My 4mth old son suddenly won't take a bottle. I work full time :( and unfurtunaly I have to my husband is laid off and can't find work so I can't even cut my hours back. He was taking a bottle fine for about 2moths and all of a sudden he refusses to take the bottle now, I should mention that i pump at work and he gets breast milk in his bottle. He was doing good and with all the snow and sicknesses in our house we have had a lot of time off and I think that now he is refusing just because. It is almost like he is addicted to me, when I am home if he sees i have to be holding him and he trys to get me to nurse him all the time even when I know that he can't be hungery. We have tried switching to different bottles and heating the milk to different temps, swaddling him when he eats, not swaddling him, even tried this stuff called toote sweet a latching add. No success. I have had to leave work so many times that I feel that my job is in jeopardy. And to make matters worse I am sure that if I don't get this worked out soon my sitters is sure to quit (on the days when my husband is working). I was able to stay home with my first son for the first year, so this is all new to me. Any ideas bring them on!!!! Desperate mother here.
Try feeding with a spoon or a cup, here is a link to la leche league, you might try a meeting locally. Sorry too tired to think of anything else a the moment.
http://www.llli.org/NB/NBNovDec02p218.html
My youngest son refused a bottle until the day I went back to work, he was 10 weeks old. I also pumped at work and he had breast milk in his bottle. He wasn't happy about it at first, but there wasn't any alternative. I would say your husband is just going to have to tough it out. DO NOT come home from work - he will never take a bottle if he knows he can hold out for nursing. At 4 months old, he is old enough to do this. It is not easy, but if you lose your job, that will be even worse. Good luck, this is a stressful situation.
The site Kellymom.com has quite a few resources for alternatives to bottle feeding for the breastfeeding mom, including cup feeding for infants. You might want to check that out. For any time of (non-breast) feeding (bottle, cup, etc), there are also tips on the site. One that is repeated several times is mentioned by another poster here - don't try to imitate the same hold that you use to breastfeed when offering a bottle because it's confusing to the baby. Be sure the caretaker is holding the baby in a different way (say, propped upright on her knees, or have the baby in his bouncy seat or car seat) when offering the bottle or cup, because these are not positions that the baby expects to be breastfed in.
Good luck!
I had 2 boys that would onlytake the breast but no bottle, they would not take pumped milk fron a bottle at all. i used a sippy cup also used a medacine dropper. it does not matter how you get the milk in just so it gets in.
This is a hard one! I distinctly remember when all my babies were around that age they started to reject the bottle. It was almost as if it had to be one or the other. With my older son I didn't push it (because I didn't have to) and just BFed him. Then I had twins and I really needed to be able to give them a bottle. At first they would take a bottle once or twice a day but suddenly around 4 months they started to reject it. So, I upped the number of times they got a bottle per day and that worked for a while (off and on). I think I had to give them at least 4 bottles per day (these were supplementary bottles) every day to keep them from rejecting it. It reached a point, though, when they started rejecting my boob around 7 or 8 months and so I weaned them then. I spent a lot of time pumping so that they had breast milk until they were around 9 months old. I would stay consistent with the bottles meaning do the same thing on days home as on days when you work. I would also contact your local leche league like the PPs said. If all else fails, I hate to say it, you may have to go to strictly pumping and feeding him with a bottle all the time. Good luck - I hope you can figure something out!
Hi,
My oldest daughter had similar issues. She took a bottle fine until I went back to work, although, she only got an occasional bottle then. But, as soon as I went back to work and she had to take several bottles a day, she was not happy. It took a couple weeks before she got the hang of it. My sister in law watched her and I know it was tough. We tried several different bottles and ended up using the playtex insert bottles. Also, my sister in law tried many different positions of holding her while she fed her. She seemed to get upset if she was being held in a position that was close to the way I nursed her. So, my sister in law tried feeding her in her carseat and that worked better.
I agree that it is probably better if you don't come home, especially if your work is not OK with it. Also, some babies are able to go almost the whole day without eating and then they will just nurse like crazy in the evenings, mornings and at night.
I hope this helps and that it gets better soon!!!
He could be going through a growth spurt. Also, remember that babies nurse for other things besides hunger--they sometimes use nursing for comfort. Could you "wear" him in a sling while you are home, so he could nurse while you do other things? If you are home he will probably not take a bottle, he has figured out the difference, and he wants the real (best) thing, lol! If you were home a lot, then went back to working more, he may be afraid you are leaving him. I would just nurse him as much as you can, then maybe he'll realize you DO come back.
You could also contact La Leche League for advice; you don't have to be a member to go to meetings or talk to a leader on the phone. .
Have the sitter try cup or spoon feeding him your milk. It is so good you are pumping for him! Hope that helps, good luck!
K. Z.
I think you may want to add some information here to give us a better idea as to why you would feel the need to leave work. I was in a similar situation. I had been looking for a job because my third baby was born while I was between jobs and money was tight. At two months she took a bottle and my husband worked at night so he took care of the baby while I was interviewing. I got a job right after she turned 3 mos. I thought everything was fine- the day before I was to start my job she started having problems with the bottle- I frantically searched and found websites saying you can feed from a cup a few days after birth so I thought that could be the worst case scenario. What happened was when she realized she couldn't nurse she went back to accepting the bottle but it was a few difficult days. The first day she tried to hold out till I came home, and the next few she cried for awhile and then started to give in. I don't remember how long it took but I do remember, your body compensates and sometimes a baby will just adopt a new way and eat more when you are around and this is ok! Within 24-48 hours your body will adapt to a babys new eating cycles. In about two months the babys care giver can see if the baby is interested in food and maybe the bottle will be more supplementing that. My oldest did not take many bottles - my other two were girls so I do not know if gender plays a part- I would come home and nurse at lunchtime but sometimes he would be napping. He would just nurse more when I was at home. All babies do not have the same eating schedule no matter how many books are out there to make you think they do. If your baby is ok and eats more at night, then it will work out. Give us some feedback and let us know how you are doing.
Hi, Michele:
Contact your local La Leche League breastfeeding consultant at
www.llli.org
Good luck. D.
