Moms...have your babies refused the bottle?

[Monte Cristo]

Wife went back to work full time at the beginning of last week. She is breast feeding, but there have been instances where we have given our daughter breast milk in a bottle. One being in preparation of Mom going back to work. Giving her a bottle was never really an issue, until Mom finally did go back to work. Now our daughter (just about 14 weeks BTW) absolutely REFUSES to take the bottle. Luckily, wife works less than 5 minutes away so she can come home at lunch to feed her and the nanny can bring her up to work in the afternoon if needed. When DD does calm down, she'll take it in her mouth and just sort of play around with it, but won't eat at all. At best, I've gotten her to eat 1 ounce and then she just quits.

Has anyone else been through this? Any suggestions on how to get her to take the bottle or will it pass eventually?

Also, FWIW, we've tried the Dr. Brown silicone, Avent silicone and latex, Playtex bottle. The only one that worked prior to her rejecting was Dr. Brown.

Otherwise, she's a dream.........thanks for any tips you can give us.

MC

 

[Pooh67_68]

Sorry can't help. But wanted to say she is such a cutie.

 

[HaleyB]

My daughter did that. I need surgery when she was about 16 weeks old and she had to go a few days without me...

We had the same issue, she would not take a bottle. We tried for weeks before the surgery to get her used to it. She actually threw a bottle across the room, at 16 weeks! I was amazed. (ok so maybe her arm jerked and it happened to knock the bottle across the room, maybe).

We NEVER did get her to take a bottle. She would chew on one and get a tiny bit of the milk but that was it. Even a year later when we tried to give her juice she would not use a bottle. She went from the breast to a cup.

If it comes to it, you can ask your doctor about starting rice cereal early. Back when my oldest was born we started them as soon as they hit 10 lbs! Which back in the day was before they were born, lol. She may take from a spoon, and at least it would get her by in the afternoons so your wife could just feed her at lunch time.

She is adorable, I love the pictures in your siggie.

Oh, and one other thing, my daughter is 8 now, and she is just as stubborn. They grow up so fast, enjoy her!

 

[mickeyboat]

I had lot of issues with Hannah moving from breast to bottle. We practiced a lot before I went back to work (she was 8 weeks old and stayed with her Grammie), and she did fine taking a bottle from me, DH, MIL, FIL, etc. But the first day at day care, at 4 months, she absolutely freaked when her baby sitter was trying to feed her. I got calls at work every morning that Hannah was refusing to eat and screaming her head off. I ended up having my in-laws pick her up, bring her home, feed her and keep her the rest of the day. Plus Hannah was a premie, so she could not afford to miss any meals. Talk about mommy guilt!

MIL took her back for another couple of months until we could find another day care person. She did fine eating with her.

Here are a couple of things we thought might be causing her problem. I thought the pumped breast milk was not warm enough. You are not supposed to microwave it, so I thought it might not be getting warm enough for her.

The first baby sitter was nursing her own baby. I wondered if Hannah smelled something and thought she should be nursing too, and not drinking from a bottle.

I wondered if that particular pumped supply that I brought to the sitters was from a pumping after I ate something that made my milk taste funny for some reason, or made her stomach uncomfortable so she did not want to eat.

I wondered if Hannah sensed my guilt/sadness about me going back to work and her leaving her grammie's house, and that made her too upset to eat.

In the end we really didn't do anything that resolved the issue, she just got better. I would recommend practicing a lot at home at all different times of the day and night, to get her used to the bottle.

Good luck to you. I can totally understand your frustration.

Denae

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

When I went back to work with my first--she did this. The good news is that babies won't starve. I know it is scary to place them in a situation where they do have to rely on the bottle, but they aren't ready to--but really--they will not starve.

I went back to work for only 4 weeks and quit unrelated to any feeding issues. But my oldest--when we started it was just a sip here and there--and eventually she worked her way up to consuming a "full" bottle--which at the time was 2 or 3 ounces.

With my youngest--i had a 4 hour meeting once per week since she was born. She just refused the bottle and I just came home to a very hungry baby. Once a week wasn't good practice for her to pick it up reliably--but she didn't allow her self to starve--a couple of times she would take a little bit if she was really hungry.

Good luck and hope everything works out!

ETA: Daycare was near my work so it was conducive to me visiting at lunchtime to nurse her. I didn't leave her for 8 hours unfed and didn't want to convey that. She did work her way up in quantity on the bottle though anyway.

 

[my2princessgirls]

My youngest wouldn't take a bottle either (funny since her sister didn't want the breast).

Finally at around 16 weeks I tried a straw cup and she did that fine. I first gave her a regular straw with a bit of water in the end so she would realize that something was in there to get out. After doing that a couple times she just sort of knew what to do. It was pretty funny seeing such a little one driking from a straw cup, but it worked!

She finally did move to a sippy cup at around 9-10 months. I was going to skip the sippy, but she learned to flip the straw and send whatever she was drinkning flying. I got tired of cleaning everything - especially inside of the car.

Good luck!

 

[Monte Cristo]

Thank you all for the nice words.

We have thought some of the same questions as you mickeyboat....except about your baby sitter breast feeding too! Ours is my mother's age, but I guess today that doesn't matter. A woman at my work just gave birth to twins at 45!

 

[laurajetter]

My son never took to a bottle. Well, he did take one when he was about 6 weeks after fiddling with the nipple in his mouth forever. He never took one after that and we tried many. He didn't want to settle for anything less than the real thing!

My friend has a baby 3 weeks older than mine, and he was the same way. So she continued to breastfeed until her milk supply became an issue. Since she was pregnant with baby #2, her hormones were decreasing the amount needed for baby #1 and she was forced to supplement with formula.

She finally found a bottle made by Second Nature which she said he took to immediately after refusing many others. The difference is that instead of one hole in the nipple, there are many, I think there are 24. This allows the milk to spray out in different directions when the baby sucks on it, mimicking much more closely the way a real breast actually works.

She said it was amazing how quickly he took to it. I haven't tried it yet, but I thought I'd let you know about it. I'm not sure where she got it, and I couldn't find a homepage for it but there seem to be a lot of companies that carry it from a quick search on the internet. Here is a link to one of them:
Second Nature

 

[AC7179]

She is so precious!

 

[Monte Cristo]

She is so precious!

Thanks, it's awesome to watch her grow and see her learn how to do things.

I guess she wasn't as excited as we were here when going out for brunch on Mother's Day:

But later on she was full of energy. Loves to look at herself in the mirror, just like her DAD!

Sorry for the shameless gloating I have about her as she really is a GREAT baby. If only she would take the bottle once or twice a day.

MC

 

[mickeyboat]

She really is adorable!

I hope things work out for you guys. Give your wife a big ole' hug, I bet she needs it!

When Hannah finaly got the hang of the bottle, nursing was wonderful (pumping was not), and I am so glad now that we had that special time together, and that I was able to do something so special for her.

Denae

 

[Marseeya]

She's such a beauty! My DD was a little stinker like that, though, too.

I froze breast milk for a couple of months after she was born in preparation for me to return to college. We tried her on the bottle a few times and she took it like a little champ. Until the week before school started. Then she absolutely refused to take a bottle no matter what kind of nipple we put on it. I was beside myself!

I continued to pump my breast milk, and we just got it in her any way we could while I was gone. My mom watched her, and she had a lot of luck feeding it to her on a baby spoon, or a sippy cup. Our ped had us put the smallest amount of rice cereal in it to thicken it a bit, but we did okay with just using the spoon. I think a medicine dropper worked okay too. Then as soon as I got home from school, she nursed right away.

She never did take a bottle ever again after that.

 

[tiggger1]

have you tried a sippy cup? maybe a transition one? If she wont take a nipple, try one with a harder spout....a friends baby would only take a cup from a man... if you were a female, he would go looking for the source...

 

[diznygirl]

My DD refused a bottle. She would scream and cry with a full bottle right in front of her nose until I got home and could feed her...... then, at about 4 months old I was holding a cup with a straw while I was holding her, not really paying attention, and she drank from it! So when she wasn't being breastfed, she was drinking from a straw.

Good luck.

 

[kidzmom3]

i second the have a man try advice, without any women in the room. My first child refused the bottle, and in fact it sort of wrecked a job for me, but in the end it worked out okay in my situation.

Afraid this would happen again with my second child we started her on the bottle much sooner (but you can't go back in time, so no advice there)

you can try putting it in a cup of warm water to heat it up.

have the caregiver hold something that the mom wore , so it smells like her.

have you tried different holding positions? ie-does the baby feel secure when
feeding?

 

[minkydog]

My DD was very much like your baby--she only wanted the breast and she would just sit & wait on me to come home, thank you very much. DH finally resorted to giving her breastmilk in a dropper or a spoon just to get some liquid into her--there were times she would barely pee because she refused a bottle for >8hrs I worked the evening shift and when I came home this baby would literally lunge at me and attach herself for hours--like feeding a leech Good thing we could co-sleep.

She never was much of a bottle baby. I don't know if we missed some developmental deadline or what. What finally gave us a breather was starting her on rice cereal. Not a lot, just enough so she wasn't starving.

 

[Monte Cristo]

Thank you all very much for the advice. We'll see how it goes tomorrow.

MC

 

[tinkerbellmom31]

I had this problem with my dd and she never did take a bottle. What we ended up doing (per lactation consultant and peds recomendation) was use a medicine cup and give small sips or a medicine dropper. Eventually when she was alittle bigger we did the sippy or straw cup. When I worked I tried not to be away more than 5 hours. If your wife can come home or the nanny to her that will pacify your dd for at least one feeding and Im sure it will relieve some of your wifes pressure also. Pumping was very difficult for me so being able to get at least one feeding helped greatly. Good luck your dd is beautiful .