Discovery Home & Health

My 12 week old is BF exclusively but I occasionally pump and give her a bottle. The last time I did this was about 3 weeks ago. Well the past couple of days I have attempted to give her a bottle and she refuses. Does anyone out there have any advice on what to do to get her to take the bottle? I have tried changing the type and brand of nipple and also tried silicone and latex nipples. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Hi
The only other thing I could suggest is seeing if she will take a bottle from someone other than you. I've heard that when they smell mummy milk and then get a bottle they can feel cheated lol. Good luck x

hi...definitely garee with munchy ...
also keep tring...my dd chopped and changed as with a bottle..one minute she wanted it - the next she didnt....i tried to make sure that she had 1 bottle everyday as i was told that babies will alwasy revert to first style of feeding..ie breast so i alwasy gave her afternoon feed from bottle and now she has no problem taking it. She just had to get used to it. She only refuses it now when she has not had one for a few days...
hope that makes sense....

ps..i now combine bf and bottle and i find it a real hassle..all the sterilising etc...next baby i wont bother i dont think ...

xxx

I combined BF and bottle with Alicia from when she was 4weeks old.
dont know if it will help but when you next give her a bottle try putting the teat to the roof of her mouth (my sis had to do this with her son to get him to take his bottle).
otherwise i strongly agree with munchkin and sarah, if you feed her she is going to know that mummy and breast are there, can you get your partner or anyone else to try and give her a bottle, that way she won't smell you and will be more likely to take what she has ofered as she won't smell you.

hope we've helped hun...let us know how you get on.

Ems x

Hi,
I breast feed my daughter (13 weeks old) during the day and i express after each feed any excess and have 6 oz by the end of the day which i give to her b4 bed followed by me if she wants it.
I found she took the bottle at first but has been getting more reluctant to recently, so i changed the flow on her bottle from the first to the second, we are using the tommee tippee close to mature bottles, since i changed the teat to the second flow she has taken her milk, it has gone from taking nothing and crying for me to a few days ago 4oz and last night 6oz from the bottle.
I think breast milk is fairly flowing and once it gets going not much effort is required on her part, so a faster flowing teat may help.
As for smelling me i think she has got used to the fact that night time feed is the bottle as by then i am pretty empty from feeding and pumping!

Hope this helps, oh, also my daughter has a dummy, which may make a difference as she is used to sucking without getting any milk, so comfort sucking rather than feeding, which may make it easier for her to take bottle, perhaps!

take care,

Pinky xx

Hi Chelle,

Just thought I'd add that I find my bf baby takes the bottle better when I hold her in a similar position to when she's breast feeding. I only give her a bottle very occasionally (when I've had a couple of alcoholic beverages ) and also find she'll take it better in the middle of the night when she's half asleep .

Good luck

Rusty

Thank you all so much for the advice! I have been pumping every night and putting a little bit of expressed milk into a couple of different bottles. During the day before each feeding (and sometimes at night when husband can help) will try to give her the bottle. This is day 6 and am still getting much resistance. She pushes the nipple out and plays with it a bit but just refuses to drink. I don't want to force her on it too much for fear of truamatizing her. Am still intent on trying this as husband and I have a night out planned in two weeks!
Thank you all, will keep trying!!