Hello!

hi, I’m after some advice plzz any help would be appreciated..i have a 4 month old bby boy who I’m trying to get to take a bottle as I really need to go back to work but he will not drink from a bottle at all he’s strictly breast fed, I have tried 3 different bottles with different tests, 3 different formulas and even tried adding a few drops of vanilla extract but he just wnt drink it..thank u for any advice


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  • I would get someone else to feed him. It’s a matter of persistence and forming new habits.


  • you just need to keep on trying. At the end of the day, if he’s hungry he’ll eat. Express your milk and then get someone else to feed it to him.


  • Perhaps if someone else gave him the bottle instead of you he might take it. If he can smell milk on you, which he’d prefer, it’s properly why he’s refusing.


  • I couldn’t give bub a bottle if he saw me he was not having it but my husband could. We started with expressed breast milk. They are all different though so just keep trying and something will click.


  • I expressed breast milk and used MAM and Medela bottles. Only ones my little one would take.


  • There are some pretty good responses here. I would try them and see which one works for you best


  • I didn’t breastfeed so can’t offer advice, but I do like the suggestions on this thread.


  • Try breast milk in the bottle first…. or, what worked for me, is having a bottle with breast milk in it, and then one bubba has fed from one side and im moving him to the other instead of latching him on the other side, hes a little milk drunk and was more than happy to drink from the bottle…… yep cheeky but it worked.


  • I am also going through the same phase. I think first thing that u need to find out is: is you baby okey with formula, so try giving him formula with spoon or some other method. Check which formula is best for him because formula can cause constipation to babies. Then check which bottle suits him. My baby is 6 month so I try water or juice in bottle or sippy cup.


  • Is it you trying to give him the bottle? I found my kids would never take a bottle from me while they were also still breastfeeding but would happily take it from someone else, also is it formula or expressed milk because i would start with expressed milk and then move to formula if that is what youre doing.


  • He can probably smell you. Have you tried getting someone else to give it to him, while you leave the house? I know this is hard but sometimes it’s the only way


  • Maybe start with expressing breastmilk and give that via the bottle. It might be wise someone else gives the bottle. Then you could gradually add some formula and increase that slowly. Try to find a teat that mimic’s the breast, also in the way you feed him. This means for example allowing the infant to draw nipple into mouth rather than pushing the nipple into the infant’s mouth, so that baby controls when the feed begins. Stroke baby’s lips from top to bottom with the nipple to illicit a rooting response of a wide open mouth, and then allow the baby to “accept” the nipple rather than poking it in. Also encourage frequent pauses while the baby drinks from the bottle to mimic the breastfeeding mother’s let-down patterns. This discourages the baby from guzzling the bottle and can mitigate nipple confusion or preference.


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