Chloe won't take a bottle! Help!

[Spangles]

I know lots of people have this problem as I've been researching it on the net the past couple of days but I haven't been able to find a common solution!

I have fully bf Chloe since the day she was born, she's now 5.5mths and we are starting to put her on baby rice from this weekend - goodness only knows how this will go down! Ha!

Anyway, I would like a bit more freedom and would love her to take a bottle but she won't! I've tried Avent, Medela and now Nuk. I can't afford to keep buying loads of different ones.

I even tried one with formula in incase she would prefer that in a bottle instead of breast milk but, no!

She won't take it from hubby when I'm not around either so I can't go anywhere except very quickly in between her needing a feed!

Has anyone got any solutions? Asked a friend and she said to let her be hungry, she would take a bottle when she was hungry enough but please don't suggest that because I'm not doing that under any circumstances!

xx

(I bet Blaze will have some great advice - she usually does!!!)

[Noodles]

Have you tried her with a sippy type of cup/beaker. some breastfed babies prefer these i was reading.
i know my little one was bottle fed but stopped liking then from the weaning stage so we used cups with her and she was fine. It may be worth a try:) :)

[katickles]

I'm not sure - I know mindee's mum was like this, like you tried so many different types of bottles. In the end it was down to the teat, she ended up after a reccomendation getting a boots own brand teat & then after just a short while, baby took milk fine from it.

In the end she didn't take milk much more though as it turned out she really doesn't like the taste - once she was eating solids she just wasn't interested in milk, poor mum still expressed so we could keep going but like I say inthe end baby just didn't want milk. Even formula, nothing. To this day she won't touch milk.

[Gizmo]

One of my mindees is almost a year and mum is trying to stop bf, she has asked me to try and give her a bottle but she is refusing tbh I think she is too old for the bottle and think thats what is putting her off, I might try giving her it from a sippy cup as she has water from one and drinks that fine

[Blaze]

:blush: Not so sure about that!

Firstly I would suggest giving DH something of yours a jumper that you have worn for example that he can put between himself & Chloe whilst feeding that way she will have the comfort of your scent. (He could always put on your moisuriser & perfume LOL):D (Obviously you need to be out of sight & hearing whilst he is feeding her)! I would also suggest that you use a nipple shield when you feed her, so she gets used to the rubber feel IYSWIM....IMHO Tommy Tippee Naturally Close are the best bottles in this instance - perhaps buy one - see how you get on & then perhaps more?

By doing the above we got Grace to take a bottle from Gareth, but she point blank refused to except one from me for ages & even then I had to put her in the highchair & stand next to her - if I held her she wouldn't take it & wanted me instead!!!!:rolleyes:

HTH:)

[LittleAcorns]

I bf Amber til she was 7 months and she point blank refused a bottle at first...the only way I did it was by offering her a bottle at night time feed which she refused, not feeding her myself (which was tough - but she was on solids and juice so wasnt going without) by morning she was ravenous, I sat as far away from her with the bottle and was just determined, she took that bottle and after that was fine....

I guess because our feeding pattern was only am & pm by then I hadnt got too much milk and so didnt take long to disappear thus making it easier for her .... I was a bit of a Jordan for the day :D :D

[Blackhorse]

my dd was the same and never had a bottle. But she did drink from a sippy cup.
Mind you not milk but only water but I am sure if I would have persevered she would have...now she takes milk from a sippy cup without problems.
I think she never saw the point when I was there to drink from a cup when I was her 'real' source of milk!
She started solids when she was 6 months old and she was baby lead weaned..she had pieces of baguette and everything quite early on...
she wasnt a big fan of baby rice etc...she wanted ''proper food'' LOL

Hope all goes well..give it some time and maybe give her it when she is really happy...make a game with the sippy cup....I even gave one to my dd as a toy for a while so she got used to it and did pretend drinking...then one day it was quite warm and she took her first few sips of water from it...ever since she was fine with it

good luck!

[Tinglesnark]

ds2 is 14 months and im still breastfeeding him (its very important to me to bf for as long as possible because i didnt manage to breastfeed ds1 :D) and he is the same for me when im not here but will take a bottle for dp if it is full fat cows milk or flavoured milk (they seem to favour banana yazzoo :rolleyes: ) in a tommee tippee closer to nature (the only bottles ive ever used so cant give advice on others) i gave him a sippy cup with water in at the same time that i started weaning at a little over 6 months and helped him to drink from it.
as you have only just started to wean her, she is obviously still going to need her feeds and cows/flavoured milk isnt really the best choice for her nutritionally speaking. I wonder why, if you are at home with her anyway (you obviously are doh!) do you need to stop bf her when you have come so far? can you not carry on for another few months until she is having 3 meals a day and then start with cows milk in a cup?
it is very seldom that a bf baby will take formula from thier mother so dont let it stress you out! take it as a compliment that chloe prefers you to anything else :D :thumbsup:

good luck

x

[SimplyLucy]

My totally BF baby took milk (formula or expressed) from an open cup.

She took formula from an open cup for her very first feed as I was too ill after the birth to feed her and they cared for her in the neo-natal unit.

Was 6 months later after trying every bottle/teat on the market that I remembered the open cup method. :rolleyes:

I used a medicine cup and just offered it up to her lips, she gulped it down, it can get a little dribbly but at least some goes in. DD1 would take a good 5 or 6oz this way! :clapping:

[Tinglesnark]

My totally BF baby took milk (formula or expressed) from an open cup.

She took formula from an open cup for her very first feed as I was too ill after the birth to feed her and they cared for her in the neo-natal unit.

Was 6 months later after trying every bottle/teat on the market that I remembered the open cup method. :rolleyes:

I used a medicine cup and just offered it up to her lips, she gulped it down, it can get a little dribbly but at least some goes in. DD1 would take a good 5 or 6oz this way! :clapping:

fab plan!
:clapping:

[Spangles]

I wonder why, if you are at home with her anyway (you obviously are doh!) do you need to stop bf her when you have come so far? can you not carry on for another few months until she is having 3 meals a day and then start with cows milk in a cup?
x

No, don't get me wrong, I don't want to stop bf completely at the moment, I just want her to use a bottle sometimes so I can have a bit of freedom that's all. Usually I plan to give her expressed milk.

[singlewiththree]

Can someone lend you a mother nature one they are breast shaped so she can put her mouth around the whole teat?

good luck

[Spangles]

Can someone lend you a mother nature one they are breast shaped so she can put her mouth around the whole teat?

good luck

I've never heard of those, will take a look on the net.

Thank you.

x

[tulip0803]

Neither of my daughters would take a bottle - even when they were starving & someone else was feeding. They did not know how to suck it, it is different to breast feeding suck. They both had beakers with the soft spouts. The anyway up cups were no good either as they couldn't suck them (dentist doesn't like them anyway). They used the tommee tippee type with 3 holes in the spout.

Had a dental workshop this week & they are recommending doidy cups - our local HV is giving them out with the book-start packs. They are better for teeth apparantly. http://www.bickiepegs.co.uk/acatalog/Doidy_Cup.html

[Heaven Scent]

Give these one of these bottles a try - I used them when I was doing mixed feeding with my 2. The teets look really strange but the baby has to latch onto it in the same way as they would your breast - they have the added benefit in that they are anti colic as the bag inside the bottle closes as the baby feeds and so there is no air in the bottle for them to swallow.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2Fs%3Fie%3D UTF8%26keywords%3Dplaytex%2520bottles%26tag%3Dgoog hydr-21%26index%3Daps%26hvadid%3D2979675753%26ref%3Dpd_ sl%5F5g9wil18im%5Fb&tag=childminding-21&linkCode=ur2&camp=1634&creative=19450">Name Your Link</a><img src="https://www.assoc-amazon.co.uk/e/ir?t=childminding-21&l=ur2&o=2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;

I found this by keying playtex feeding bottles - the teets are laytex - Avent used to do some with silacone teets but my two prefered the laytex teets I think its because they were softer and were more breast like. If I were you I'd use expressed milk in them before trying formula - one change at a time will be enough!!!

[Heaven Scent]

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Other_Bottles_Accessories__Review_5358870

Take a look at this review and it will explain how they work better than I can.

[Spangles]

Thank you will definitely investigate those ideas!

[Spangles]

Chloe is now drinking from a bottle!!!! Woohoo!

I bought her a Nuk bottle with a teat that's really similar to the breast and after a couple of times of just playing with it, yesterday she guzzled down her milk and she's done it again today!

Woohoo! I'm so happy!!! What a star!

Thank you for all the advice, we got there eventually!