How Do I Get My 4 Month Old to Feed from the Bottle?

You may not be able to. My son would never accept a bottle. It didn't matter what I put in the bottle or what kind of bottle. We went to a cup, it was messy but he was willing to take it. He still fussed a lot when I was away but I think that I had a really nice baby sitter she put up with it. I have always just gone along with my children's requests.

My daughter also wouldn't accept a bottle at about the same age (she was closer to 5 months). Someone suggested we try a sippy cup instead, and it worked, after some coaxing.

I experienced the same thing. For the cradle cap and eczema I used olive oil. Yes, the regular olive oil you buy at the grocery store. I used it for the first year of her life and she never lost any hair, never had cradle cap and her skin cleared right up. As for the bottle, I had a hard time as well, What I had to do was like you said try it when the baby is really hungry and even when she/he is not. i first start trying at about 3 months and it took a whole lot of patience so just be calm, it will happen. I personally don't think the cereal will help with the transition, it may even cause other problems. Are you trying to switch from breast milk to formula? Does the baby suck a pacifier?

I would suggest having someone other than yourself feed the baby the bottle. The baby smells your milk and so it's best not to feed her yourself. She know's what you can provide and so your not the best person to give the bottle. The other thing I would try is to put your milk in the bottle. Do not use formula. It definately tastes different than breastmilk.

For cradle cap, try a few drops of dandruff shampoo and use a small, soft, baby brush and massage it over the scalp. This worked wonderful for my last daughter who had it really bad.
Good luck,
trish

My son had a hard time taking bottles too and we tried many kinds. It finally came down to Playtex nursers and he took it. The catch was that I could be NOWHERE near him!! If he knew I was there he would scream and fuss for the real deal.

You might try the Breastflow bottles by First Years. They can be found at Babies R Us stores or online. They have a second nipple which is supposed to fill with milk or formula in the same manner as a breast. My 5 month old twins had no problems going between the bottle and breast with them. Of course they had both from birth, so I can't make an exact comparision to exclusive breast feeding.

With the eczema and cradle cap, our pediatrician recommended using Selsun Blue to wash the hair and use lots of lotion or oil afterward. I thought the dandruff shampoo would be to strong for an infant, be he said no. Surprisingly, the cradle cap was gone within 7-10 days.

Hi J.,
I suspect that your daughter is lactose intolerant. My whole family is lactose intolerant, as am I and my son. Eczema is a classic symptom. The medical profession is still very ignorant and resistant to this digestive trait, but I have 40 years experience with it. My pediatrician wouldn't give my knowledge any credence when my breast milk dried up and we had to put our son on formula. My son got terrible eczema from regular co'w milk formula and wouldn't have anything to do with the soy formulas. I think the grain milks are very hard for little tummies to digest. Lactose free formulas are now available and worked very well for us.
If you have plenty of breast milk, you should invest in a breast pump and give her your milk for as long as possible - but remember, the lactose you eat in the form of dairy products, goes into your breast milk so try staying away from dairy yourself - it will help your daughter's skin complaint.
Good luck.
G.

I had that problem with my daughter.I tried all the bottles and all the nipples BOTTOM line is that she wanted ME! I had the babysitter wrap her up in a shirt that I slept in all night that way she could smell me while feeding ,it helped some. I also started feeding her myself with the bottle even if she wanted me that way she new that eventually she would have to settle for the bottle.I don't believe she will get better with rice cereal .The thing is that she wants Mommy not that she is hungrey.Most of the time I did come home on my lunch hour to feed her till she became like 6 months old cause she wouldn't eat very much at all.After a while she wouldn't even cry she would eat a little and just patently wait for me :/ even if it ment waiting for me untill 5:30pm .I wish you a lot of luck!!!
Cradle cap sometimes comes from a allergic reaction to what mom is eating and giving to baby thru the breast milk.Like cows milk,eggs,peanut butter things like that.They say eczema comes with allergies also.I bathed my children in baby oil and that helped a lot.

I had this happen with my sister in law with my niece. She was headed back to work and could not seem to get my niece to take a bottle.

What ended up working was I took my niece, made my sister in law go into the other room and told her not to come out til I told her too. It was a fight at first with my niece, but given a little patience and constant trying she eventually took the bottle from me.

Try to have hubby give the bottle while you go run an errand or take a bath. When she realizes that your not around she may realize how hungry she is and calm down enough to take the bottle from Daddy.

This is how I would do it without all the Drama.
Buy some organic sugar if you want her to use a pacifier start with that. Dip the end in the sugar , just a few grains. This will be something new to her then move to the bottle. Gradually lessen the sugar until you dont have any on.
I tried to make certain battles easy when I could with my kids, they are 19 and 21 now, they are both in college have very good eating habits and don't have a problem with sugar. Just to cover the basic up rise this may start.

Forgot about the cradle cap. Take a small wash cloth fill a bowl with warm water add a tiny drop of tea tree oil and lavender oil. Wring out the cloth you dont want this in the babies eyes. Just wipe the top of the scalp try to do a couple times a day.

My suggestions: Don't wait until she's the most hungry. Have you ever been so hungry that you the thought of cooking maks you even more irritable? You just want to eat, not cook. Exactly, that is not the time to learn a adapt to a new way of eating, it will just add to her frustration.
Also, have your husband do the bottle feeding (maybe an hour or so before her regular nursing would begin). She associates you with nursing but may be more willing to take a bottle from your husband.
Hopefully others will have more suggestions. Good Luck.

Hi J....sounds like there's lots of good advice about the bottle. Good luck with that.
I wanted to responds about the claim that eczema is due to lactose intolerance, as some claimed in the response. Lactose intolerance is strictly a digestive issue due to not having the enzyme to break down lactose, other reactions would be due to protein reactions. Our milk has lots of lactose in it, but usually not any whole cow/soy/etc proteins unleass we eat alot of that food. So, if you stick with breast milk even in the bottle, it will be reducing the severity of the skin reactions.

Went throught the same thing with my oldest, as a result never try to give my other two bottles at all. But...when you start feeding her soilds it will get better. At that time introduce a sippy cup. My yougest got the sippy cup thing really quick. Then it will be easier to leave her with a baby sitter when they can offer her baby foods and a drink of water of breast milk from a sippy cup. Now word of warning...dont be suprise if she doesnt take breastmilk from a sippy cup because she might only want milk from you :).... good luck and great job bonding :)

J. -

I may have responded to one of your posts before - my daughter is also named Kira and she is a little over 6 months old.

My Kira also refused the bottle and we had absolutely no luck getting her to take it until she started daycare. The first two weeks she was at daycare (she started daycare at 14 weeks - P/T), she was refusing it and I had to go over at lunch to feed her. However, her daycare provider was amazingly dedicated and more immune to her fussing and one day, after two weeks, Kira took 7 ounces. She has not had a problem with the bottle since. We tried EVERY bottle (literally!!) and the only one that worked was the BornFree bottle (available on Amazon.com, at Whole Foods, and at some Babies R Us stores). She still refuses to take a cold bottle or any other brand bottle but does great with a BornFree bottle warmed to body temperature.

The advice I can offer is have a very experienced care provider who is more tolerant of your child's fussing and can be with her on a regular basis try EVERY DAY until your Kira finally gives in. When they are very hungry, the bottle just upsets them more. My Kira's daycare provider told me that she gave Kira the bottle when she was drowsy (just after she woke up from a nap) in the beginning and then she was basically too out-of-it to fight too much! We also sang to her and walked around while feeding so that she was distracted. Definitely don't try in the evening - like all of us, they are fussier and more opinionated in the evening. If none of this works, you may want to chat with your pedi about skipping the bottle all together and going to the sippy cup. I have a few friends who did this and were quite successful.

My Kira has been 100% breastfed/breastmilk fed and we are going to start her on rice cereal this week. I hope the process of introducing solids goes better than the bottle!!

Keep me posted!

- J.

My daughter, now 14 months, never would take a bottle. We tried a couple times, once when she was young like yours and then later on. She preferred the breast and so we didn't force the issue. That meant my time away was limited to a couple hours, but I didn't really leave her with anyone but her dad for the first 10 months anyway. She's only little once so I didn't want to push her into doing something she wasn't ready to do. I still have not been away from her for more than 3 1/2 hrs and nurse about that frequently now. The upshot is that I didn't have to try and get her off a bottle at 1 yr. Maybe this isn't what you wanted to hear --I dont' have a solution for your problem but wanted to offer an alternate perspective. Best. R.

When you are home you should breast feed.
When you are not home, wrap her in a shirt of yours that you've worn (and not washed yet) so that she'll smell you.
One gal mentioned your daughter being lactose intolerant. That could be the case.

Remember, breast feeding is bonding time. Your baby wants to be with you, it's comforting.

Also know that if you get her to take the bottle, she may not want the breast anymore. If that becomes the case I would pump, since breast milk is so important.

Personally, I'd just take the baby with me where I went, and just avoid places that are not baby friendly like going to the movies. And whoever you leave her with, you really need to know the person is child friendly. Your baby will not ever be able to tell you if she's being mistreated.

You can go to wikipedia and do a google search for cradle cap but this is what I found on it and the advice is good. I would work to get rid of it. I didn't do that with my daughter and it didn't go away so then I had a child with cradle cap and a whole bunch of hair to deal with to boot. It'd've been so much easier without hair in the way.

"The gentlest treatment is to simply rub a small amount of baby oil or olive oil onto your baby's scalp. Wait several minutes for the oil to soften and loosen the scales, and brush them away with a soft brush or a dry terry-cloth washcloth.

If the cradle cap is especially pronounced, or if your baby is over six months old, you could also wash the hair with a seborrhea shampoo, such as those containing selenium, salicylic acid, or tar. These shampoos don’t have the "no tears" factor, so be careful or your child may not like bath time as much as they usually do.

If the cradle cap is especially reddened or inflamed, a small amount of over-the-counter cortisone cream may help.

These measures may be needed, off and on, until your baby outgrows the condition. Nevertheless, if the cradle cap does not respond rapidly to these treatments, be sure to inform your pediatrician."

what most of my friends that did breast feed said that worked for them besides the obvious slowly taking her away from the nipple. is to try playtex they work the best there nipples are really soft and she will be able to get a grip of the nipple as if it was yours.
and you may still have to pump for a while so that she can still smell you.
T.

My daughter wouldn't take the bottle till about 5 months. We introduced the bottle when we were eating dinner feeding it to her with rice cereal or some baby food and she actually drank from it. We found if there was no pressure it seemed to work better. We also got her a sippy cup to start playing with so we could transition to that if we needed to.

I think if they can get the breast milk when they need it and then introduce the bottle when they are not starving and get used to it, it helps.

I think there is so much comfort in the breast feeding that they don't want to give it up so you have to ease into it.

Good luck!

Are you trying to give her the bottle? She may readly take it if you aren't around at the time due to if she sees you or you are the one giving it to her then she will be confused. And maybe try to give it to her when she's not as hungrey as then she mmight give it more of a chance.

As for cradle cap my doctor told me to use hydrocortozone cream on it and it worked great. I just reccomend doing it before bed beacuse it can be kind of greasy for a couple hours.

Good luck!

I had the same problem with both of my kids. They were so used to me, that they never took from a bottle. We eventually gave up and started using a sippy cup. It actually worked.

Are you working and that is why you need to leave her with a sitter? Are you feeding her breastmilk in a bottle or are you giving her formula? She is only 4 months old and she wants her mommy not a bottle. I wouldn't start feeding a baby at 4 months when you are breastfeeding mommas milk is perfect and she does not need anything else. Once you start feeding food then you have to deal with poop problems and really nasty diapers that don't come from breastmilk.

Does you baby have eczema and cradle cap both? If your not sure which one it is then take her to the Dr. please.
Cradle cap can be helped by rubbing olive oil and her head everyday and letting it sit and then when giving a bath gently rubbing her scalp with a washcloth and the crust will start to come off...keep applying the olive oil until it is all gone...may take a week or so.

Have you tried having your husband give her the bottle when you are not in the room. Since babies have such a great sense of smell for their mama's, just having you in the room might be turning her off of the bottle. If she know you are near and that she can get what she wants straight from the tap, the bottle might not be too appealing to her. Goore's sells a bottle that is shaped like a breast. If you get desperate, you might want to give that a try, too. Try Aquaphor for both the eczema and the cradle cap.

Hi J.,

I went through this same thing with my daughter. Most likely it is not the bottle, it is just that she is used to you feeding her and only wants you! What I did was pumped breast milk and sat on the floor with her and just kept offering the bottle. I did it mid-day and sat in a different location from where I normally breast fed. That way she would not think that I would offer the breast. I just kept offering and she kept crying. It went on for over 1 hour, but she finally took enough milk to keep her content. I did the same thing the next day and day after, etc. until she finally got it. It will take a little while but it is basically a battle of wills! Once I got her used to the bottle it was a huge relief for me as we could go to dinner, shopping, etc. and I was not worried about leaving her with anyone. You need to have breaks as well.
With my son, I started him on the bottle and breast right away so he was used to it and will take a bottle from anyone.
Good luck! Don't crack!
J.

Hi J. - Been a while since I've been in your situation, my baby's now 11 years old... However, I remember well reading about transitioning babies from breast to bottle. One thing in particular, "they" said that babies can smell you/your breast milk, so you yourself are not going to trick them with a bottle of formula. They know what they like... The advice said that someone else should be the one to give them a bottle, and you should be away, out of sight, sound and smell. If you're pumping your breastmilk to put into the bottle, so much the better, once she gets used to the bottle nipple, she'll get the breast milk taste she's used to, and won't have to experience an added change. Remember, this is a big BIG deal for her. She's use to YOUR closeness, YOUR smell, YOUR face, YOUR conversations in YOUR voice while feeding her at YOUR breast. That's a lot of things to change all at once, you can imagine why she'd be putting up a fuss. Check with breastfeeding books, and La Leche League online, in person or by reading their literature. Bet you've never seen a breast-feeding 7 year old, they all wean eventually!

With my third child I forgot to introduce a bottle before I went back to work. My first day at work he refused to take the bottle and breastfed like crazy when I got home. The next day he figured out he better take the bottle. usually the mother can't give the bottle. The baby is too smart and knows that with you she should be breast feeding. Tyr having someone else give the bottle and you leave. You may need to leave the house. Good Luck!

Hi, I don't have any suggestions regarding the bottle situation except I understand because my son who is 8 mo old would never take a bottle, supposedly there is a window when they are 2 mo old that a bottle needs to be introduced otherwise they may never really take to one; on the good side you will never have to break the habit of the bottle But in regards to cradle cap apply a small amount of olve oil to the spots and rub lightly, then leave on for 10 minutes then shampoo out, you may need to repeat this process a few times over a week- this worked well for my son
good luck

re: the eczema. my kids had it bad. I still use dreft detergent and snuggles softener for laundry. if I change it they both break out in full body rash and they are 7 & 4.

The lotion that I've sound to be the best is CeraVe and I've tried many. Also for flair ups medication Eladil is great for body rash, but has a steroid in it so they have to be over a certain age, check with your doctor.

Hope this is helpful

N. A

My middle son was like that. It ended up that the bottle was not warm enough. Once we got it warm enough, he would even take it from me. When we heated it with the bottle warmer, we had to heat it to what almost seemed too warm, but that was how he liked it (and would gulp it down). Odd too, since our oldest son would take a bottle straight from the fridge.

Cradle cap... our pedi. suggested we used Head and Shoulders for a few days. We did and it went away.

Hi J.,

First, to help with cradle cap and eczema, we use California Baby Calendula cream. It is AWESOME!!! My son had cradle cap from birth and we finally used it when he was 6 months old and it was gone within a week! It works for eczema as well. It is all natural and smells good too:)

As for the bottle, I have heard that it can take 10-12 tries on different nipples to finally find one that works. I say just keep trying and offering her the bottle. I also had my husband give my son the bottles so he would associate him with those feedings.

As for rice cereal, I would NOT introduce it yet. I have heard from some friends that their little ones had a hard time with rice cereal before 5 or 6 months. Our Pediatrician suggested 6 months. Their little digestive systems are too sensitive. I would wait on that.

Good luck with everything and most of all...enjoy them while they are little! My son is already 7 1/2 months and it seems like it has gone too fast!

We had a hard time with the bottle too-- finally the thing that worked was giving him formula. (This was initially very upsetting as I am a strong supporter of breastfeeding). Although he had taken 2-3 bottles in the months preceding me returning to work, he refused when I was at work and he was with his dad or nanny. We had gotten him used to the bottle by letting him play with it, trying ever conceivable bottle, sippy cup, nipple. We tried breast milk and water. So he would reach for the bottle, then refuse it like it wasn't what he wanted. Finally, after discussion with the midwife we tried formula- which seemed wacky to both of us. Although I was a bit bummed because I wanted to "exclusively breastfeed" him, I felt comfortable since he had already started eating some solid foods. Thankfully, he only needed a couple of days of bottles with formula (while I was at work) and then he switched over to breastmilk in the bottle. Good luck!

Our twins had a really hard time when we first introduced the bottle. They would wiggle and cry and when they tried to drink the milk came out so fast, they were choking and gagging. We just kept working at it and they finally took it. I always had my husband or someone else give them a bottle, I didn't want them to get confused wondering why mommy is feeding me with this thing. They only had a bottle when I was going somewhere, if I was home they ate from me.

I saw some bottles at Babies R Us, I don't remember the name, but they were hanging in a box near the pacifires. They were supposed to have flow like a breast and the nipples were shaped like a breast also. I've never tried them nor had I ever seen them before. Good luck.

I went through that exact same thing! My breastmilk wasn't nurishing our baby so I had to wean her onto a bottle after three and a half whole months of breastfeeding. So what I had to do was get her liking the taste of formula in the first place. I used what is called an S&S system. It is a cylinder with a small tube attach. You fill the cylinder with formula and you tape the end of the tiny little tube to your breast with the end at your nipple. The baby then sucks on your breast and gets formula along with the breastmilk. They get all full and happy and associate that with the taste of the formula. Then when we had her liking that (about two days later), we had to feed her in her car seat or laying on the floor. She would refuse to eat being held unless it was the breast, so we couldn't touch her and she just took the bottle one day. I have to add that I did A LOT of praying before all this. It is very very hard to wean a happily breastfed baby to the bottle, but it can be done. Good luck!!

Both of my daughters were tough to get on the bottle. The oldest would only take it if it was just the right temperature, which sometime involved rewarming if she was halfway through and it cooled off. The younger was plain stubborn. She cried off and on for 5 hours for her grandparents refusing to take a bottle. That was at 2 1/2 months old. She eventually did, it just took practice and the willingness to let her cry it out. After about a week of trying to give her a bottle every evening she broke, but it was very frustrating, for all of us.
I'm assuming that you are pumping and feeding her breastmilk by bottle.
My advice is keep trying, let her cry. Also, let your husband or someone else feed her (leave the room, leave the house if you have to). And make sure its warm enough.

maybe you should try listening to your daughter's cue that what she needs is you. sometimes we can get so caught up in our expectations and forget that this little person has a mind of their own. have patience and listen to yourself and your child with tenderness...she won't be a baby forever. good luck :)

We found a wonderful product called something like "Breast Choice" or "Breast Friend" at Babies R Us. It's supposed to simulate nursing and it was most like a breast than any other product we found. Our son tolerated it if it was given to him by someone besides myself and if he was offered it before he was starving. They would bounce him on our exerball which he loved/s and offer it then. I wish we had stuck with it. It would have paid off in the end. He went straight for the sippy cup and now at 17 months has been drinking from a regular cup for months. Good luck.

J., I had the same problem with my little girl and I had to go back to work. I ended up she having to leave her one day and my sister inlaw ended being able to get her to drink one ounce of breast milk from the bottle every hour. This went on for about two months. My little one never really got too fond of the bottle. I was able to nurse her at lunch time, so I was not too worried that she was not getting enough. She is now 13-months old and of course does not need the bottle or want anything to do with it. Thank goodness. I am however having a time weaning her. Back to the subject at hand. The only nipple I ever had any luck with was platex. And not the kind that come with the bottles. Emilia, my baby, would only use the playtex nipples that look somewhat like a real nipple, they sort of flat at the top... I hope this helps.

Hi J.,

I had the opposite problem. My baby was a little premature & couldn't have breast milk for several weeks. The La Leche League told me some babies don't want to go to the breast after being on a bottle. The solution they gave me should work just as well in reverse. They say wet skin-to-skin contact makes a baby "suck like crazy". Try taking Kira in a (warm) bath with you. Probably the hungrier the better. Remember, you may be nervous because of prior failures. I was in professional day care for years, working with lots of babies & can't tell you how much the youngest baby can pick up on Mom's anxieties!!! Relax, cuddle, stroke & PLAN TO ENJOY the experience. Also, try a tiny bit of jelly or Karo syrup (but NO honey!!!) on the nipple too. Actually you might try that several times before the bath thing. Good luck. If nothing that comes in on this site works for you, talk to your pediatrician. Mine told me no baby ever died of a hunger strike. As hard as it might be, & it would be excruciating, you may just have to gut it out and let her scream until she is hungry enough to take the bottle. Prayerfully, it will not come to that. Trust your Dr.& your instincts. Remember, you are the center of Kira's universe & she will love you always & never hold a grudge. Again, the best of luck. You will both get through this.

Sincerely,
T.

My baby had a really bad case of cradle cap and I bought a bottle of Gentle Nature's Cradle Cap Care(it has winnie the pooh and eeyore on it) at Rite Aid. I used it that night and haven't had to use it since! It almost seemed like I had wasted the money, because the bottle is just sitting there not being used, but ofcourse that isn't true, because it fixed the problem =) I was using Eucerin cream on my kids for their eczema but I found Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash and the Soothing Relief Moisture Cream to work way better and is much cheaper! Hope that helps

try the adiri- warm the milk (in a separate bottle) & warm the adiri nipple. leave the house when she's feeding
good luck!

Hi! Not sure about the bottle part, but good luck to you! About the cradle cap though, take a nice baby oil or apricot oil and work it into the hair over the cradle cap after bath, then using a fine-toothed comb, commb the hair, gentle scraping at the scalp as much as she'll let you. There should be a lot of the yucky stuff on your comb by the end of the process! You can bathe again if you want, or let the oil sit on the scalp overnight and then wash it off. It will go away after a while, but some kids apparently have it until they are 5 and 6, and I just found a patch of it on my daughter, who is almost 4!
M.

Hi J.,
Looks like I'm not the only mama up during the midnight hours! Seems like the only time I can get caught up on "me time" ... Anyhow, I'm going through the same thing, my daughter just turned 5 months and is having a hard time weaning/transitioning to the bottle.

I read a couple sites that say not to try and introduce or give them the bottle when they're already ready to eat, but instead start them maybe an hour or so before they're normally due to start nursing. That way they don't start stressing out because once they're hungry, they just want to eat -- they will get more frustrated if you try to introduce something new at that time. *It worked for us today* YAY! Now if only my milk production can pick back up :(

I have also tried a million different bottles (that my older daughter took to with no problems) and have found the only one that she's been partial to was Soothies (and they also have a paci as well) ... This is also the first one that my older daughter liked most in the beginning as she was a preemie [5 weeks early]. I found them at Target but I'm thinking I may need to get her a "faster" speed nipple as she seems frustrated with the amount of milk she gets when she sucks.

P.S. probably self explanitory, but I found she took the bottle more when the milk was a little warmer ...

Good Luck!! Its frustrating when you can't leave them with a sitter - I had to go back to the sitters during my lunch and both breaks on my first days back to work (this past week) and I felt so bad for the sitter and baby.

HI J.,

I am a mother of a 5 year old boy and 3 year girl. I breast fed and gave my son the bottle since he was born, so transitioning him to the bottle at 6 months was easy BUT my daughter would not take the bottle when she was born. She was breast fed til she was 9 months,,, I could never leave her with anyone more than 3 hours and would always have to rush home to feed her. She was the same cried, scream, refuse to eat and drink anything... We tried every bottle and every nipple including the avent, which did not work... you have to repetitively try again and again and not give in to her... eventually my daughter liked the playtex vent aire (http://www.playtexbaby.com/about/how_ventaire.aspx)with the orange nipples and it worked,,, but it was still a struggle,,, it meant her skipping a feeding or 2 so she can be really hungry finally give in... i know it hurts to see your baby cry but it is TOUGH LOVE!!! and especially i have to go back to school and work... same goes with everything as they grow older.... it is only the best for them,,, to consistently give them vegetables, fruits, no tv, etc, even if they say no, but eventualy it wil become a great habit for them to take with them as they grow older....

hope this helps,,,, good luck! let me know the update...

Hi J.,
I had the same problem with my son. A friend of mine suggested Born Free brand from Whole Foods Market. He didn't take that for few days but I kept offering it and it finally worked out. The good thing about that brand is that it doesn't have a controversial chemical that most of the other brands have. Hope it works for you.

I did this with both kids and have passed on same advice and replies were that it worked. Take a shirt mom wears and whomever feeds baby bottle should wrap the shirt around the bottle or whatever to fake out baby. Of course mom needs to not be in the vacinity for this to work.

As for skin issues, if it is getting to point of concern, please contact a dermatologist. I waited too long, getting bad advice from some of Sactos best pediatricians. By the time I went to specialist my son had open, bleeding wounds that peds thought was not big deal. Derm had situation in remission within 3 days with use of new non-steroidals that were amazing. I tried altering my diet, changing laundry soap, you name it nothing worked. The derm was a blessing.

Check out "The Baby Book" by, William Sears MD and Martha Sears RN. There is a section on getting breastfed babies to take a bottle and also what to do for cradle cap and eczema. I've found this to be a valuable resource of information. They also have a fantastic web site where you can find answers to these and all of your questions. www.AskDrSears.com Quite handy for those situations that arise after office hours to help you determine whether a call needs to be made or can wait.

Hey J.,

I had the same problem with my second child. I found one bottle that she liked that mimics the my breast the most, but of course Gerber doesn't seem to have it anymore. The next best thing I found was from Playtex. It's a VentAir system. Most of them are drop-in bottles (the one with bags) but I found one at Target that was a normal one. The nipple itself mimics the width of the areola and the tip is smaller, like my nipple is naturally.

The key is to pump your own milk and feed it through the bottle, that way baby only has one thing to get used to. You might want to solicit some help, your mother or if your husband is patient enough, and have that person try it when you are gone, so that there is no alternative. It took my daughter forever so don't give up hope. Hopefully yours is easier.

Good luck.

Have you tried someone else feeding her the bottle? Or holding her out and away from you while she does it? I would try having dad do it and hold her away from him....like her feet in his belly area....this helped my daughter...plus if you have a grandma or someone else try it...it might help....she knows what she likes and she knows who gives it to her....she may just be too young too........

My son had really bad cradle cap and his doctor said to use Neutragena T-Gel shampoo and it worked. Don't know how to contain the eczema as he still has it at the age of 9. I'm sure lotion would help my son but he refuses to put it on. You could try Aveeno oatmeal lotion, that works on my really dry skin.