I think my sister in law slowly introduced cows milk by initially mixing her breast milk with a bit of formula milk . She explained to me her 3rd child was just fussy ( esp being a premmie ) from day 1 and like yourself , thought she may have to breast feed till primary ( a joke ) , and it may have been a suggestion from the clinic because the tastes and viscosity of the liquids are very different . I would buy a small can first and see how you go . It did take a bit of time , but if you start early , the baby will adjust well into it sooner than you think .

I’m still having troubles so I’m curious to know how you went with this

I used the Avent bottles when I went back to work. I expressed at work and bought it home. It might be the temperature is too hot (only need to be about 37oC). Good luck

how have you gone with the suggestions?

If he is taking a little bit then stopping it could be that you have the wrong flow teats. Try the medium or fast flow ones if you haven’t yet. I loved the pigeon brand too.

The only bottle my son would take was a Pigeon bottle with a peristaltic teat. Please give this a go if you haven’t already!

Maybe consider giving some solids… Some rice cereal with breast milk to keep bub happy while you are gone

Stick with breast milk If you can. Do a few feeds in a row of bottle, try as long as you can to see if the baby will take it before you give up. It took me a couple of weeks to get mine to be comfortable enough to have it. Formula would be too much of a shock to the system. Have you tried giving part feeds in a syringe? If the baby will take the syringe full of milk they may then be willing to try the bottle. And make sure the milk is at body temp, as your breast milk would be.

i had this problem, but i had just put my girl into daycare and i couldn’t for the life of me express (third baby and yet so different experience as i could with number 2) anyway she had to take it and it went fine, tok ages for her to take it from me though (about 2 months) and now as of a few days ago we are fully weaned from the breast and i can start to look for work too its a hard thing to transition to but be patient it will work

My sister had the same problem with her son, when he was a baby. The only thing that worked was our mum taking him for a weekend, and then he had no choice but to drink from the bottle. As he would flat-out refused if his mum was in the room. But after a while he got too hungry not to have the bottle. By the end of the weekend he was converted Might seem a little harsh, but it was the only thing that worked for him….

Im having the same problem with my nearly 5mth old, we have tried so many different bottles, she will take about 10mls from some but then gets annoyed, I find the only time she will take it is if im actually not there so I have gone out for an hour or two when she is hungry and I know she will eat and she will take most of the bottle, i think persistence and not stressing is the key… good luck its not fun!

Getting them to take the bottle is hard, but when you are at work it all should just fall into place as he will not smell the milk on his grandparents. Make sure you leave every bottle possible, 1 water, 1 milk, 1 juice. He will not starve. it is not in our human nature and don’t have any worries he will end up drinking one of them.
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He will take it if your not there cause he won’t starve himself, both my boys were stubborn, I left my last son at 4 months with my mum on our wedding night only breast fed hated bottles, he took bottle after 20 minutes if screaming but realised that’s all there was so he had no choice, don’t stress over it. He will do it when needed he can just pick up on your stress and worry.

changing baby’s routine can be trying and you go through a
lot of different teats and bottle types until you see a little win but it a lot of just sticking it out and try not to get upset when doing it as baby picks up on so much but it will happen. Ask you Gp for help and they usually have a nurse that you can talk to for help. Even talk to your chemist they are great help

I had the same problem too until I tried the Pigeon mag mag spout cup and Pigeon wide neck bottle. I tried every bottle on the market and my then 3 month old would not have a bar of it, not even a suck. She is now 7 months and I’ve just found the pigeon brand as my lactation nurse recommended them and said mothers with babys that refuse bottles have the greatest success with this brand. I put formula (always been breastfed) in the mag mag spout sippy cup and our girl downed 100mls like crazy! Best of luck to you, I understand what a stressful situation it is. Oh and the formula I used was nestle nan comfort. I’ve heard that most babies like the taste.

I suspect the child is picking up on your separation anxiety.

Make the bottle fun, have you tried a sipper cup with handles (if the child is gripping things) – make it a game (not a chore).

Are you giving the child formula or express feeding – If you are express feeding add some to the formula so that they child gets some of the same familiar tastes they are used to.

Remember the child will eat, it is a matter right now that you are changing their routine. Start with the morning feed as this is the one they want when they wake, it will take a few days to get them used to this change, and then gradually work on each feed until they are ready for solids.

It is a challenging time, but whatever you do, stay strong and make sure you set boundaries and no matter what never ever feel guilty going back to work – children are resilient in the right surroundings and they wont really remember much of their early years.

good luck with it all – you will be fine – we all win the battle eventually

Do it during the day and offer him a bottle and nothing else. if he doesn’t take it, leave it where he can get to it and he might just pick it up and drink from it

Maybe Try A Bottle With Water In It?? Good Luck