How Do I Get My 4 Month Old to Drink from a Bottle?

I think she has gotten used to the breast. If she is hungry enough, she'll take the bottle. Also, she will change a lot in the next two months, she might take it then.

Hi A.,

((hugs)) It can be so stressful taking care of a baby for the first time.

My first question would be the same as the pp - is she pooping/peeing on a regular basis? Is she dehydrated? Is she gaining weight? Is the pediatrician or lactation nurse worried?

If the answer is no to the above, your baby is probably just fine.

If the answer is "yes" - if she's not gaining weight or she's not peeing very often, then that IS serious and you need to take her to her pediatrician ASAP.

As for how much milk you're producing: it is normal for your body to drop milk production somewhere in the 3rd to 4th months postpartum. Before this time, we produce MORE than our baby needs and it's easy to pump 6, 8 or 10 ounces at every pumping session.

Around 3 to 4 months, this drops off quite dramatically and most women can only pump 2 to 4 ounces a pumping session. The fact that you're pumping 4 ounces at this point is actually a LOT!!

Breastfed babies (unlike formula-fed babies) will cap off at 2.5 to 4 ounces a feeding. In other words, your baby will NOT keep drinking greater and greater amounts of breastmilk - she will STAY at 2.5 to 4 ounces per feeding until she is 100% on solids. So, it sounds like your body is doing exactly what it is supposed to do.

Here's a link to this information: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkcalc.html

Here's the link to information on healthy weight gain in breastfed babies: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/enough-milk.html

I was FRANTIC when my supply plummeted at 3.5 months postpartum. I honestly thought my baby was starving - even though every sign pointed to the contrary - she was gaining weight, peeing, pooping, happy, alert, etc. Finding this information was such a relief - I hope it helps you, too.

Best wishes, M.

A., I agree with the previous posts that, if she is gaining weight, pooping and peeing, then she is doing well.

If you want to see if she'll nurse while awake, try setting up a stimulus-free environment (quiet, low-lighting, shirt without patterns, no interesting pictures on the wall, etc.) and see if that helps.

I went through a period where my baby, at 6-months, seemed like he was never nursing. I'd put him to the breast and he would pull away, cry, or just nurse for a few minutes. The only time he was taking in much milk was at night. It was exhausting and stressful and I found that I was working way too hard trying to get him to nurse. I finally decided to lay off and that helped a lot. I offered him the breast and if he wasn't interested, I'd just play with him and try again in an hour or two, or when he seemed fussy. It seemed to help and he now doesn't struggle and nurses happily when he's hungry.

Also, they get more and more efficient at getting milk, so nursing sessions will often be shorter even if they're getting the same amount.

Last, I never was able to get my baby to use the bottle. Like yours, he'd spit it out once he realized there was milk. I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to pump and use bottles for work, so I never got him to do it. If you need to use bottles, just offer regularly, but don't force it, and she may change her mind. If you don't, then it sounds like, for your baby, nursing from the breast is the most effective way to provide her with the milk she needs.

Good luck and take care. You're a good mom for being so concerned about her well being. I have faith that everything is going to work out just fine.

I would not try to get her to take a bottle, bottles will interfere with your supply and will make nursing harder for you. I would take her to see a craniosacral therapist that works with children. It sounds like something is not quite right and that therapy has helped so many moms and babies I worked with.

If she feeds best while going to sleep feed her then and any time she is even a bit sleepy. Praise her when ever she nurses even a bit alert.

It really sounds like a chiropractor and craniosacral therapist are needed to get her on track. Often nursing problems like these are caused by a baby's body being out of alignment some how.

I don't really have any good advice other than to say that it really will get better--My son is 11 months old now and I really wanted to cherish those special moments with him when he was so little, but I often felt quite frustrated between sleep deprivation and a baby who wanted to nurse for hours (and hours and hours) on end. It never occurred to me that by the time he was 6 months old he would be happily eating solids, (we actually started him at 4 1/2 months and my favorite video of him is when we give him his first bite of rice cereal and he starts laughing and laughing because he likes it so much!), and sleeping so much better, and some of the stress of breastfeeding was lifted from my shoulders.

So not maybe much advice, just empathy--sometimes being a mom is so hard and I know in those early months I sort of felt like I was going a little (maybe even a lot) crazy.

I would keep trying with the bottle--my son wouldn't take one for months, but we just kept trying in a low pressure way and one day he just started eating from it. Good luck!

Hi A.!
I was having problems with mine loosing too much weight after birth and my aunt came who is a post pardum doula and she has me drinking "mother's milk" tea and taking fennugreek tablets. I'll tell you what, they work like a charm in unison with each other for making more milk if your supply is low. Our hormones do change after the pregnancy. I would highly recommend continuing to give your child breast milk for the immunities and the bond it creates with you both. Even pumped milk can be added to thier food eventually and is so nutritious for them. If you pump after she feeds it also stimulates the breasts to continue making more milk. I could not believe how well it worked for me.

Some babies don't want a bottle...how many have you tried? I had to try 6 different kinds. The one that worked the best for me was Dr. Brown's with a preemie nipple on it. The airflow is great and she gets less gassy with it. Be patient. She'll come around.
good luck!
C. M.

If you need to have her take a bottle for when you are away, you just have to keep trying to introduce it once in awhile. Wait until she is really hungry, show he that your milk is in there by taste. Soon, she will give in and accept it. If you don't work on this, you will never be able to leave her with grandma to take some mom time.

Are you demand feeding? I have never heard of a 4 month old not wanting to eat! If I were you, I would start a new plan the next morning you get her up. Feed her in the morning, let her play, and after an hour to an hour and a half put her down for a nap. 3-4 hours after she ate in the morning feed her again. She may just not be hungry. It sounds like you were originally getting quite a bit of milk. She may have been drinking a ton and just not ready to eat. If you were previously on a schedule, then I guess I'd just stretch out the time when she eats. Good luck!

hello.. there is no reason that she has to drink from a bottle. sippy cups are fine and do-able at three mos. of age. you just have to find one that works for you. we love the rubbermaid "juice cup" that has a straw and is not found in the baby section, but the tupperware section. good luck!

My first daughter was BF and she would not take a bottle either. When I would work (10 hours +)she would *maybe* take 2-3 ounces a day from my MIL in a bottle. I was so worried but she would just wait for me to pick her up and then marathon feed :) She did fine and gained weight and was happy just waiting for the boob. Now my 3 month old loves the bottle and eats so much that I have started to supplement with formula! I know it's hard but just remember they will eat when hungry and it all should work out. PM me if you need anything!

Have you tried sippy cups? When my daughter had her boys (2000 & 2006) she used them. With her first son if he stayed the night with either grandparent then we just gave him a bottle. Then after a year of breast feeding he went to the bottle. With her youngest anytime he wanted water, juice or he was with the grandparents we used a sippy cup even when he was real young. That went really well. So when he went from the breast he continued using the sippy cup. I know that my daughter wish she would have done the same thing with her oldest son.
I hope this helps. Good luck.

Hi A.,

Has anyone other than you tried to give her the bottle?

When we have given our daughter pumped milk from a bottle she drinks better for daddy than she does for me...I suspect it's because she knows that I have the "real thing".

Best of luck. You're not alone in nursing troubles.

The only thing I can say is when my daughter was four months old she started to do the same with not wanting to eat I then figured out that she was teething so she wasn't feeling real well. If you think about it we don't really want to eat when we don't feel well so it makes sence. I didn't get the chance to breast feed due to a severe kidney infection a week after I gave birth. I also saw that she screams when you desturb her sleep, babies cry and it is okay that they cry trust me.... She will cry or fuss herself back to sleep. As for the bottle issue if she is hungry enough she will eat from it, my nephew who is three days younger than my daughter (9 months) did the same he breast fed until he was about 6 months old she then went back to work and had to go to a bottle, he REFUSED to take it and would cry and cry but a little while he relized "oh that is where my food is" and took the bottle and did awsome from then on out. So remember it is okay for babies to cry (it is completly normal) and they will take a bottle if they get hungry enough. Hope this helps.... Plus DO NOT think your a bad mom if you let her fuss... YOUR NOT!!!!

Your daughter should nurse when she's hungry. Maybe she just came out of a growth spurt and isn't needing as much milk right now. Your breasts will produce the proper amount of milk as long as you nurse your daughter whenever she's hungry. I don't understand why you would want to wean or start bottlefeeding... if you're concerned about your milk supply then you could try eating oatmeal or kale and pumping some more. All of those things tend to increase milk supply.

It might help if you posted some more information too because I'm not really clear about what exactly the problem is. Is your daughter not peeing and pooping regularly? Does she have any weight gain issues?

If feeding her without moving her works for both of you then I would just keep doing that. It's probably a phase and nothing to be concerned about.

Best wishes!
~B.