Transitioning from Breast to Bottle

I hate to say it, but my 1st never took a bottle, my fault...I never introduced and kept with it from the beginning, a mistake I never made again with my next 2...anyhow, she may never take it...but since she is older she may be satisfied with babyfood,,Good luck..made for a long year

Hi M.:
I have had the same problem. My 8 month old still "snubs" the bottle. What has worked to tie her over is the Natural Nurser bottle. I found it at Bye Bye Baby (also seen it in the Right Start catalog). This bottle is shaped so similar to the breast that it has been the only thing that has worked. I also found that if my husband gives her the bottle option when I am completely out of the home that works well too so she doesn't sense or smell me. The other thing that has worked is a sippy cup. Your daughter may be young yet but might be worth a try. My final suggestion is if your daughter takes a pacifier, find a bottle with a nipple in the same size/shape of the pacifier. Hope one of these helps! Good luck!
J.

Our 6 month old daughter has never taken a bottle, either. And when I went back to work when she was 10 weeks old, it wasn't pretty around here! There were many, many hours of crying when I was at work. It gradually improved. We used the Adiri bottle (fast flow) that looks and feels like a boob... She eventually got used to that. But things were still not easy... We started rice cereal at 4 months, and since then things are completely fine. Now she's eating like a champ at 6.5 months and I can be gone all day without worry... Have you introduced solids?
Also, a 6 month old doesn't need to nurse every 2 hours. That has to be for comfort and not so much about nutrition/hunger. I nurse mine in the early morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, and then probably twice during the evening (one of those at bedtime) and then usually once during the night. That's it.
I know my son liked to nurse constantly, but it certainly was not about him being hungry that often. Give yourself a break. Start to wait longer in between feeding sessions. Sometimes when they're fussy, they really just need a nap and not more milk....
Every baby is different, of course... but I'd be exhausted still nursing that often at 6 months...

We've been struggling with this too. When we had an emergency this week and I was not able to nurse for 48 hours it was horrible. Two things did help though:

1. We had started cereals. She would take really liquidy cereal by spoon. In fact, for a bit, I was feeding her pumped breastmilk by spoon. She liked chewing on the spoon and enough got down her.

2. Temperature. It was a LOT easier to get her at least comfortable when everything was warm, and when the milk cooled off (cuz it's cold here) she would start rejecting it.

Full feedings were still difficult but it was enough to get us by for a while.

Good luck.

Can you bring your mom and baby to the wedding so she can nurse *and* you can enjoy being off duty for most of the night? This time with you baby really is fleeting, as exhausting as it can be sometimes. The frequent nursing will soon subside and you will look back on this time more fondly if you stay focused on the positives. I think it's something of a cultural expectation that we need to "get away" from our babies for extended periods. I know when I broke from that expectation and made friends with the idea that me and baby are a package deal for those first couple years, I was able to love that time in my life and recognize how brief it is over the span of a lifetime. Also, remember 2 hours is enough for a yoga class, a massage, dinner out, coffee with a girlfriend, a walk at the park, etc.

I was in your same situation around that age with my daughter. She's now almost 10 months old and drinks from her bottle like a champ, but wanted nothing to do with it at 6 months. I tried everything from putting just breast milk in the bottle, to half breast milk half formula, to just formula. It was horrible because she didn't want any of it. I waited a few more weeks and tried again, but this time I was a little more tough on her. I decided to start with her middle of the day feeding and only offered the bottle. I hated to do it, but it was the only way we were going to get through it. If she didn't drink it, she always had her next feeding 3 hours later (of breast milk). She usually didn't go much longer than an hour after her scheduled feeding that she took some of the bottle (which was only formula). It's sometimes a tough transition, but she'll eventually do it. Just keep trying and good luck!

Hi M.,
My daughter NEVER drank from a bottle, so it was pretty tough getting away... so I feel your pain :) As such the only way I was able to get away at all was to slowly increase the time in between her feedings, because like you, I was feeding on demand which is often done more for comfort purposes for the baby than for nutritional purposes. So, as one of the other mothers suggested, I would try spacing out your feedings a bit more so that you will end up in a position where you can feed before the ceremony, after the ceremony/before the reception, and possibly after the reception without her fussing for her next feeding in between, therefore eliminating the need for a bottle altogether.

Another possibility involves switching from trying to get your baby to take a bottle, to trying a sippy instead. We actually introduced our daughter to a sippy around 7/8 months because she absolutely refused a bottle, and she did start drinking a bit from there, fortunately. And, again as another mother also suggested, the baby is less likely to take anything other than the breast from you because why would your babe want a sterile bottle/sippy when they can have a nice snuggly, warm breast? Perhaps her father or another family member can begin introducing her to another form of feeding, i.e., bottle or sippy.

Babies get into routines and a comfort zone, so naturally they are not inclined to change overnight- but with patience, love, and a little flexibility it should all work out in time for you to enjoy yourself at the wedding!! :-)

Best of luck,
L.

Give a sippy cup a try of even someone holding a regular cup with just a bit of BM in it. Some babies never take a bottle, but most will do with something. My daughter started drinking water out of a sippy cup at 6 months. Worth a try. :)

It's all in finding the right nipple. It has to be shaped like you and the same sofness as you. When you go to nurse,hold the bottle along side your breast so she doesn't see it. When she's that close she may just mouth for it and dive in. Keep the bottle like that for a few days until she gets use to it. You can also feed her more at a time so she doesn't need to eat more frequently. You can shake her little foot to keep her eating until she can't get anymore in her (not continuous shake, just a little shake of the foot).

I experienced the same thing with my second daughter. What I ended up doing was skipping the bottle entirely and moving on to a sippy cup. I would give her water in the cup whenever she was eating her baby food. She got the hang of that right around 7 months old. Since I knew she would drink out of it, it was not a big deal to leave her with someone and they could put the breast milk in the sippy cup. She won't drink it down in one sitting like if she was nursing but will take sips here and there. Hope this helps!

My neighbor just went through this. Try a sippy cup. it worked for her. she used a sippy cup with a hard top. but try any of them.

My daughter never took a bottle either.

Around 6 months, I introduced a sippy cup. She had great fun playing with it, and quickly learned how to drink out of it.

I'd get her a really pretty cup and see how that goes.

I will be honest, however, I never put any milk in the sippy, just water.

Can I ask who is giving the baby the bottle right now? Have you tried having your husband/partner give the baby the bottle and you leave the vicinity (even the house)? The baby associates you with the milk and may prefer you over the bottle if he/she smells you. Good luck...but embrace your time together.

I am in the same situation. My DD eats every2-3 hours and will only TAKE the breast. My husband got her to take the bottle the other night but it took her 10 minutes of screaming... and then she only ate 2ozs and was up two hours later. (it was bedtime.) my doc said to try a sippy cup or try when you aren't around...obviously not you.

M.
None of my kids would drink from a bottle either( I have nursed 4 and still nursing number 5) I would seriously try any kind of cup/straw combo. By then she will be eating some table foods and you can nurse her right before you go and maybe after the ceremony before the reception. Have a good time and remember our babies will survive without us for a few hours.
J.

I can't believe that no one had recommended this...my 6.5 month old son would throw a hissy-fit anytime we ever tried to bottle feed him until the day that we found what I call the "magic" bottle! It is supposed to imitate a breast and it works. The company is called The First Years and the bottle is called Breastflow. It is awesome. It also keeps their tongue in the same position as nursing so they don't get confused or hurt you when they get the real thing again. I love it and highly recommend getting it. There's also an awesome pacifier out there with the same tongue thing as I mentioned called the Gumdrop-it's also the only one he would take. Feel free to email me if you have any other questions. Take care & best of luck!!!

I had the same problem. Try using a sippy cup or cup with a soft straw. Also, try playing with temperature of the milk. Another thing that I've read is that you should have someone else try to feed her the bottle...why should she drink from the bottle when mommy is right there? I'm sorry that your mother won't watch her...that's horrible...sorry, don't mean to judge - my mother-in-law was the same way. But you just have to be persistent. Good luck!

My son was also a 'comfort nurser' who had to breastfeed every two hours. He took a bottle to begin with but then stopped at around 4months. I found that it wasn't my expressed milk he didn't like so long as I froze it immediately and didn't let it set in the refrigerator. Also, the bottles were truly too much work for him. I have heard from OTs that Playtex bottles are the easiest bottles for babies to suck from and that Avent bottles are the hardest. We, however, just switched to a sippie cup, removed the 'spill-proof' device so it would pour out, and he was fine with it. He never really used those 'spill-proof' things in any of his cups and actually just switched to a regular cup after 18 months.
My sister's second baby wouldn't take a bottle because she didn't like her expressed milk. Some moms think their expressed milk smells/tastes sour or soapy. This was the case with my sister. She followed all of the breastmilk storage guidelines yet was still frustrated with the 'sourness' of her milk. We learned that she has an excess of lipase, an enzyme, which breaks down the milk fat after it is expressed, causing her baby to dislike the taste. Moms who find this is the problem can scald their milk after expressing. To learn more about this you can visit www.kellymom.com (just search 'lipase'). Scalding will break down some of the nutrients but as long as she's getting fresh milk from you it's not a problem.
Good Luck...I know it can be overwhelming to have to attend to the breastfeeding demands of a baby every two hours, but you should know you are giving your baby breastmilk is a wonderful gift.