6 Month Old Hates Drinking His Bottle

My son didn't want his bottle when he was teething. We used nighttime baby anbesol on his gums about 15 min before his bottle. Keep trying and good luck!

Both of my younger children did the same thing. One is a 7 years old girl and the other is a 5 years old boy. I went to Walmart and they carry a sippy cup that has a nipple that feels like a bottle nipple. I had no problem with them drinking the formula from it.
Good luck.

Bottle nipples taste bad S.... have you found the right products to feed him with? Glass bottles and non-toxic nipples can be found on www.safebaby.com. If you are heating the milk in a microwave IN a plastic bottle he is tasting the plastic.

Have you ever had fresh milk from a cow? How about from a bottle? The difference in the flavor of milk stored in bottles and stored in plastic is enormous. The difference in toxicity is also huge.

Once you switch to glass bottles and non-toxic nipples, consider giving him whole milk from a local farm instead of formula. At his age you can give him a chewable supplement for extra nutrients. Whole milk is delicious and you may even be able to wean him off breast milk once you introduce it.

Formula is full of fillers, corn syrup and gmo-laden products that humans don't need, can't digest and which taste awful. Make yourself a glass and see if YOU would drink it several times a day.

I nursed my daughters and then also pumped to give daddy the feeding time snuggles too. But neither of my girls would take a bottle either. However they didn't mind sippy cups. Try a sippy...he is 6 months old and can most likely even hold it himself. My first daughter like the Avent sippy cup with handles (easy to hold) and my second daughter liked a playtex sippy. Ask any friends you have with kids if you could borrow one sippy for a day or two (try to get a few different sippys from a few friends. This way you can try out different sippys without wasting money on ones he might not like. Be patient....it may take a few tries with one sippy or it make take several tries with different sippies to find the right fit. My neighbors kids loved the Nuby brand sippy's. The sippy part was made from the same type material as a nipple for a bottle but the flow was much faster. Good luck and remember to keep trying ... you will find something and he will love you for your patience and persistence.

S.,

My daughter was the same way at 6 months (now almost 9 months). She went from drinking 6oz bottles to 3-4oz bottles. I figured she just wasn't going through a growth spurt and wasn't hungry. It took a few weeks and than she started eating 6oz or more a feeding. My doctor also said, she will drink what she needs, not what we think she should have. As long as he has wet diapers than he is getting enough liquid.

Have you started fuits and veggies yet?? If not, you may want to start that. Maybe first start with the fruit in the cereal for breakfast and work from there.

As long as he isn't acting fussing and hungry than he is telling you that what he is drinking is just fine for now.

as long as he is at a healthy weight it shouldnt matter...baby food should be just as good as long as he eats enough of that and bottle feeding is a little unhealthy anyway (for teeth and its hard weining).Just keep on giving him whatever amount he wants to take and try increasing on the baby food...if this is something u need to see a pedi for then maybe u should...well thats all i can say.I had a nephew like that and he turned out fine but he didnt want the bottle because my cousin kept on switching between the bottle and breastfeeding.

one thing you need to remember is that babies will not starve themselves. dont worry so much about amounts! baby will eat when hungry, and thats it. different things make them feel like not eating, teething is a big one, but theres many other things too. not being in a growth period is another. dont worry, things will pick up and as long as dr isnt worried about weight gain, there isnt a problem.

NEVER force feed a baby. they are very good at regulating their stomachs, and they stop eating when they are full. if we force feed, then babys stomach stops telling baby when its full, and overeating starts. so just let baby eat as much or as little as he wants. he wont starve himself. you can always request that the clinic weigh him more often to track his weight gain more closly to ease any fears that way.

i dont know about that using of formula because of reflex... that sounds wierd.
if you have any questions that way, i would check out your local le leche league... they will help you with any breastmilk issues you have. there should be nothing wrong with breastmilk that would cause reflux.... but im not a doctor, so i would write to your local le leche league rep.
www.llli.org
good luck!

I know you have received numerous responses but here is some insight from my personal experience. My daughter started daycare at 5 months. While in daycare she began to not want the bottle but only seemed to want her baby food/cereal. We decided to put her formula in a stage 1 sippy cup. This worked the best. She began only having a bottle at night before bed otherwise it was formula or juice in her sippy. This made it so easy to remove her from the bottle completely by age 1. Our daycare provider and I worked closely to ensure she received at least 16oz of formula/day. She has conistently been in the 80-95 percentile in height and weight. So I suggest going to a sippy cup with formula/breastmilk. Good Luck!

6 months is the recommended age to start introducing a cup. Try all kinds of cups. You may find that a small open cup or a free flowing (not leak proof) sippy works best. You could also try a straw. If else fails you could use a medicine dropper.

As a nutritionist, I have to say that switching him to cows milk at this age could be very harmful. Milk proteins are large and hard to digest. Children who are given milk before age one are more likely to be allergic to it. Also milk causes babies stomachs to bleed which could lead to anemia. Milk doesn't have the same vitamins as breastmilk/formula. And definetly don't give unpasterized products (milk, juice, cheese) to an infant.

Hi S., I have an 8 month old daughter who doesnt like her bottle either, she would rather eat food and not take a bottle at all..try giving him a sippy cup that has a soft top on it... she loves it and thinks she is a big girl!! I bought mine at Wal-Mart and it was $1.59, it is also one that doesnt leak. Hope this will work...

Will he drink the bottle if there is only breastmilk in it? It may be possible he doesn't like the taste of formula. Breastmilk is very sweet, and formula, well, smells like formula.

Another thought, is that he isn't tolerating the formula and it is making hims sick to his stomach.

Yet another idea, if he's always had breastmilk from the breast or from a bottle, *his thinking* "this 'different' tasting stuff isn't what belongs in my bottle. I had a couple of kids who would drink juice from a bottle, because only breastmilk went there:) I'd try a cup. My son, when he was 4 months old, had to have some breastmilk and some formula. It was a supply issue for me, not reflux, and he wouldn't drink it from a bottle, so we gave it to him in a cup. He was off a bottle completely by 5 months old. Strange but true. I'd try a cup and see.

Good luck.
N.

Have you tried a nipple with more holes so he can get it easier? That happened with one of my children as soon as we got the nipple with the most holes in it he started taking his whole bottle. He didn't want to work for it before.
If you have tried that I would move to a sippy cup or something else that he might like to drink out of better.

My daughter (now 32, with 5 of her own) hated her bottle and it all boiled down to she didn't like the formula. So we switched to the old fashion Carnation milk formula: 2-2 1/2 oz of carnation milk, 1 tbls (dark) karo sryup and 6 oz of water. She also didn't drink as much period and prefered to eat over drinking. Or try a sippy cup, it could be he just doesn't like the bottle.

C. M

Hello-

We have a now 2 year old that didn't care for her bottles either. She would only drink when she was sleepy or during her sleep (I'd hold her during the night so she'd eat). She'd arch her back and refuse the bottle. She got 90% of her bottles during the night. We ended up going to a pediatric gastroenterologist who put her on Alimentum (milk free formula) because somehow she knew the bottles gave her a tummy ache. This helped and then she ended up with Occupational Therapy to help her get over her "hate of eating". She didn't even want to sit in the high chair to eat. Is it possible he has a food allergy? That's the first thing I would check out.
Good Luck!

S. - my heart goes out to you! I have been through the exact same thing with my daughter, now 14 months, and know exactly how frustrating it is! My daughter had extreme reflux (no spitting up, but silent reflux where stomach contents would back up to the back of her throat and then go back down) and from about 3 months on we had extreme difficulties getting her to take a bottle. What I think may be happening is that your little boy is reacting to the discomfort after he eats. They 'learn' that they feel better eating smaller amounts. To this day, my daughter will only take 4-5 oz. in a bottle at a time, even though her reflux is much better. He is fine with the cereal because it is heavier and stays down in his tummy. I don't have any magic fixes, but I can assure you that he will grow out of it eventually. In the meantime, keep him as elevated as you can after he eats. We would actually hold our daughter for 30 min. up on our shoulder after each feeding, and elevated her crib mattress. Another thing would be to talk to your pediatrician about putting him on a reflux med to see if that helps. Our daughter was on Prevacid and while it didn't make it go away, it helped with her discomfort and made it easier for her to eat a little more. It controls the acid in the stomach so even though the reflux is still happening, it doesn't cause the burning sensation in his throat.

Like your son, our daughter never took more than 20-24 oz. in a day. Some days is was really bad and some days was better. I'll keep you in my prayers, as I know how hard it is.

My daughter started drinking from beginner sippy cups around 6 months of age because she no longer wanted a bottle. Try that...it worked for us. I found the Nubby sippy cups worked great!

My son started drinking from a sippy cup at about 6 mo. of age. Try a sippy cup. Good Luck!!

My sister had that problem with my neice, she got her those sippy cups with the soft top and put her formula in that. With my son he last month decided he didn't like his bottle anymore so I tried a different kind of bottle with a different nipple and that worked.

Most Pediatricians go by the book, if I were you I would try something else that might work with the reflux. Maybe he is not able to have milk, maybe it needs to be soy. It is worth a shot to try different things. Just read the label and see what might work best for him.
My daughter loved a sippy at that age too. Try that, there are different kinds out there. Some have soft and some hard tops. At 3 months for both of my daughters they wanted food food, not formula. Of course, I kept trying to get that down too but you can mix it with food also. Just keep his diapers wet and he is fine.