My daughter is 8 months old and still breastfeeds many times a day, though she gets solid food now too. She used to take a bottle of expressed milk very well, but recently she has started to refuse it. She refuses breastmilk in a bottle, a sippy cup, and a regular cup. Nursing is a big part of our bedtime routine and tomorrow night my daughter is spending the night at my parents' house. What can I do if she won't drink any breastmilk while she's there?
Who is giving her the bottle? I have found with my 5 month old that he won't take even expressed milk from me but if someone else gives it to him he is fine with it.
P.:
breastmilk by spoon....
P., RLC, IBCLC, CST
Breastfeeding and Parenting Solutions
www.breastfeedingandparentingsolutions.com
I think you might be surprised, too, what she might do when you are gone. Children, including babies, behave differently when mom is gone. Grandma or Grandpa may find they have their own knack for getting her to sleep by rocking her, singing to her, or perhaps they will be able to coax her to take a bottle or sippy without you there.
Like the others said, at 8 months, it's less about hunger at this stage - she's getting her hunger needs met by the solid foods and will likely eat more solid foods if she's refusing the expressed milk. For just one night, she'll be fine. Enjoy your night out!
(Speaking not as a lactaction consultant, but just a mom who breastfed for 2 years, 15 months, and 13 months with my 3 boys)
My three kids wouldn't take a bottle either. At this age, I just gave them more solids, and put the milk in a sippy, just in case. All three of them were fine when I left, although, it is very stressful!
Good luck!
My daughter is now 4yrs., when we were transitioning her from bottle to sippy, she would not drink milk out of a sippy or a reg. cup. I was worried, because we never had a problem with her drinking expressed, whole, 2% milk. We subsituted orange juice with calcium and vitamin D and we give her a daily vitamin. She didn't drink milk at all until she started daycare. Now she drinks it all the time with no problem. I guess once she saw the other kids at daycare drinking milk she wanted to also. She even drinks it at home and will ask for it. Somehow I don't think the milk in a cup is as comforting as out of a bottle. There are plenty of ways to sub the calcium and other nutrients in formula and expressed milk. You'll just have to experiment and see what works best for her. Maybe when she stays there they can make up their own routine for her. I am sure everything will work out. Good Luck and don't stress! Tab
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P., don't worry about it really! She doesn't need a bottle at this point. They can offer her water in a sippy, or even juice if you give her that...that will take care of hydration and then they can give her more solids. She's getting older and transitioning and very smart:) nursing is more about nutrition now to her (&you) so hunger doesn't immediately mean bottle to her. Besides, one night of not nursing will not ruin her. Nurse when you can, but offer the cup of whatever other liquid when you are away. As a mom whos girls did the same thing and as a Lactation Consultant I see this ALL The TIME..it's normal behavior. Besdies forcing a bottle just gives you one more thing to wean..she can easily learn to drink from a cup at this point. I know it's stressful leaving your baby, she will probably do great with grandma! Good luck!
My son did the same thing at 7 months. We ended up just increasing the amount of solid food we sent him to his sitter with, and we also incorporated my pumped breastmilk into his food as much as possible. (I still had to pump during the day because he always wanted to nurse more on the weekends. This is the one thing you'll need to be careful about because yo-yoing back and forth between not nursing/pumping much during the week and then nursing a lot on the weekends can give you mastitis b/c it messes with your supply). I was a bit worried at first (not to mention, I had over 2 gallons of frozen milk at home!) but it all worked itself out. And like another poster mentioned, we had the bonus of never having to "wean" him from a bottle.
