Baby Stopped Taking Bottle, Will Only Nurse

My daughter was the same way - the only bottles that worked for her were DR. Browns. They are very much like the breast so there's no confusion either.

I know it sounds cruel but he will probably drink from a bottle when he gets hungry/thirsty if given no other option especially if you are not the one giving him the bottle. He will fuss, his will throw the bottle, he will chew on it, he will play with it, he will cry, he will yell, he will push the nipple into the bottle but eventually he will drink. You may have better luck with a sippy cup but that will take time. Not all children pick up on things instantly. My daughter took awhile to get into the whole drinking juice thing.

Hi S.
Have you tried a cup with a lid from like tupperware. It is hard for kids to understand they need to suck hard to get anything out of the spillproof sippy cups. Nuby makes a soft tiped one that my kids liked alot more than a regular sippy cup. T.

Hi,

This happened with both my daughters, and I had to make them take the bottle when I went back to work. With my older daughter, we tried everything and finally I had to leave the house for a day. She took it when she got hungry enough. It was awful! With my secon daughter, we just kept trying and trying. We would wait until we knew she would be hungry but wasn't famished, preferably when she was a little sleepy. I couldn't be anywhere near her, and I couldn't have held her right before the bottle was offered. It worked best when I wasn't in the house. Otherwise, she would just keep looking at me. She would push it around her mouth, and the feeding would take forever, but she would do it. It took a while, but it was a lot better than with our first.

By the way, we had good luck with skipping a sippy and goind straight for a cup and straw. I think the sucking is supposed to be easier. Good luck!

S.,

All four of my kids did this at about age 4-6 months. There isn't any going back. At 6 months, I introduced a sippy cup and they took it. The soft nipple kind are good. They bite on the nipple and milk/water squirts out and they catch on after a few weeks. Yes, it is harder to leave him, but it is definately temporary. Not only can you have him take a sippy cup in the next month, he can be taking baby food.

Good luck,
S.

If you are not around and a bottle is his only option, I'm sure he will take the bottle. My daughter is 4 months old and I just have to make myself scarse if my husband is going to give her a bottle. If she knows I'm not around and the it's the bottle or nothing, she'll take the bottle. I'm sure your son will learn that too. Good luck!

I feel for you. I nursed my son and didn't try to even gie him a bottle until he was 6 weeks old. It was to late. He never would take one. I nursed him until he was 1 years old. Look at it this way, you are getting bonding time with him you won't get back. It is tough and hard on you ne=ot ever getting a brake. I used to go to the grocery store at 10:30pm because it was the only alone time I got. Enjoy it now because they do grow so fast. My son is now 8 years old. I don't regret it, I enjoyed it knowing I was never going to get this chance of close bonding with him again.

I definitely feel for you. I have twin girls that at 4 months also started to REFUSE the bottle. I wish I had some advice for you, but nothing worked for us! :(

I nursed M. girls exclusively from 4-11 months!!! It can be done! :)

Good luck! I hope it works for you, because it was a LOT of work for me! Just wanted to let you know it is common & you're not alone!

Hi S.,
I had this problem with my son when he was 4/5 mos. We didn't give him a bottle for 2 weeks and then when we tried again, he refused and like your son would only chew on it or push it away. What worked for me (took about 1 week) was to try and distract him while giving him the bottle. I would put him on his back and dangle a noisy toy over his head. Like I said, after about a week he was just so interested in the toy his natural sucking instinct took effect and we have been good on the bottle ever since. Good luck!

hes teething! :D this is normal, and totally fine. teething causes all sorts of trouble, and will be bothering him on and off for the next... ooooo year? lol
give tylenol, use hylands teething gel, whatever you need to do to relieve the pain. teething toys intead of nursing. temporarily he might not feel like eating much and that is ok! :D offer the bottle once in a while, and dont feel guilty for "making a mistake" you did what your instincts told you to do, and thats no mistake, thats a gift. if you stop listening to your heart and your instincts, it causes a deep divide between you and your baby... and that causes problems for the rest of your lives... so... just keep connected, and keep nursing and keep doing what you gotta do! :D breastfeeding itself does a lot more for ya than a bottle will... using a bottle once in a while is fine, but it does cause gas, and since its easier to suck from a bottle sometimes baby ends up having to gulp big gulps... causing more gas and bloating and stuff... meaning tummy fills up with more air and less food, and hes hungry more often.... do you see what i mean?

so when you can, just nurse, but honestly, he shouldnt have trouble with the bottle. it probably feels like a good thing to knaw on at this point with the teething.
also, usually babies do take bottles from people OTHER than mom cuz he can smell you and hes kinda rejected, like, what is this you are giving me? come on, give me the real thing mom!
so he might take the bottle better when you arent around within sight or smelling distance..

my son nursed until he weaned himself at 19 months! i was so proud of myself for making it that long, so i love to encourage other moms who want to make it for the long haul! please write to me if you need encouragement or more info!
www.askdrsears.com helped me to stay to MY plan for my son instead of the disconnecting advice most people give you. remaining connected to my son is helping me more and more now that hes nearing 2 years old... when the main problem is a lack of the ability to always know how to communicate their needs... most of the time i just know, ok, he needs a break, he needs food, he needs a drink, he just needs some lovin! its so easy to relate to him and help him out when hes frustrated cuz i have an instictual knowledge of what he needs! its exciting to see what our relationship is like compared to most other kids and mamas... so just keep listening to what your baby needs!
ps
my son nursed at night until he was between 15-17 months old... so if you can handle it, and stuff, i swear, my son is the best sleeper ive ever seen in my life...

Maybe he just needs you a little more right now... It will soon change to something else, that is for certain! Can you take the time? Have you tried a regular cup? We didn't have bottles at our house and went from breast to cup. (I could never pump - kudos to you!) My second baby would wait for me if I was out and she wanted to nurse. I always made myself relatively available within a reasonable amount of time, but she knew if she wanted the real deal, she may have to wait. Dad would offer her water in a cup and she would drink and wait for me.
Ask dr. Sears is a great resource too!
Good luck and don't be frustrated, this is a fleeting time and just a blip in the big scheme of things.
J.

Hi S.~ After I had my daughter I did not want to only breastfeed b/c that would leave all the responsiblity on me with not really being able to leave her with dad or family. My daughter didn't have a problem at first doing both but she all of a sudden didn't want to bottle like you and your little boy. My husband came up with an idea to let her nurse for a minute then take her off and do the bottle and at each feeding go back and forth. We did it for about 2 days and she has been great ever since.
Good luck, S. L

I took the valve out of the sippy cups. They aren't "spill proof" then, but my daughter got the milk out. Have you tried sucking on those cups? You really have to suck hard to get anything out...

Don't wear yourself out trying to "make" a baby take a bottle, they have their own mind already :)

My daughter never would really take a bottle. We wound up doing a lot of the things others have suggested: going out for a short time (3-4 hours), giving her a bottle if I wasn't even in the house (the only way she'd even consider it), and using the Nuby cup or one with the valve removed. She actually seemed to prefer water in the sippy cup at first, though I know some babies would rather it be breastmilk. Some babies seem to like it if mom leaves a t-shirt or something with her scent on it, while others would rather the whole experience of bottle or sippy cup was nothing like mom. It'll take some trial and error to figure out what your little guy likes best. Also, at 6 months, maybe you can start having your husband or babysitter do solid foods while you're gone? My daughter was quite happy to let anybody give her solid foods, and then I didn't have to worry about her getting too hungry even if I was gone for a little while longer than 3-4 hours. One last thing, which is that your son might be teething and it just feels good to bite the bottle nipple or sippy cup. If so, be glad he's not doing that to you! :) You can try giving him a teething toy or a frozen washcloth right before the bottle to see if that helps him to settle down and just drink from the bottle instead of chewing on it.
Good luck!

ONE WORD - NIPPLES :)

Same thing with both my two. Dr. recommended getting older stage nipples with bigger holes,and make sure the ipples are allowing the liquid through. He stated that the biggest reason that children prefer breast-feeding to bottle feeding is because they find breastfeeding is easier. If it is hard to suck, they give up, and find something else. I found it totally true as my children both started preferring bottles to breast after I tried this for awhile...whereby I switched back to the harder nipples again to get them breastfeeding. It is all a matter of ease of use. Whatever is easier will be preferred (at least until they find that it is so much easire to see what's going on and play while bottle feeding). Try "older stage" nipples or make the holes bigger and see if it works.

No advice for you, but just letting you know you are not alone. My younger son did that at 2 months although he never really took the bottle well before that. I nursed him until 14 months and he went straight to a sippy cup. Never did take a bottle. There wasn't any type of bottle or nipple he would take. I know it can be challenging, but in the greater scheme of things it is only a short time in your life and I look back on it as one of my favorite times as a parent. I did leave him for 3-4 hours at a time for book club meetings, etc. and he was fine. Your son should be old enough to do that and you can probably increase the amount of time you are gone once he starts eating solid food. It was also nice that I never had to take the bottle away. I had a really hard time weaning my older son from his bedtime bottle. Good luck.

My youngest never took a bottle and we tried them all!!! He didn't adjust to the typical sippy cup either. We ended up using the nuby soft tipped cup. He like that one a lot. I understand not being able to leave, but I would just go for a short amount of time or at night, like someone else said. Good luck and enjoy this time with him, they grow so fast!!!

Since you are doing such a great job continuing to nurse, why give him a bottle when you are there? When we introduced a bottle at about three months, my son would never take it if i were anywhere in the house or even near the house, ( so i had the same concern of not being able to leave!) but when i went off to work, he happily took a bottle of breastmilk. Babies are not stupid creatures and they know where the good stuff comes from!