My 4 mth old daughter usually gets the breast, but on the odd occasion she had no trouble drinking from a nuk bottle - since she was 6 weeks old - whether it was from me, dad or grandma. She did have more burps with the bottle, but no other issues.
We recently started giving her some rice cereal mixed with breastmilk once a day on our Ped's recommendation as she has reflux. She eats the rice cereal like she's been doing it all her life. It doesn't seem to bother her tummy and definitely helps with the reflux (she is also on prevacid).
Then, since I'm heading back to work soon and don't want to breastfeed longer than 6 mths (no judgment please - I can't keep up with this elimination diet) we tried giving her a bottle of formula. She is also allergic to dairy so we had to try Alimentum and Nutramigen - which is horribly stinky - and she wanted nothing of it. I did mix the ready-to-use formula 1/4 with 3/4 breastmilk and had grandma give it after I tried and failed.
Eventually I gave up with the formula and decided I'll just pump while I'm at work and give her the breast in the evenings, but now she doesn't even want to take a bottle with breastmilk in it. I've tried waiting a week so she'll forget, but apparently the formula put her off so badly she now wants nothing to do with any bottle!
Is the answer just to wait a bit longer and keep trying? I saw another mom recommend using the nuby sippy cup instead of the bottle, will that help? Any other ideas?
We just finished sleep training her and I don't have the energy for another battle of wills just yet, but my time is running out before I have to be back at work.
Just to clarify: My baby has reflux AND is allergic to dairy in my breastmilk. So I've been eating salted chicken, rice, lettuce and grapes for the past 3 months. My health has deteriorated to the point where I've now had a common cold for 4 weeks and I'm not able to shake it. So yes, I know breastfeeding is best - that is why I've stuck it out so long - but at this stage I'm not able to properly care for / enjoy my child because I'm constantly tired and sick. Her reflux is also very severe, Zantac did nothing for her and she is now on the highest dose of Prevacid, but still she has bad days. I'm glad for other people who's reflux passed quickly and I wish I was able to breastfeed for a year as was my original plan. Things just don't work out the way you expect.
Anyways.... about the bottle. We waited 2 weeks for her to forget about the bad formula incident, waited until she was really hungry, did lots of praying.... and she just took it one day from her dad like she's been doing it forever.The bottle only had breastmilk in. Yay!
I own a company called My Mamma's Milk. We cater to the breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, cloth diapering moms. I looked forever for a bottle for breastfed babies. I found one: mimijumi
Fabulous bottle, closest to the boobie I have ever found. I sell an amazing number of them - even overseas! http://www.mymammasmilk.com/Mimijumi.html
I also run the Cape Cod Breastfeeding Moms group (we are on Facebook).
I can't promise that this will work, obviously, but you can try mixing a small amount of warm water (an ounce or two) with a little bit of regular table sugar (1 tsp). If you can get her to open her mouth for the bottle at all, the sweet taste might be enough to change her mind about the whole bottle thing.
And, again, before people judge, I did this with my infants when they had to get their shots, and it works like a charm - two seconds of crying, then total contentment. And it was under the watchful eye of two different pediatricians, both of whom I totally trust.
Good luck!
Consult a lactation specialist. With the reflux it could be a lot of things turning her off from the bottle. Positioning is key with reflux babies, I don't know if you have already tried that. You can also try spoon feeding her breastmilk while she won't take the bottle. But I do know several mom's who have gone through this and there is usually no one answer, it's often a combination of things and a good lactation consultant can give you tons of advice and tricks to use. The main thing is to keep trying and don't give up. And, don't feel bad about stopping breastfeeding after 6 months! You did great and gave your baby a major jump start on her nutrition and development. While one year is good, 6 months is key.
Just wanted to comment on the elimination diet - my EBF daughter had severe reflux that meant she nursed about every 45 minutes during the day and every 2 hours or so at night. I changed my diet and saw an immediate drop in how painful it was for her to lie down. We also put her on Zantac and that helped quite a bit. Anyway... the point I wanted to make is that your LO will likely grow out of the reflux and you should soon be able to expand what you eat. The diet was very tough - for a while there I was only eating lamb, turkey, potatoes, squash, millet, and pears - but seeing the improvement in my daughter was worth it. And it passed in a very short amount of time! We were able to stop the Zantac when she was about nine months old and she's been absolutely fine ever since. So hang in there with the diet and know it's only for a limited time. Good luck!
Try the "MAM" brand bottle. It is also BPA free, and collects NO air bubbles in it as the baby drinks. Natural shaped nipple.
My son, loved this bottle, as did I.
You can find it on Amazon www.amazon.com I don't know of any stores that has it... at least in my city. I had to get mine from Amazon.
All the best,
susan
You could try the Playtex nursers with the brown latex nipple. Very much like the breast but the great thing is with the liner you can gently push in the liner to squirt just a taste into baby's mouth so they know the bottle has the good stuff in it.
I went back to work when my daughters were five months. I pumped until one was nine months and the other about a year. If she gets hungry, while you are working she will eventually take a bottle or sippy. After nine months, my little one refused the breastmilk bottle and just chose to wait for me. She ate baby/soft foods during the day. She cluster nursed at night & nursed again at 4 AM & in the morning. I minimized the difficulty of 4AM wake up by nursing her in my bed & cosleeping until morning. I just wanted to let you know it can be done, since she seems to be sending a message that she needs it. FYI, some medical professionals will tell you there is no benefit to nursing past six months; however, there is much research that shows otherwise regarding health and bonding/security.
My son which turn five months today is the same way and one of the reasons why I am not working yet. He too took the bottle good and one day deiced he wanting nothing to do with it and the only thing ever in it was breast milk. I have tried every trick, even skipping a meal and nothing. So I gave up on the bottle and giving the sippy cup a try. Get one with handles and spill proof to start out with. Fill it with your milk or nursery water till she gets use to using it and let her play with it. I use the munchkin spill proof with handles and my son loves it. It might take her some time to get use to the different sucking monition, but when she bits down a little will dribble in her mouth. My son is teething right now and I put cold water in his cup. The coldness helps to sooth his gums.
Good luck!
