Baby Wont Take bottle(breastfed)..now Im Going Back to work..what Do I Do???help

Updated on May 10, 2007
A.P. asks from Canyon Country, CA
18 answers

Im returning back to work in about a month shes been breastfed since she was born.my son is now 7 and took both bottle and breast..i made the mistake of thinking that she would too..ive tried the avent bottles(with breast milk) and she wont take it i tried the playtext rubber nipple and she wont take it..what should i do?? i would love to stay at home, but we have bills to pay

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K.F.

answers from San Diego on

Avent makes nipple guards that are in the shape of their regular size nipple. Try those to transition her into them. Also, try a nipple with a better flow. It's so hard to tell how much is coming from the breast and some babies won't take the nipple because the flow is different. If that still doesn't work, then you should see her pediatrician.

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C.B.

answers from San Diego on

Also, if all the other bottle options don't end up working, you may want to try a cup. By 7 months, many babies can drink quite well from a cup.

good luck,
C.

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G.R.

answers from Sacramento on

every child is different. how old is she. There are other ways to feed a baby, cups , spoons, little tubes. She knows what she wants and thats mommy. Im a lactation consultant assistant and i deal with these things daily. some babys will wait for you. it all depends on the age and the how flexible your provider is. If they are willing to not jump to the bottle

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L.W.

answers from Las Vegas on

My daughter is now 3 months old and pretty much refuses a bottle still. She will take one after 20 minutes of screaming from my hubby or someone else. She absolutely refuses it if it's from me. I would suggest having someone else give her the bottle. If she's hungry enough she'll take it. Also, run the nipple under warm water before you give it to her. That seems to help a little. If you keep trying she'll take one. My problem is that I don't try and give her one enough, so she just doesn't know how to take a bottle. It will work out.

L.

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M.

answers from Las Vegas on

Babies tend to take a bottle from someone other than mommy much easier because they don't have that familiar smell that reminds them of breastfeeding. Try letting your husband or someone else feed hime the bottle. If that doesn't work, leave the house for a while. If the bottle is the ONLY source of eating, the baby will eventually take it. Andy he may find that he likes it more, which will give ou a break!! Good luck.

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T.B.

answers from Los Angeles on

hi - I had the same problem with my children. I learned that I couldn't bottlefeed them. So, my husband would bottle feed to get them used to a bottle and then I would still breastfeed when he wasn't home or at night.

When I returned to work, I pumped during breaks. He would pick up from daycare and feed bottles and then when I got home, it was my turn to breastfeed. That seemed to work.

Also, I used orthopedic nipples which is suppose to resemble a mom's nipple and that helped too. Babies are very smart and mom's have a specific smell which babies are used too, so don't get so frustrated that she won't take the bottle from you at first. In time, it will come.
Good luck.

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L.D.

answers from Modesto on

I went back to work when my son was eight weeks old and he wouldn't take a bottle from me. Only me though, he took it from my daycare provider. Your baby will take the bottle, maybe never from you but she will take it. She will not starve and if a bottle is her only option she will take it. I was nervous about my son not taking it so I made it clear to my job that I needed to be "on call" in case I needed to go breastfeed my son. I never had to because he was doing okay taking the bottle. I would pump three times a day at work and leave the next days milk with my daycare when I would pick up my kids after work. It all worked out okay...Good luck to you!

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M.S.

answers from San Francisco on

My daughter, who is now 7 months old would only take the breastflow bottle by the first years. The Avent and Dr. Brown nipples just were not acceptable because she would suck so hard the milk would come out so fast and go everywhere. The 2 nipple design more closely mimics the sucking at the breast. She took to it straight away...from her dad. It took a little longer for her to take it from me since she knew I had what she really wanted ;-) Good luck!

http://www.learningcurve.com/product/detail/Y1131A1

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B.G.

answers from San Francisco on

Try Dr. Brown bottles, they worked for me. It took my son awhile to get used to them, would only drink 2 ounces at a time and then he slowly caught on. After about 3 days he was doing great!

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A.H.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hello A., I had the same problem a few months ago. My baby girl is now almost 6 months old but when she was just 3 months old I went back to work and she would NOT take the bottle. It came down to the day I went back to work, she cried and cried until she finally gave in and starting drinking breastmilk from the bottle. Believe me, when your baby gets hungry she will take the bottle!

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T.

answers from Las Vegas on

A.,

You are just going to have to be persistent. My first son hated the bottle and screamed and refused it for the first three weeks after I went back to work. It was really stressful so I hope your baby isn't as resistant as mine was. But the only thing that worked was to keep offering it. At the end of those 3 weeks, he took the bottle without any problem at all.

:-)T.

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T.S.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi,
I have a 3 1/2 year old girl and a 2 year old boy and neither one of them would take a bottle from me because I breastfed I used Dr Brown's bottles and they seemed to work after trying every bottle out there those were the only ones that both of my babies would take, when I went back to work. I breastfed both for 18 months and it was so hard to ween them but it was worth it. try having someone else give her the bottle and mine always liked the milk kinda on the warmer side. I know its hard but just remember that she will take it if she gets hungry enough she is just refusing it because she wants the comfort that she gets while nursing. Hang in there its tough but she will get through it and so will you. good luck!

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C.N.

answers from San Luis Obispo on

Dear A.,

I really don't have any experience with this part of mothering. But, really one more month will make a big difference in your baby, and maybe the problem will solve itself in that amount of time.

Maybe you could put a tiny big of jelly, or something sweet on the avent nipple or any other one. Just try to make yourself relax, and see if she has a solution. .....like cooperating. Babies are pretty smart. and very sensitive to moods and environments around them. It will work out. C. N.

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R.P.

answers from San Francisco on

A.,

I have a 7 year old and an almost 8 week old. My daughter didn't have bottle issues but my son (the baby) went on bottle strike too. We did the Avent bottles for a while and he was ok and then just wouldn't take a bottle at all. Now we use the playtex nipples with the drop in system and he's fine with it. I also attend a breastfeeding support group through my hospital and the leader of the group is a nurse and lactation counselor and she suggest for older babies (might work for yours) that if they don't take a bottle, there's no problem with introducing a sippy cup instead, with you holding it for her of course. I hope this helps.

R.

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S.B.

answers from Los Angeles on

I had a really hard time getting my son to take a bottle as well. After a bit of a struggle I finally figured it out. The Adiri bottle is shaped like a breast and extremely soft. I put formula in it after warming the bottle under warm water. I also would squeeze a bit onto his tongue before placing it in his mouth. My sister was the 1st to get him to take it and now he'll take it from anyone.He also takes the Avent bottles as well now. I do breast and formula to give myself some freedom to run errands and such. Good luck!

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K.L.

answers from San Francisco on

I went back to work when my exclusively breastfed baby was 3 months old - she did NOT want that bottle. We soon discovered, though, that it was not the idea of the bottle that turned her off, but the type of bottle we were using. My little girl would only accept Playtex Vent Air - they also make a VentAir natural with a nipple shaped like the breast.

Fool around with bottles and nipples until you find some that she likes. Some mothers also swear by this particular bottle-like contraption made by One Step Ahead. Here is the link:

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

Good luck!

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R.L.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi A. -
I had this same problem too. We started my son with bottles at 8 weeks and he was still refusing the bottle at 4 months when I went back to work. I had no choice but to go back to work, so that I did and sent DS to school with bottles and hoped for the best. He started out rocky... 1/2oz here, 1oz there, for about 1-2 weeks, but the daycare teachers were persistent and he did eventually take to the bottle. I don't know if you are able to visit during the day, but for the first month I went and BF DS during my lunch hour so I'd at least know he was getting something to eat if he was refusing the bottle.

What ended up working for us were the NUK nipples. I guess it's the shape he liked better then other bottles because these are what worked.
http://www.gerber.com/prodcat?catid=445

I know other women have had luck with these bottles:
http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/ref=br_1_8/601-###-#...

We also started DS on a sippy cup to see if that would work. To our surprise he took to one cup, a Nuby sippy cup. The spout is really soft and made of latex, so it's kind of like a bottle nipple. We sent bottles to school, but also sent a cup knowing he'd be able to use that if all else failed. My mom found the cup at Wal-Mart and it looks like this:
http://www.nuby.platformtwo.com/images/stories/products/I...

We had tried every other sippy cup, but this was the only one that worked. The good news is once DS took to a cup and bottle he eventually stopped being so picky and would drink out of any kind of cup or bottle :)

Best of luck to you, I know how hard this is!!!

Rach :)

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B.B.

answers from San Francisco on

I had a really hard time getting my daughter to take the bottle also. What I did was I pumped an then left, not just went into another room but left completely for about 3.5 hours,I went to the recording studio but you could go for a shopping trip, get your nails done anything that will keep you away. Then have you r hubby, or who ever is watching the baby dip the nipple in the milk before offer it to the baby. If she wont take it the first time they offer it dont go running home, have them comfort her and try again. It might even take a couple 3 hour sessions before she will start taking the bottle easily but it will happen! I would also try the Dr. Brown's bottles, still to this day it is the only bottle my baby will take, and I who breastfed and that is the only bottle that he will take also. Good luck!

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