I Need Help Weaning My Baby to a Bottle

Try using the avent bottles with the soft sippy tops and handles. The soft sippy tops let them suck like a bottle but because the spout is thin it gets them use to drinking from a cup. I did this with my first son around 8-9 months and it worked. Right now my 8 month old has begun refusing the bottle at daycare so last night we tried the sippy and he seemed to like the new idea. Hopefully it will work like it did with his brother. Good luck.

Well I am not here to nag, however maybe this will be of some incentive. While yes, a smokers breastmilk is still better than formula, this is what you are putting your baby at risk of, just to have a cigarrette:
Addiction
Atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)
Middle ear infections
Destruction of brain cells
Colic or excessive crying
Circulatory damage
Chronic Depression
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Decrease in your child's ability to learn or memorize
Not wanting to initiate breast feeding due to smoking
Growth of brain neurons to process nicotine
A reduction in the breast's ability to pass key nutrients to the infant
So that being said, don't try this new drug, just quit. I can completely sympathize with you. I am an ex-smoker. I smoked for 12 years, and quit smoking as soon as I found out I was pregnant (2 weeks pregnant), I breastfeed, and I have not had any desire to go back to smoking, because I am a child of a parent (s) who smoked. I have severe adult asthma, and I believe 100% it's from my Mom smoking, due to there is no family history on either side for asthma. So please, find a way to get motivated and get the courage to quit, with out the aid of anything. Do it for your baby, and keep breast feeding. Good luck!
By the way, if you want to read up on the studies that were done here is the link: http://whyquit.com/whyquit/LinksBirth.html

OH yeah, skip to the sippy cup, I know a few people who have had no success with the bottle and went straight to the sippy with no problem.

I think you need to decide what is more important to you. A cigarette or giving your baby the best food that nature intended. If you have the will power to quit while you are pregnant than you can quit while you are nursing. You shouldn't take away something that he loves for your addictions. My DD is 1. She has ALWAYS refused the bottle. No matter how many times I have tried she hates the bottle.

Just to comment about Chantix. I was on it for 4 weeks until i couldn't afford it anymore. But i thought it worked SO well. I haven't smoked since Mother's Day * good day to quit* Helps a lot with moodiness and cravings. Just keep busy!! That's the most important thing. Stay away from things that make you want to smoke like the car, the phone.. all triggers i had. I'm sure you know all of this by now, just figured i'd let you know my story.

The main question is-- How she can transition her son to formula verses nurse. The reasoning behind her wanting to transion has caused many to post encouraging her to keep nursing in not so nice ways. But, this is her decision. Keep in mind we should encouage others and not belittle them in their decitions.

I speak from experience. I was 2 weeks over due and made a post on another board that I just wish I could choose to be enduced just like a section mom has the choice to pick their induction date instead of being forced to wait 2 weeks over before medical intervention would step in. I was so miserable and needed to vent and moral support but what I got was 45 posts of others belittling me... I just stopped defending myself and stopped going to that board it made me further miserable.

J., You are on a scale of good and good....To nurse is GREAT for your child to quit smoking is GREAT for your child and yourself....but the decision is yours and to transistion now might just be your time- after all you have given him so much just by nursing period...regardless of duration...longer is better but~
GOOD LUCK!

I have to agree with Janelle wholeheartedly. I too, am an ex-smoker. I quit before I had my children. I think breastfeeding your child is more beneficial then taking the quit smoking drug. No drug is going to help you quit if you dont want to. And if you really want to, you would. If you can do it while you are pregnant, why cant you do it while you are nursing? I'm assuming you quit because its hazardous to a fetus' health. Its also hazardous to your infants health, as well. If you put your mind to it, YOU CAN DO IT!! Keep nursing!
And, I also agree go right to the sippy cup. My daughter is 6 1/2 months and she drinks out of a sippy cup. GOOD LUCK!

When I had to give my daughter a bottle due to acid reflux, I found that instead of holding her in a cradle hold (like when she breastfed), I could hold her over my lap, supporting her head and neck in my hand and her back with my legs. This was the only way she would take a bottle, even from her daddy.

My son, who was started on a bottle in the hospital, flat refused to take a bottle from me once he started breastfeeding. He would fight the bottle from anyone else as well, but we were just persistent with him and he eventually took the bottle from his daddy or grandmother.

Try a different hold (he's probably smelling your milk and wanting it) and try mixing your milk with the formula and gradually increase the amount of formula in the bottle while decreasing the milk until he's only taking formula in the bottle.

you have to get someone else to give it to him, he's not gonna take a bottle from you when he can have the real thing. My daughter wont even take a bottle if I'm in the same room.

*edit* I didnt even see that your son is 7 months old....forget the bottle hes old enough for a sippy

I have the same problem...my boy is a boob man through and through. No solutions with the bottle, but everyone keeps telling me to try a sippy cup instead. Good luck with quitting smoking!

only give him a bottle at night for about a week then just give it to him every other night and then not at all. Expaline to him that (if he notices) that If he is thirsty enough he will have to drink out of a big boy cup. (sippy cup)

Have you tried just giving formula in a bottle instead of pumped milk? Your son may just associate the breastmilk with you and only want it from you. Formula would be new, so maybe a bottle would be okay with him for that.

Good Luck!!

oh i wish i could of found an option, but when the same thing happened to my daughter at 3months (i went few weeks without giving her a bottle) she refused it once and for all! i tried Many times, nothing worked either. by 5-6 ms she didnt even know what i'm trying to push in her mouth. i'm sorry that i can't offer any advice, everyone including my pediatr. said if you wait long enough - she'll eat =that didnt work, also try someon else feed her = did not work either
maybe cup or sippy cup? that kinda worked, but she did not get enough that way - it was just too dificult for that age baby to drink from a cup. but do talk to your ped. maybe he knows some magic. good luck, i know ts very hard- babies know breast is best! and good luck quiting smoking.

I now exactly what you are going through and how frusturating it can be but I did finally have success. My baby would not take a bottle at all. He would rather go hours and hours without eating than take it. He even got to the point where he would cry at the sight of a bottle but eventually I got him to take one and he now takes them eagerly. What I did was put him on my lap sitting up facing out. The first time I got him to take one this way I was singing to him and rocking him. After that he took them in that position fine without singing or rocking and now, three months later, he's eight months, he will take them in any position. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't work at first. I had to try for a while too. It probably took about a week of offering the bottle a couple times a day until he finally took it. The trick is to be diligent and don't back down. He'll come around. Good luck.

I had this problem with my daughter. She was only six weeks at the time - but still she would scream and not want to take any bottle. I even tried the Breast Bottle, where the nipple had a buch of little holes like a breast, she hated it. My mother kept telling me to try the Playtex Drop-ins bottle becuase those nipples are most like the breast - i rested this becuase i didn't want to go through the hassle of alwasy having to have a bag in the bottle and pushing out the air - but when i finally tried these bottles - my daughter loved it! She will only use the yellow colored nipples, not the clear ones. She has been on this bottle now for 2 months and is doing very well. I tried to sneak in a different bottle and she wouldn't take it! She loves the playtex drop in yellow nipple.