Getting Baby to Take a Bottle...

My now 7 month old wouldn't take a bottle when I went back to work once a week after one month.

We bought every different kind of bottle, the one recommended most to me was the playtex with the drop in liners. What finally worked at 5 months was putting formula in the bottles!

My first child rejected formula, this one must have just thought that breast milk didn't belong in a bottle! I hated to give her formula but only doing so once a week after exclusively breastfeeding for months (and nursing when I am home the other 6 days) isn't the worst thing I guess!

I hear you. My daughter is 10 months old, and she has just started taking milk from a cup or bottle (this week!).

I would suggest trying different kinds of bottles and nipples. You can try everything from something that is supposed to mimic your breast to something that looks more like a sippy cup. Something may work. My daughter likes the new-born nipples that came with my breast pump bottles (uh, Medela), and otherwise she likes normal sippy cups.

Unfortunately, in my case, what finally did the trick is that i went back to work a few weeks ago. Now that she has a nanny feeding her lunch every day, with a bottle before her nap, she seems to be giving in and trying it.

But, it really required me not being there as an alternative, AND, regular effort from her other caretaker.

At 6 1/2 months i don't think she was hungry when you left for three hours. She was probably just cranky. What you may need to do is wait for a regular feeding time, leave, and have your husband try the bottle. Basically every day until you leave, and possibly more than once a day. Its really difficult, especially when you are breast feeding still and thats working!

Good news is, kids don't tend to starve when they have food available - they figure it out after a little while.

Also, leave your MIL with a spoon and a feeding syringe, just in case the bottle is really a no-go for a while.

- I had the misfortune to apruptly interrupt my 8 month old duaghters' nursing 35 years ago ( auto accident) - and my poor mother finally got the baby to take milk from a spoon. An open cup was good for another Mom in a similar situation- and believe it or not- your baby may know better than you think that although you left for several hours- that you were available --- she may understand or intuitively '''feel''' when you leave that you are out of range- . I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

( 36 years ago - the medical establishment was so anti-nursing that the doctor in the hosp. told me as a ''''''fact''' that I'd not be able to nurse my baby since I'd be away from her for several days --it was horsefeathers- I was gone for 4 days and we were able to resume her nursing with no trouble whatsoever)

Blessings,
Old Mom
aka- J.

She will take it if shes hungry, she will not starve herself!
I was a nanny to a breastfed baby, and it took 2 days of me offering the bottle quite often and kinda just squeezin a bit in her mouth so she realized it was her normal nummy milk! But she would take forumula easier out of a bottle.

Oddly enough, even though we continued to nurse for several months after starting bottles, it WAS formula and formula only that my son would take from a bottle. He wouldn't TOUCH breast milk in a bottle, no matter how hungry he got. Didn't matter what kind of bottle, nipple, temp, etc. But formula he'd do in a heartbeat.

Still puzzled over that one,
Z.