my 7 month old has not taken a bottle in 5 months. As you can imagine, I'm pretty tied down as I can not leave my lovely little ball and chain for more than two- three hours. I've been trying to get her to take a bottle so I can go on a date with my husband, but no sucess. I feel the only break I see in sight is to wean and transition to a sippy cup. I'm not thinking of doing it right away. In 5 months she will be one year and I think thats long enough to be so tied down. So my question is this: Can any of you relate a little of what you went through weaning a non bottle taker?
She have some water from a cup now. Both of my children liked it. They thought the cold water was pretty neat. You can let her try to drink out of the rim of the cup, or try with a straw. I even sometimes feed my baby with the straw like a little bird. Getting a little drink in the straw, holding my finger on the top and then putting the other end in her mouth and letting it go.
She thinks its fun!
You don't need to wean. If she won't take a bottle, there are other methods to feed a baby. You should go to kellymom.com for suggestions.
My DD is still nursing some, and while she would take a bottle, there was also still a limit to my away time. I couldn't as easily go away for the weekend, for example.
Over the next few months, as she takes more solids (breastmilk should be primary, though, to a year), she'll nurse less and you can take longer outings. As she transitions to a sippy cup, it may become possible to go to dinner and have Grandma give her water to tide her over til you get home to nurse her. Or if she'll take a sippy cup of pumped milk, there's a solution for you.
Hang in there. Sometimes these months seem like forever when you are in them, but they pass so quickly.
Haha! I felt the same way about that book!
I have a non bottle taker. He did at first, but no more of that.
I nursed my first for 36 months and have no intent of weaning my son anytime soon (he is 10 months).
Anyway I just wanted to give you a little encouragement...she is going to be going through some big changes in the next few months, 7 months and 10 months have been vastly different for us. Now I'm not saying she is going to toss mommy and her milk to the wind but she will come to a point where she dosen't need you as much as she does now. She will be able to go longer stretches w/o nursing becuase she will be busy eating new things.
It will get better...and then she will probably go through a phase of needing you all the time. ;)
It's just what they do. Lol.
Hang in there! Date night soon!
Expect to nurse longer than a year... I know what you are going through and do not envy you. This is one of those things that they never tell you about. Although your baby will only be little once so try to cherish this time together.
There is a book by Le Leche called "How Weaning Happens" but I can't say it had any 'ah ha' moments for me.
Leave a bottle of expressed milk with a caregiver - with whom you make very clear that she's not taken a bottle for awhile and may cry for you - but to be patient and keep trying the bottle.
Your date should last no more than 3-4 hours tops anyways - that's with dinner and a movie - so what's the big deal? At 1 years old, between adding in solids and their being easily distracted - you won't be as 'tied down to your lovely ball and chain' as much as you are with an infant who needs constant breastmilk due to their fastest growing development year they will ever have.
Stop stressing so much, relax and enjoy the sweet time you have with your child - for this time is very limited and will never be regained once lost.
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It's time to introduce a sippy cup. I have breast fed all of my three children but introduced them to a sippy cup before one so it wasn't such a traumatic but gradual experience.
Good luck!
I breastfed for 11 months, my son never took a bottle or a pacifier! I felt a little trapped but in hindsight I appreciated the time we had. I was cutting his feedings and finally was so exhausted that I stopped getting up at night & started giving him breast milk & formula in a Munchkin straw cup. I wasn't making that much milk and aI think he was ready to move on. Good luck!
My little guy would take a bottle (thankfully) at daycare or daddy. When we worked on weaning him I gave him pumped milk in a sippy. He started using a sippy about 6 months old. Our first clue he was ready was he grabbed one of our drinks on the table and tried to drink from the straw. Get a variety of sippys (some with and without straws). We liked the Nuby brand for strawless. He did not drink a lot out of the sippys but he showed interest and was learning a life skill (how to drink from something other than mommy!)
I didn't read all the past answers so sorry for any repeats. I remember my lactation consultant saying often babies won't take a bottle from mom when they can smell you right there and it isn't as soft and warm as you are but if daddy or grandma are the ones offering they may fuss a bit but bottom line is if they are hungry enough they will take it. Both my kids weaned me at 9 months when they started walking (just to busy to lay and nurse and in hindsight I realize I had no idea how to nurse a nip and run toddler and really don't think I would have been comforitable doing that) At that age they had been introduced to solids (at 6 mo's) so i gave a sippy cup with expressed milk (I pumped so they both had breast milk to a year after they stopped nursing) and I also spoon fed breast milk to them. It got it in and they seemed to enjoy the change in delivery.
Start giving her a sippy now! Don't till she's a year to introduce it. The latest recommendations pediatricians are supposed to be giving bottle feeding moms is to get baby off bottle and using a sippy by 9 months.
Get ones with a removable spout, put a tiny bit of your warm milk in it and let her play. Then as she gradually begins to understand that milk will come out of the cup you can put the spout back in. I started giving my ebf second baby a sippy at 6 months.
You can also try cup feeding her your milk. My son was a preemie and I was trying to get him from hospital bottles to me exclusively but he still needed his meds. I'd mix them with my milk and give him tiny sips from a little medicine cup.
Every baby is different so we can't tell you what to expect when beginning to wean once she passes that year mark. My second would have been very, very easy to wean at a year but neither of us were chomping at the bit to wean so she nursed till she was 20 months. My son weaned at 16 months because he was just a busy boy and too busy to sit and nurse.
