My 4 month old will not take a bottle any more. We supplemented with her b/c of jaundice and low birth weight until about 2 mths old. Once she was doing great with gaining weight I didn't bother with a bottle. Now I would like to be able to leave her at the nursery during church and during bible studies. I would also like to start taking her to the mom's day out I have available to me but I'm afraid she won't make it. I have started to pump and I'm hoping to get her to take a bottle but I'm at a bit of a lose as to how. I never had this issue with my first two.
My ten month old never took a bottle but my lactaction consultant told me to introduce a soft top sippy cup with breast milk on ice! It actually worked and she skipped a bottle completely!
You may just have to try different bottle types and let someone else start giving them to her. Good luck.
FIrst off - don't go crazy! I had the same thing with my daughter. We only used a bottle for 4 days during our jaundice. She was breastfeeding great but I decided to only give formula and pump during that time b/c she kept having higher numbers and I was worried. Anyway, she took those bottles fine - the avent ones. Then we only breastfed. I was home and so it was just easier to feed her than to hassle with all the other stuff. When I tried at six months for a bottle again, she would have none of it. I actually had heard of a sippy cup but she REALLY seemed to hate that. I used the playtex nurser bottles with the big, brown nipple. I also had someone else give her the bottle, not me. I just nursed. I also tried to be out of the room when she was given the bottle. It took about 3 - 4 weeks of trying "now and then" before she would take it. BUT....it finally worked. Hang in there!
You just never know how one will be compared to the other. Finally when you think you might have something figured out, they throw you for a loop! As finicky as my daughter was about taking a bottle, she was COMPLETELY fine the day I gave her straight formula just to see what would happen. I was returning to work, she was biting a lot and breastfeeding just wasn't working anymore - she was 10 months old. Go figure.
Keep her w/ you while doing Bible studies.
best, k
Hi C.,
Why bother with bottles? Introduce a sippy cup. They make them with soft spouts. AVENT has bottles that have soft spouts. I'm sure there are others out there but I used the AVENT system and transitioned from nipple to soft spout at 6 months. I had a similar problem with my third child that you described with your baby. My baby had a weak suck and was unable to suck strong enough to gain weight with breastfeeding alone so I had to supplement and that meant using bottles. I did not have any problems with my first two children. Ironically, my third child also had jaundice and the nurse did tell me that jaundiced babies have breastfeeding problems and difficulty gaining weight.
