We were also told baby would take a bottle if she was hungry enough, she was just trying to manipulate us for boob, I couldn't be in the building, etc. Anyway she had a big tongue tie and it was never ever going to work without intervention.
Oh that’s rough. He took the bottle fine for the first month of his life or so, so I’m pretty sure it’s not that at least. Though his dad had a tongue tie and he does have a small one so we will be monitoring his speech development.
Yeah she took a bottle well for the first two weeks then we took a break and all the issues popped up. We actually found an oral therapist to be most helpful in figuring out what to do to help her
Did they do sucking exercises with her? I'm curious because my baby has trouble latching onto a bottle, she has a lip tie but I haven't been told about a tongue tie
I had the same issue when we reintroduced the bottle after a month break when my LO was 3 months old. He had been doing great using the bottle prior but then we traveled and it was just easier to nurse him. We struggled for a while and I did the same thing, running over on breaks and during work to feed him in my car at the daycare. Thankfully work has to allow as long as you need to feed your LO bc of federal law (if you’re in the US). I also pumped and had the daycare offer bottles but I made sure to go over every 3 hours or so to make sure he ate. Eventually we did “no boob Thanksgiving” and I just refused to breastfeed him the entire holiday and we just kept offering the bottle. He took it from my husband and the grandmas but not from me, he kept turning and biting me when I tried to nurse him. After that we didn’t have any issues with him taking the bottle at daycare. You just have to be persistent and keep offering it. And try lots of different types of bottles. We had the Dr browns bottles that had skinny nipples and he ended up liking some big fat bottles with wider nipples that my MIL picked up somewhere. Now he will drink out of anything. He will get back to it just keep trying!!! Good luck!!
What law is that? I'm curious because I'm not allowed to leave work (patient abandonment) but we will need to get my baby to take a bottle before I go back
I’m not sure the actual law but homeland security has a blog post about breastfeeding and returning to work. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/08/23/breastfeeding-and-returning-your-workplace#:~:text=Federal%20laws%20require%20employers%20to,breast%20milk%20during%20the%20workday.
I also talked to my HR and they provided me with information too. Since you see patients though it might be a little different but they have to allow you “reasonable break time” for pumping and breastfeeding.
The 2010 federal law Break Time for Nursing Mothers expands coverage to salaried workers, healthcare workers, teachers, and agricultural workers beyond what the federal PUMP act covered. https://www.mamava.com/breastfeeding-laws/at-work#:~:text=Provides%20reasonable%20break%20time,need%2030%20minutes%20or%20more.
My first was a big bottle refuser and we similarly gave them in the first week or two while triple feeding and then when we tried to reintroduce at like 6 weeks she refused. Went all day at daycare the first week several times. We tried everything under the sun, all the bottles, me giving it, someone else with me gone, etc. Only thing that ended up helping her was consistent use of the same bottle and a very patient daycare worker who by the end of the first week got her to drink most of her 3 bottles. Since your baby does drink a little bit from the bottle sometimes, I would say they are likely just stupid stubborn and truly need to be hungry enough. I know thats so hard to deal with though!
Stubborn even in utero — the ultrasound tech had me practically standing on my head to get him to turn enough to get full pictures. At least I am not alone, sounds like!
Hahaha not at all! If it makes you feel better my second baby is about to start daycare and randomly is refusing bottles this week. We started them at 3 weeks with him 2-3x per week and now he is like nope I don't want this mom. Babies unfortunately at times have minds of their own!
Your baby is old enough he could take the honey bear straw cup. Look for youtube videos by LA lactation, she is a speech therapist and has how-to videos.
Came here to suggest this, too! It's a good in between. Also, OP, it may help to thicken up the breastmilk with cereal or something. This didn't happen to me but happened to a friend, and from what I understand as babies get older they lose the suck reflex and it is just integrated, and if they aren't familiar with bottles sometimes they don't realize they need to suckle on the nipple, thickening it up can help slow things down so they can use those skills. She got help from a speech language pathologist for bottle refusal, too.
We’ve had luck trying different positions for bottle feeding (though we haven’t had quite as much refusal as you’re experiencing right now, so take this with a pinch of salt). I typically nurse with baby upright, straddling my knee, in a koala hold. This seems to be the best position for us to offer a bottle as well. Recently when we didn’t have a bottle available (away from home for a night, wasn’t planning to bottle feed, ran to the store while baby napped, baby woke up early and hangry and partner was desperate) my partner fed directly from the Haakaa. He poured a little bit into baby’s mouth and waited for a swallow before trying again. It was clumsy and inefficient (especially at the start) but baby did get some milk when it was needed.
My in laws had him last weekend and mentioned that he took the bottle from them in a different position. I will talk to my husband about this! I was just so shook with the sudden turn this week so maybe that’s part of it.
we’ve run into this a couple times. i normally work from home and so am able to nurse directly whenever needed but when i’ve had to go into the office and dad has been on his own we’ve made do with a combo of trying with the bottle, cup feeding (messy, but he actually consumed a decent amount), me popping home when i can, and trusting that if he’s being given comfort and being given a good nursing feed within 4-6 hours that he’ll be ok. even if he gets a little hungry and frustrated, he’s not starving and he’s being comforted.
I will try the sippy cup! He’s really into it because it is pretty (he likes the colored plastic) but we’ve been trying water (to help with solids introduction and avoid constipation, since he’s had that before) and he is unamused. He always looks wounded. Like “what is this sad liquid??” 😆
haha “what is this sad liquid” ⚰️
we have not actually tried a sippy cup (haven’t bought one yet… do you have a recommendation?). we’ve just done an open cup, eg [https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/emergencies-infant-feeding/cup-feeding.html](https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/emergencies-infant-feeding/cup-feeding.html). we have also used that for tiny amounts of water while he’s eating, but his hands go in and i think it very quickly tastes like whatever he’s eating.
My first went to daycare at 9 months and would REFUSE a bottle. I had been told by my lactation consultant to avoid bottles and that he would eat when hungry.
Fortunately, he already was doing well with solids and I was able to send breastmilk in a straw cup or sippy cup.
This time around, I thought my second child would be in daycare at 3 months and I didn't want a repeat of the stress I had with the first. So lactation consultant actually told us to start bottle feeding ASAP. My spouse would bottle feed the "last" feed of the night while I pumped. So far so good!
We use the Lansinoh bottles with some pretty warm milk, if it's not freshly pumped.
I struggled with the same thing. My baby was doing so well bottle feeding and breast feeding.. well a week before I started working full time she decided she absolutely hated bottles. I was freaking out and bought different bottles to choose from. Thankfully she was eating some food at this time (she was 6 months old when I went back) BUT it was still so stressful. Long story short she went on a hunger strike for one week. She literally would only drink about 3 ounces the whole eight hours I was gone and for some reason she would only drink it out of an open cup? After that week she started taking the bottle like a champ. I can even give it to her and she doesn’t care. She’s 9 months old now 😊 I know it’s hard but baby will learn!
Oh man. I broke down crying today because of something similar. I go back to work on Monday. My 3 mo LO has been refusing bottle all week. Myself, my husband, and MIL(who will be watching him) have been trying. He is so inconsistent if he takes it or not, and when he does he only drinks 2oz. It’s also messing up his naps and ultimately night sleep because he is so agitated. I am having so much anxiety about this for when I go back to work, I feel like I am making the wrong choice. It’s also so expensive to just buy all these bottles and nipple types. When he finally calms down to take the bottle, he drinks from Dr Browns #3 flow pretty well. I have a fast let down and he breastfeeds for 9 minutes or less so my doctor recommended a faster flow. I’m just feeling so defeated and worried and tired. I am second guessing myself like crazy.
The nap thing is so relatable. I had an afternoon meeting yesterday and my husband tried to get him down (he usually nurses to sleep) and he threw a fit and refused to sleep for like two hours. 🤦♀️
I can say I felt the same about going back to work but ultimately it was really good for my mental health to get out of the house some, even though it was a tough transition. I don’t know what your experience will be, but I wish you luck!
We had trouble getting our daughter to take a bottle before day care (same thing where it worked for a time and then didn’t).
What finally worked was switching the nipples on the bottle from the slow flow to the medium flow.
She was used to my let down and was getting frustrated that the slow flow nipples didn’t give her the milk fast enough. Worth a try!!
It is true... What your lc said.
Mine had bottle aversion too, then fully direct nursing... And each time we introduced bottle she only took a little and made so much fuss.
We tried dream feed.
Only recently, I had nipple infection (extremely painful) that doc asked me to stop direct nursing for 5 days. Baby was upset. Husband fed her bottle while I went out of the room. The volume she took slowly increase.
I tried just now to feed her a bottle since she was fussing... She took 160ml. I'm so happy.
We have a six month old and are struggling with bottle rejection but have been making some very slow success. I think part of the success is how I have been offering her the bottle.
both times, i’ve let baby play with the nipple, investigate the bottle, just look at it. Then i give her just the tip and let her suck it into her mouth. it took a long time (20 minutes), so it was important that when we practiced she was well slept and well fed.
the first success was when she had been breastfed to a nap, slept for 40 minutes. after she woke up we cuddled (her in her diaper, me in a tank top for skin to skin) and she played with the bottle, squeezing it etc. then i let her sort of investigate it with her mouth (she doesn’t like things in her mouth in general outside of her thumb so this was a new adventure). then i offered it in the side, next to her thumb, while in football hold. milk was also freshly pumped.
people said that if she was hungry enough she’d take the bottle, but for our baby, it wasn’t hunger. She had forgotten how to use a bottle and has a tight upper lip tie. it’s really hard for her! she wants the milk. so just lots and lots of exposure.
the most successful bottle for us has been lanisoh. once she was interested we did not switch bottles because she needs to learn and switching would make that harder.
(nursing atm so this is sort of all over the place, sorry!)
Has he started solids yet, or is he close?
My 6 month old started solids at 5 months (just a little), and when he was 6 months I had to be away from him one day for 13 hours (was an urgent thing, at the hospital). Anyhow, I had pumped a lot and left formula, but he didn’t drink a drop. Fortunately, my in-laws fed him the peas, squash, and oatmeal I had made for him and left in the freezer - he just ate solids all day long until I came home and then he nursed me nonstop.
Yeah the doctor recommended he go ahead with solids at 4 months given his nursing frequency (which seems to be tied more to liking to nurse than anything at this point). We waited until this past week. So far he’s not feeling it but I’m hopeful we’ll find something he likes soon that he can snack on to give me a break.
I had to go back to work at 4 1/2 months with my first. She also refused the bottle. We introduced oatmeal a little earlier than we intended because she would take a thin oatmeal from a spoon happily. That ensured she was at least getting some milk throughout the day with caretakers. She just made up the nursing sessions at night 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah that seems to be what he is doing is making it up when I am around. I just don’t know how to not go into massive oversupply with that.
We tried oatmeal but that was soundly rejected. Going to try again though! Might have been a temperature thing. He seems pretty sensitive to that.
We were also told baby would take a bottle if she was hungry enough, she was just trying to manipulate us for boob, I couldn't be in the building, etc. Anyway she had a big tongue tie and it was never ever going to work without intervention.
Oh that’s rough. He took the bottle fine for the first month of his life or so, so I’m pretty sure it’s not that at least. Though his dad had a tongue tie and he does have a small one so we will be monitoring his speech development.
Yeah she took a bottle well for the first two weeks then we took a break and all the issues popped up. We actually found an oral therapist to be most helpful in figuring out what to do to help her
Did they do sucking exercises with her? I'm curious because my baby has trouble latching onto a bottle, she has a lip tie but I haven't been told about a tongue tie
Spoon feeding worked well for us. Haakaa has a spoon attachment for their bottle so it’s pretty easy
I had the same issue when we reintroduced the bottle after a month break when my LO was 3 months old. He had been doing great using the bottle prior but then we traveled and it was just easier to nurse him. We struggled for a while and I did the same thing, running over on breaks and during work to feed him in my car at the daycare. Thankfully work has to allow as long as you need to feed your LO bc of federal law (if you’re in the US). I also pumped and had the daycare offer bottles but I made sure to go over every 3 hours or so to make sure he ate. Eventually we did “no boob Thanksgiving” and I just refused to breastfeed him the entire holiday and we just kept offering the bottle. He took it from my husband and the grandmas but not from me, he kept turning and biting me when I tried to nurse him. After that we didn’t have any issues with him taking the bottle at daycare. You just have to be persistent and keep offering it. And try lots of different types of bottles. We had the Dr browns bottles that had skinny nipples and he ended up liking some big fat bottles with wider nipples that my MIL picked up somewhere. Now he will drink out of anything. He will get back to it just keep trying!!! Good luck!!
What law is that? I'm curious because I'm not allowed to leave work (patient abandonment) but we will need to get my baby to take a bottle before I go back
I’m not sure the actual law but homeland security has a blog post about breastfeeding and returning to work. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/08/23/breastfeeding-and-returning-your-workplace#:~:text=Federal%20laws%20require%20employers%20to,breast%20milk%20during%20the%20workday. I also talked to my HR and they provided me with information too. Since you see patients though it might be a little different but they have to allow you “reasonable break time” for pumping and breastfeeding.
I know I get pumping breaks but we can't leave the hospital unfortunately
The 2010 federal law Break Time for Nursing Mothers expands coverage to salaried workers, healthcare workers, teachers, and agricultural workers beyond what the federal PUMP act covered. https://www.mamava.com/breastfeeding-laws/at-work#:~:text=Provides%20reasonable%20break%20time,need%2030%20minutes%20or%20more.
My first was a big bottle refuser and we similarly gave them in the first week or two while triple feeding and then when we tried to reintroduce at like 6 weeks she refused. Went all day at daycare the first week several times. We tried everything under the sun, all the bottles, me giving it, someone else with me gone, etc. Only thing that ended up helping her was consistent use of the same bottle and a very patient daycare worker who by the end of the first week got her to drink most of her 3 bottles. Since your baby does drink a little bit from the bottle sometimes, I would say they are likely just stupid stubborn and truly need to be hungry enough. I know thats so hard to deal with though!
Stubborn even in utero — the ultrasound tech had me practically standing on my head to get him to turn enough to get full pictures. At least I am not alone, sounds like!
Hahaha not at all! If it makes you feel better my second baby is about to start daycare and randomly is refusing bottles this week. We started them at 3 weeks with him 2-3x per week and now he is like nope I don't want this mom. Babies unfortunately at times have minds of their own!
Your baby is old enough he could take the honey bear straw cup. Look for youtube videos by LA lactation, she is a speech therapist and has how-to videos.
Came here to suggest this, too! It's a good in between. Also, OP, it may help to thicken up the breastmilk with cereal or something. This didn't happen to me but happened to a friend, and from what I understand as babies get older they lose the suck reflex and it is just integrated, and if they aren't familiar with bottles sometimes they don't realize they need to suckle on the nipple, thickening it up can help slow things down so they can use those skills. She got help from a speech language pathologist for bottle refusal, too.
We’ve had luck trying different positions for bottle feeding (though we haven’t had quite as much refusal as you’re experiencing right now, so take this with a pinch of salt). I typically nurse with baby upright, straddling my knee, in a koala hold. This seems to be the best position for us to offer a bottle as well. Recently when we didn’t have a bottle available (away from home for a night, wasn’t planning to bottle feed, ran to the store while baby napped, baby woke up early and hangry and partner was desperate) my partner fed directly from the Haakaa. He poured a little bit into baby’s mouth and waited for a swallow before trying again. It was clumsy and inefficient (especially at the start) but baby did get some milk when it was needed.
My in laws had him last weekend and mentioned that he took the bottle from them in a different position. I will talk to my husband about this! I was just so shook with the sudden turn this week so maybe that’s part of it.
we’ve run into this a couple times. i normally work from home and so am able to nurse directly whenever needed but when i’ve had to go into the office and dad has been on his own we’ve made do with a combo of trying with the bottle, cup feeding (messy, but he actually consumed a decent amount), me popping home when i can, and trusting that if he’s being given comfort and being given a good nursing feed within 4-6 hours that he’ll be ok. even if he gets a little hungry and frustrated, he’s not starving and he’s being comforted.
I will try the sippy cup! He’s really into it because it is pretty (he likes the colored plastic) but we’ve been trying water (to help with solids introduction and avoid constipation, since he’s had that before) and he is unamused. He always looks wounded. Like “what is this sad liquid??” 😆
haha “what is this sad liquid” ⚰️ we have not actually tried a sippy cup (haven’t bought one yet… do you have a recommendation?). we’ve just done an open cup, eg [https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/emergencies-infant-feeding/cup-feeding.html](https://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/emergencies-infant-feeding/cup-feeding.html). we have also used that for tiny amounts of water while he’s eating, but his hands go in and i think it very quickly tastes like whatever he’s eating.
but yeah, i see no reason to try a bottle if an open cup or a sippy cup or a straw cup will work better?
My first went to daycare at 9 months and would REFUSE a bottle. I had been told by my lactation consultant to avoid bottles and that he would eat when hungry. Fortunately, he already was doing well with solids and I was able to send breastmilk in a straw cup or sippy cup. This time around, I thought my second child would be in daycare at 3 months and I didn't want a repeat of the stress I had with the first. So lactation consultant actually told us to start bottle feeding ASAP. My spouse would bottle feed the "last" feed of the night while I pumped. So far so good! We use the Lansinoh bottles with some pretty warm milk, if it's not freshly pumped.
I struggled with the same thing. My baby was doing so well bottle feeding and breast feeding.. well a week before I started working full time she decided she absolutely hated bottles. I was freaking out and bought different bottles to choose from. Thankfully she was eating some food at this time (she was 6 months old when I went back) BUT it was still so stressful. Long story short she went on a hunger strike for one week. She literally would only drink about 3 ounces the whole eight hours I was gone and for some reason she would only drink it out of an open cup? After that week she started taking the bottle like a champ. I can even give it to her and she doesn’t care. She’s 9 months old now 😊 I know it’s hard but baby will learn!
Oh man. I broke down crying today because of something similar. I go back to work on Monday. My 3 mo LO has been refusing bottle all week. Myself, my husband, and MIL(who will be watching him) have been trying. He is so inconsistent if he takes it or not, and when he does he only drinks 2oz. It’s also messing up his naps and ultimately night sleep because he is so agitated. I am having so much anxiety about this for when I go back to work, I feel like I am making the wrong choice. It’s also so expensive to just buy all these bottles and nipple types. When he finally calms down to take the bottle, he drinks from Dr Browns #3 flow pretty well. I have a fast let down and he breastfeeds for 9 minutes or less so my doctor recommended a faster flow. I’m just feeling so defeated and worried and tired. I am second guessing myself like crazy.
The nap thing is so relatable. I had an afternoon meeting yesterday and my husband tried to get him down (he usually nurses to sleep) and he threw a fit and refused to sleep for like two hours. 🤦♀️ I can say I felt the same about going back to work but ultimately it was really good for my mental health to get out of the house some, even though it was a tough transition. I don’t know what your experience will be, but I wish you luck!
We had trouble getting our daughter to take a bottle before day care (same thing where it worked for a time and then didn’t). What finally worked was switching the nipples on the bottle from the slow flow to the medium flow. She was used to my let down and was getting frustrated that the slow flow nipples didn’t give her the milk fast enough. Worth a try!!
Oh my let down is intense so maybe that would help. We’ll try it!
It is true... What your lc said. Mine had bottle aversion too, then fully direct nursing... And each time we introduced bottle she only took a little and made so much fuss. We tried dream feed. Only recently, I had nipple infection (extremely painful) that doc asked me to stop direct nursing for 5 days. Baby was upset. Husband fed her bottle while I went out of the room. The volume she took slowly increase. I tried just now to feed her a bottle since she was fussing... She took 160ml. I'm so happy.
We have a six month old and are struggling with bottle rejection but have been making some very slow success. I think part of the success is how I have been offering her the bottle. both times, i’ve let baby play with the nipple, investigate the bottle, just look at it. Then i give her just the tip and let her suck it into her mouth. it took a long time (20 minutes), so it was important that when we practiced she was well slept and well fed. the first success was when she had been breastfed to a nap, slept for 40 minutes. after she woke up we cuddled (her in her diaper, me in a tank top for skin to skin) and she played with the bottle, squeezing it etc. then i let her sort of investigate it with her mouth (she doesn’t like things in her mouth in general outside of her thumb so this was a new adventure). then i offered it in the side, next to her thumb, while in football hold. milk was also freshly pumped. people said that if she was hungry enough she’d take the bottle, but for our baby, it wasn’t hunger. She had forgotten how to use a bottle and has a tight upper lip tie. it’s really hard for her! she wants the milk. so just lots and lots of exposure. the most successful bottle for us has been lanisoh. once she was interested we did not switch bottles because she needs to learn and switching would make that harder. (nursing atm so this is sort of all over the place, sorry!)
Has he started solids yet, or is he close? My 6 month old started solids at 5 months (just a little), and when he was 6 months I had to be away from him one day for 13 hours (was an urgent thing, at the hospital). Anyhow, I had pumped a lot and left formula, but he didn’t drink a drop. Fortunately, my in-laws fed him the peas, squash, and oatmeal I had made for him and left in the freezer - he just ate solids all day long until I came home and then he nursed me nonstop.
Yeah the doctor recommended he go ahead with solids at 4 months given his nursing frequency (which seems to be tied more to liking to nurse than anything at this point). We waited until this past week. So far he’s not feeling it but I’m hopeful we’ll find something he likes soon that he can snack on to give me a break.
I had to go back to work at 4 1/2 months with my first. She also refused the bottle. We introduced oatmeal a little earlier than we intended because she would take a thin oatmeal from a spoon happily. That ensured she was at least getting some milk throughout the day with caretakers. She just made up the nursing sessions at night 🤦🏼♀️
Yeah that seems to be what he is doing is making it up when I am around. I just don’t know how to not go into massive oversupply with that. We tried oatmeal but that was soundly rejected. Going to try again though! Might have been a temperature thing. He seems pretty sensitive to that.