I'm desperate for some advice, or just to see if anyone has/had the same problem I do with my daughter. I have been breastfeeding from the beginning with her. She was a natural. We decided to start trying to feed her a bottle around 2 months. There was zero success when we tried for the 1st time. We gave it a full week. I would try and feed it to her and so would my husband. We even allowed our 3 year old to try. We kind of gave up and decided to try again 2 months down the road. She of course wants nothing to do with it still. Our thought process was to wait a little longer until she was older. Maybe then she would figure out how to suck on it quicker. I'm very frustrated, because I can not leave her alone for long periods of time because I need to be there to feed her. I'm really restricted with what I can do. My worry is that she will never take a bottle and I will have to feed her exclusively until she is a year old. Yikes!!
Any suggestions with this would be helpful?
A.
Thank you all for your suggestions. I am planning on trying the sippy cup. I've just told myself that it's OK that she doesn't take a bottle. I do play volleyball on the weekends for a club team, so I needed to be gone for an extended period of time. So that is why I was frustrated that I couldn't get her to take the bottle. But I know that my children are much more important than sports. So if I need to take off another year, then so be it. I can always play next year. Hopefully the sippy cup will work out...if not no sweat off my back. That is what I'm trying to tell myself (smile).
Again, Thanks for the advice.
A.
HI A.- I also had 3 out of 4 kids who wouldn't take the bottle- we just went straight to a sippy around 8 months with water only and then if I needed to be out during the day we put in some breastmilk and they were fine with it.
If you don't mind there is no reason a baby has to take a bottle. I realized after I had my third and fourth that the 1-1.5 years a baby bf goes by quick when you look at the whole childhood!
Good Luck,
B.
A.:
if you check the archives we have discussed this a lot/ this is very common.
i see a lot of families in my practice for just this problem... the first thing is finding out what is going on
P., RLC, IBCLC, CST
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions
www.breastfeedingandparentingsolutions.com
We've just been cured of the same problem. My son is now 8 1/2 months and we've been trying hard to wean him for the past 5 months. I think what helped us a lot was my persistence over the last month. I offered the bottle or sippy 3-4 times per day. I also had everyone who came in the house try. I think he eventually got used to it enough that he finally started to suck now and again and last week he took his first ounce. Today he took 3 1/2 in one sitting. It's been a long process but I couldn't do the cold turkey method. Strangely enough, he won't take my breast milk in a bottle. We give him soy formula and he seems to like it.
None of mine would take a bottle. My mom says I wouldn't take one as a baby either. I just gave up because I was home anyway and didn't really need to go anywhere for extended periods of time anyway. I've heard formula instead of breastmilk works sometimes, and mine all started on cups when they learned to suck, like through a straw, because breastfeeding isn't really sucking. Try a sippy cup without the no spill valve or a straw where you just put your finger on the end. If you have to be gone, you can always feed her the breastmilk or formula with a medicine dropper.
Hi A.,
Congrats on the new baby. I had the same situation with our first child - she never took a bottle. I think we waited too long and she just didn't want one. We tried EVERYTHING and were persistent to no avail.
See if you can start introducing a sippy cup with handles...I was surpised at how easily she took a cup. I believe it was around 5 months when she took it easily. Our second did breast or bottle with no problem but I started him much earlier on a bottle. Not sure if there's a connection but that's our story.
Hang in there - you'll have your "freedom" again soon!
N.
