Hi, my 9 months old son who only like breastfeed and refuse to use bottle. I think my milk supply is not enough for him and I try to offer formula but he only takes it while I use spoon and he only take two oz at a time. On his nine months check up, he is underweighted, only 10% and the doctor suggest me to offer him at least 12 oz formula a day. I try to let him hunger and give him bottle, even let him watch TV, he only take 2 oz with my help and he just does not like it at all. I use all kind of bottle, but he still doesn't show any interest at them. I also try to give him training cup, but he just play with it.
What should I do to have my son use bottle? I am really appreciated anyone who can share their experience with me!
Thanks for all of you who take the time to respond my question! My son did not eat a lot of solid, maybe two jars of baby food per day. Once he is full, he just refuse to eat anymore. My older son was much better eater at this age. Since I need to go back to work soon, I will keep trying to get him used to the bottle. Thanks again!
Mix the formula in his baby food and cereal, that should help maybe.
Also, when my kids were that age, they didn't take a bottle or sippy cup either. we just gave them small regular cups and held it for them to drink from.
My son is a year, 90+% height and 10% weight. My pediatrician days that he's just a lean kid, nothing to worry about. Has your son's percentage dropped off drastically, or is he just naturally trim?
I added (full fat) goat milk yogurt to my son's diet around 9 months. I'm much more comfortable with that than with formula. He likes his plain, but you could add some fruit to it as well.
I've also found funugreek to help increase supply. My midwife said take it until your urine smells like maple syrup, then hold at that dosage. For me, it was 6 or 7 capsules a day. I'd take it for about a week and try to pump as well as nurse to get things flowing.
Good luck
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Contact your local le leche leauge leader to get accurate information about milk supply and how to increase it. you do not need to supplement with formula! If you find your milk supply decreasing, there are many things you can do: limit caffeine! And research other foods that may be diminishing milk supply, Eat oatmeal, drink mothers milk tea, take a supplement called more milk plus(you can get this at whole foods). And
most important of all, nurse frequently, especially at night. This is what really will keep your supply up. Have you started feeding your baby food? Avocado, sweet potato and other nutrient dense foods are great first foods for baby. Smoothies made of hemp coconut or almond milk(highly nutritious alternatives to cows milk, which is highly allergenic to babies) and frozen berries are excellent as well. Breastmill is best, And starting with nutrient dense foods as well(go slow though, you do not want him to get constipated from too much food!). there really is no need to supplement with formula at this point.
I have a handout (from a feeding book) to a relative having the same issues. The handout shows different positions for bottle feeding and different ways to support while feeding. my relatives said the tips worked great - let me know if you would like me to e-mail you a copy
Hi. I had a tough time getting my daughter to the bottle when she was 4 months. She had been exclusively breastfed until then. I tried gentle persuasion for 2 weeks. In the third week, I got different people to give her the bottle but she refused it. Finally, I bought a variety of breast-sized teats to try on her: Tommee Tippee, Learning Curve, Nuby, Avent. All failed. I even tried the cup and starving her. I went up to 15 hours before I gave in and gave her the breast. Eventually, I tried the MAM Ultivent teat and she took it immediately. Since then, I've tried giving her the other teats but she only wants the MAM teat. I think the MAM teat is softer and narrower than other teats and it resembles the breast more closely. Try it. It saved me.
You've gotten some great responses. My daughter never cared much for the bottle except for a very short period of time when she was not teething. She took well to cups with straws at about 9 mos, which actually helped me to avoid the whole bottle in bed thing, since she had to be upright and supervised to drink from it. shortly after, she started with sippy cups. While I was breast feeding my son, he had trouble with bottles when i started preparing him for my return to work. He did well with sippy cups that had large, softer spouts. From there, he actually warmed up to bottles within about a month. Kind of backwards, but it worked, and by a year old neither of my children used bottles at all. Looking back 30 yrs, my mother has reminded me many times that when I was 6 months old she wanted to introduce the bottle to me and apparently, i hated it. I don't know how many options there were, but she said I ended up drinking from a regular small cup, no cover, no straw, no spout. She of course had to hold it for me, but I was able to take full feedings of expressed breastmilk this way, when others had to feed me. Also, if your child is just hungry and your milk isn't cutting it, he's not too young to be getting some babyfood/solids in his diet. I didn't see that you mentioned solids. Anyhow, good luck & be patient. Sometimes the less we stress about our kids diet, the quicker it resolves itself. Happy mothers day!!
Why do you think your supply is not enough? Are you nursing truly "On Demand" meaning if he wants to nurse only 30 minutes after you just nursed him, do you?
The fact that he is 9 months old and really likes the boobie, tells me he is probably fine latch-wise. I think, however, that nursing him more often will get your production and his weight up. I would skip the formula and offer him rice cereal and baby food. If you start supplementing with formula, your milk WILL decrease. It is better to go for 1st baby foods rather than formula - especially since you have come this far breastfeeding!
Breasts work on supply and demand - the more he nurses, the more you make. I work with A LOT of breastfeeding moms. Please feel free to contact me - ____@____.com
Realize too that the growth chart that the pediatricians have is a "mixed" chart (formula and breastfed babies together). There is a separate chart for exclusively breastfed babies. I can get you it.
Also, just because he is small, doesn't mean he isn't well nourished. Is he crawling? very active? What about you and his dad - were either of you small babies? Not all breastfed babies are going to be tanks. It's that simple.
But nurse more often - at least every 90 minutes, even if it is only 5 minutes each time.
Let me know if you need anything.
:)
