My 6 month old daughter Elliot will not take a bottle! It is so frustrating because it makes it difficult for my husband and I to go out to dinner. We are going on a weekend trip in June and I'm nervous about the bottle. I've tried every brand and just tried sippy cups. My son never had this problem. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Oh it's not just me that she won't take the bottle from, it's everybody.
I know some people are going to yell at me, but here goes.
Dip the nipple in a little sugar water to get her interested. I use to have to actually dip my nipple in it to get my son interested in the breast.
Hi S.,
I had the same problem with my daughter. No one let me know that if you don't start giving your newborn bottles by the time they are 6 weeks, its a nightmare. Finally, I spoke with a ex-coworker who gave me very difficult advise, but it worked. I had to leave the house for 6 to 7 hours, and my husband kept attempting to give her the bottle during that time. After missing 4 feedings, she took a bottle of pedialyte. After you get her to take it the first time, keep giving her one for the next 3 feedings. Then you can alternate between breast feeding and the bottle. I would be sure you have her on the bottle before you take your trip. Otherwise, you will frustrate the baby, whoever watchs her, and yourself.
Good Luck
she probably feels your nervousness about the bottle. I had the same problem with my son and what my doctor had me do was calm down and relax, after that I had no problem with my son taking the bottle.
You know, my daughter went through that stage for a few weeks, and it was SO frustrating - and then I discovered why she was refusing the bottle. She was teething! 6 months is a very normal age for the teeth to really start coming through - try putting baby orajel on her gums, or giving her a little bit of baby tylenol to ease her discomfort. Then, try the bottle again.
It worked miracles for my daughter: she was a very early teether, and now at 16 months, she has ALL of her teeth. Literally all of them, second molars and everything. I don't know what we would have done without the orajel. I think that solid food, spoons, and chewing relieve the teething pain while the bottle, which requires pressure from the gums, is more uncomfortable.
Try the orajel or tylenol and see if it helps. If it doesnt you know its not teething.
S.,
did you just recently introduce the bottle, or have you been trying to introduce it since she's been a newborn?
it will definitely be harder if you've only more recently introduced it....
my best advice is keep trying. maybe wipe breastmilk all over the nipple--- and wait until she's EXTRA hungry. if my son was ever finicky about the bottle and i needed him to take it, i'd wait an extra 30-60 min. past his regular meal time and he'd eventually scarf it down.
i hope that helps. i can only imagine how frustrating it must be, especially when you are going away shortly.
if you don't get any "great" advice from anyone here, i'd love to hear what your pediatrician advises.
-H.
We had the same problem with our daughter and turned out not be the bottle, but the nipple. The slow flow nipples were frustrating her and after 1 sip, she would refuse it. We first tried the fast flow nipples and then the cross cut nipples which is what finally worked. She coughed from it being fast the first couple of times, but she didn't refuse it. She went right back to drinking. She also preferred the latex ones compared to the silicon as well. I hope this helps!
Hi S.,
With my daughter, we took a lesson from our experience w/ my son. We didn't introduce the bottle to him until he was 6 weeks old, and by then, we were goners! Although I nursed, we would give my daughter a bottle starting the first week. She never got confused. In any case, we tried everything with my son. Every bottle possible. Avent was really big in 2003, so I had a lot of Avent bottles! We had different people give him the bottle, but to no avail. Finally, I had no choice since I had to go back to work. We went cold turkey on him and wouldn't give him anything but the bottle. For 18 hours, he would cry whenever we'd try to feed him the bottle vs. the boob. I had to use the medicine dropper to squirt breastmilk into his mouth...so that he'd get the energy to cry some more! By the end of the day (in the pm), we gave him a bath. My thought process was that usually after a swim, I'd get really hungry. After the bath, we gave him the bottle and he took it right away. We never looked back. I never dared flash a boob at him again, fearing that he'd want to go back to nursing :) We did go through the various bottles once he was good with the bottle. The Avent was out. The nipple was too hard! He (and my daughter) both really like the Playtex natural latch disposable nurser (with the clear nipple vs. the brown one). The Dr. Brown one wasn't bad, either. Good luck!
it may sound cruel, but if she is hungry enough she will take the bottle
When I had to return to work 10 weeks after having my daughter I knew that the caregivers at the child development center would need to be able to give her a bottle. The secret, for us, was that I had to leave the house when we were ready to add bottle-feeding. I ran errands and shopped for the majority of the day and left her with her father and a good supply of breast milk in bottles for him to give her. I took my pump so I could be comfortable when my milk came in. I had my cell phone just in case he had an emergency and needed to reach me. She was stubborn, but could sense that I wasn't in the house (the lactation nurse at the hospital where I had her told me that babies sense of smell is strong enough to be able to tell whether the mother is close by) and after about five hours her dad called me to tell me she had just taken three and a half ounces from the bottle. I continued to breast feed before work, during my lunch hour, when I picked her up at the care center and before bed. The care center supplemented with two bottles - one mid-morning, one mid-afternoon AND her dad could now feed her on occasion - something he'd never before been able to share in.
I would skip the bottle at six months old. Prolonged use of bottles and sippy cups can hold up speech development anyway. We started teaching my son very early how to suck from a normal straw and now he is a pro. We started out by suctioning water in a straw and straw feeding him (only water of course!) and then eventually we don't let the water, we make him suck from it. Then we swithced the straw to the cup. Now he's got it down! The straw in a cup with a lid isn't 100% spill proof, but it's better for baby anyway and as long as it's only water inside ther's no need to worry about sticky messes.
