered. Obviously, I don't know what you've got, but have you tried the playtex nursers. The have lots of different nipples, and that inner lining can be used to give her a little taste of what she's getting. Good luck.

I can relate to what you are going through. My older son took a bottle at 2 months with no problem. However, my four month old son who I breastfeed would not. He would not take a bottle for me or my husband up until about 3 weeks ago. He would do the same thing your daughter did, just lick it and spit it out. All we did was just keep trying and suddenly he decided he was hungry enough and started to suck on the bottle.
One thing that my husband did was offer him the bottle when he wasn't showing signs of hunger. When he got really worked up that was when he had trouble even considering drinking from a bottle.
Something else you could try is to offer your daughter a bottle every day, if you have enough milk pumped, and that way she could get some practice.
Good luck!

Hi C.,
I went through the same thing with my son. He didn't start to take a bottle well until he was about 10 months old. We use the Playtex nurser now, but he would also take a bottle by First Years called Breast Flow. It is supposed to mimic breastfeeding. I know you can buy them at Babies r us. Good Luck to you!!!

Neither one of mine took bottles...they had the same reaction. It may seem inconvenient now, but if you can hold out a while longer, they'll be drinking from sippy cups or a glass before you know it. I breastfed one for an entire year, but the other only went for 9 months. If I were you, I wouldn't fight it.

Without reading everyone else's suggestions and risking repetition...

1. Have someone feed her the bottle while you're still in the house. Maybe she won't take the bottle because she knows you're gone or has seen you leave.

2. Fill the bottles with pumped milk, not formula.

Good luck!

We had trouble getting our now 15 month old to take a bottle of breast milk also. We were frustrated as I had to go back to work when she was only 9 weeks old. She never did take breast milk from me out of a bottle, but we eventually got her to take it from my husband and others. The key for us was finding a nipple she liked, we tried a ton of them. She finally decided she liked the nuk brand and still uses them for her whole milk now. If you haven't tried other nipples yet, I would. I also know of a mom so desperate when her little one refused a bottle her husband had to use an eye dropper into the mouth of a very unhappy baby while mom was at work! Keep at it you will make it, and remember how wonderful your " mommy milk" is for your little one! :)

I have breastfed three kids and had one who did not like the bottle. What worked best for us was for my husband, or someone else besides me, to give him the bottle when I was out of the house. He didn't necessarily love it, but he did learn to drink from it. With him and my now 8 year old, we introduced a sippy cup at about 4-5 months old and gave up giving the bottle when I was not home to nurse them.

Been in your situation. You've gotten lots of great advice, so I'll only add one thing. What finally got DD to take a bottle was if the person feeding her would walk around while feeding her. After much trial and error and many tears, she takes a bottle without much struggle now.

Good luck!

I have been babysitting a sweet little girl about 4 months old that is being breat fed. The mother ofcourse needs to have her take a bottle when I watch her. The mother sends me the frozen breast milk and we have tried different bottles and nipples until we finally found one that works for that little on. She would cry and spit the milk out and also push the bottle out of her mouth. I kept working with her each feeding until she would finish eating. It would take a lot on my part to get her to eat until we found a bottle and nipple that finally worked for her. You just have to work with your little one and be very patient. Good luck to you, she will catch on.

Hi C.,

I had the same problem with my son. We went through probably 10 different types of bottles and nipples, and I couldn't be within sight of him when someone was giving him a bottle. My husband had a hard time with it, but if the baby is hungry enough, she will eat. I would suggest experimenting with different nipples, and have a bunch of different people try to give her the bottle. Good luck!

I went through something similar to this with my last child. She would take the bottle from our sitter, but not anyone else. My husband is a teacher and when summer came, she wouldn't take the bottle from him in our house. She was about 4 months then. I spoke with her dr. and she said that as long as she isn't getting dehydrated she can wait for her meal. I nursed her before I left and as soon as I came home. If she got really hungry, she would eat. She would sometimes take the bottle from him when they were out of our house, so there were field trips for lunch often. Try leaving her for about a half an hour with someone someplace besides your house. They can try to give her a bottle then, while she is hungry and you are not there at all. If she can see or hear you, she'll hold out for you. She loves you! Good luck.

Just keep trying different nipples. Try to find one that is similar to your own, perhaps a softer plastic. Also, my little one wouldn't immediately take the bottle either. I used a sewing pin to widen the hole in the nipple to release more milk at once. That helped a great deal.

Hi - I breast fed my 4 kids and commend you for doing this awesome thing for your baby!! I have a couple of ideas. If you aren't going to be gone longer than 3 hours or so, you could nurse right before you leave, then right when you get home. Also, a 2 month old can take a cup! Use some expressed or pumped breast milk in a medicine cup or medicine spoon to offer her - someone else besides mom is easier, sometimes. Don't pour the milk in her mouth, just tilt it up to the rim, and she will use her tongue to get the milk. Mine wouldn't take bottles either, and looking back, I'm thankful for that! Not having to wean from a bottle is one less thing to deal with later!! Even if she gets just enough from a cup to keep her happy until you return to nurse, it would give you a chance to have a short outing. Good luck!

First, pump 1 oz bottles (or bags) so that you don't waste your milk each time you have to throw it out (you can't refeeze or reheat breast milk). It sucks to pour milk down the drain:(

Always have your husband try while you are not in the room. Make sure your daughter isn't really hungry or full at the time. an hour after a feeding is a good time to try.

Try different bottles and nipples, stick to low-flow and nipples made for breastfeds.

Keep trying every couple days. She's bound to pick it up at some point if you just continue to offer.

Good Luck! :)

My one son would only take a NUK nipple when I wasn't around to nurse, so you may need to try different ones. Some babies are very picky.

When my grandson was NOT hungry, we fed him milk from a spoon, as a treat, so he'd know that not all milk came from his Mom. He still wouldn't drink from a bottle if she were there..but it got easier for me to feed him, when she was away. Soon he would eat anywhee if her was hungry, but he loved his Mom for comfort. He stopped wanting to nurse when his baby sister came!

Kudos to you for breastfeeding. It's a hard job, but well worth it.
Like a bunch of the other responses, check out different nipples for the bottle. We seriously had five or six different kinds of nipples. Once we found one that he liked, we thought we were good to go, he changed his mind and wouldn't take it after a few weeks, and we had to switch. He also would take the different nipples on the bottle from different people. Like he would take a reg. playtex from grandma and a silicon playtex nipple when dad fed him. It was crazy. And if I was anywhere in the house, we could just forget about the bottle from anyone, he would refuse to no end. He never did take a bottle from me, even if we were somewhere like the mall, he would just cry until I bf. Good luck. It'll happen. :)

My 10 month old did the same thing. You just have to keep trying over and over. Try different nipples as well. To be honest with you, it took my daughter until she was aobut 7 months old to actually take a bottle. I had her doing it around a month, but then I stopped giving her one because I stayed at home with her. Just make sure that you don't give up. Also, if she starts crying and you think that she is hungry I would try to wait a little longer because if she is truly hungry then she will eventually take the bottle. Maybe try putting a pillow or something between you and her. They say that helps. I never really tried that. I hope that some of this helps and good luck!

I have heard many people say that their children wouldn't take a bottle or a pacifier unless it was a certain shape... you could try another shape - some are designed to feel like the natural thing ;)