Please help my baby take a bottle!!!!

amother

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 12:27 am

This is not my first baby. This isn't even my first baby who wouldn't take a bottle no matter how hard I tried. But this is the first baby that I think I'm going to go insane if I can't get away for a few hours without him! I'm going crazy.

Please tell me how I can force him to take a bottle. I've tried so many different kinds of bottles, and I've tried them all with expressed milk, and I've tried having other people give it to him, and he won't ever take it. He doesn't even try to suck on the bottle and gets upset when the milk drips into his mouth. Please tell me what to do. I'm at the point where I feel like I just want to leave for a day and then he'll have no choice but to take the bottle if he wants to eat, but I don't think I could bring myself to torture him that way.

He's 6 months old. He's giving me a hard time with solids too, so that isn't an option yet. Please give me any advice!

RachelEve14

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 1:07 am

If you need to get away for a few hours at 6 months, you can feed him right before and right after. A few hours he'll be fine.

Rena wouldn't take a bottle, she did take the avent sippy though. First I took out the leak proof valve and basically dripped the milk into her mouth. Once she was happily taking that I was able to put hte valve back in so there was no mess everywhere.

Warning do NOT buy the soft spout if he's already teething, it will get holes. I used the regular hard one from about 4 - 5 months and she did fine with it.

amother

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 8:13 am

I tried those bottles, except for the adiri, and none of them worked. I don't think it's even worthwhile to buy more bottles. He doesn't even suck on any of them. It's not like he tries and has a hard time. He'll just chew on the nipple until milk drips into his mouth and then he'll get upset/angry. He's been like that since he was a few weeks old. He also never really took a pacifier.

I've already tried a sippy cup, and he gets upset with that too. I have a straw cup that I used to teach all of my kids to drink from a cup, but he gets upset as soon as the liquid goes in his mouth. It's the same thing with solids. He cries/whines when I get the food in his mouth.

(And by needing to leave for a few hours, I meant more like 5 or 6. He eats around every 3 hours, which gives me less than that amount of time to go anywhere!) It's not that I want to neglect him, but I would just love to even go out on a date with my dh, where I'm not racing the clock! I have to figure out a way to make him take another source of food!

anonymrs

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 8:30 am

amother wrote:

I am soo dealing with the same situation and my dd is 10 months old!! It is extremely frustrating, exhausting, and sometimes claustrophobic. If you want to pm me, I would love to commiserate with you!

IloveHashem613

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 1:34 pm

amother wrote:

Maybe have someone else give him the bottle or sippy cup or solids, someone besides for you. He knows you and he associates you with nursing so when he is with you, he only wants to nurse. But with someone else he may be more willing to try something new...

5*Mom

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 1:41 pm

I recognize well that feeling of desperation, of needing to get out without the baby, without looking at the clock. It is a real need. But to be honest, it doesn't sound like your baby is going to accept a substitute right now.

I've had this with some of my kids. Many of them have sensory issues; this could be a factor. Or this could simply be part of his temperament. Whichever it is, I think you should save your energy and not set yourself up for continued frustration by trying a new bottle du jour. As hard as this may be for you, I think you'd be doing yourself a favor if you just accepted that this is the way it is right now and you'll snatch the 2.5 hours in between feedings whenever you can. It's better than nothing.

This won't last forever. It passes so fast!

Jewishmofm

Sun, Nov 20 2011, 11:58 pm

#1: skip the bottle - use either a medicine dropper or a cup
#2: have someone else feed the baby on a REGULAR basis (ie one specific feed a day is not your responsibility)
#2: baby will not starve in 5-6 hours. leave baby with reliable sitter and cup/dropper. if baby eats great, if not just have sitter soothe baby other ways (swing,carrying,pacifier)
I used to babysit for such a baby, and these suggestions came from pediatrician. after 2-3 weeks, baby got the point, got hungry and went for the cup. until then she was happy and calm and gurgling, so I just played with or held her. (sometimes we resorted to the swing as I had other babies too)

Hatzlacha!

anuta

Mon, Nov 21 2011, 12:49 am

amother wrote:

My third baby is like that. And I had to work outside the house. She would not eat anything for 10 hours that I was away at work some days. Some days, she would be forced to drink maybe 4 ounces total during those 10 hours. It didn't get better with time, it got worse. I returned to work when she was 3 months old. When she started solids she wouldn't eat them so well either, but at least she would eat something... sometimes. She is 16 months old now, and I still nurse her at night. She doesn't drink milk, nor formula, nor expressed milk. Not from a bottle, we don't even try, not from a sippy cup, not from a straw, not from a regular cup. She does drink water from a straw cup and from a regular cup.

My first two children had difficulty accepting a bottle also. When I had to go back to work, my first child went hungry for one day, then took the bottle. My second child stopped taking the bottle just before my return to work, than wouldn't take it for over a month when I was at work... he was fed by a dropper and spoon during 10 hours I was away, but mostly got his milk at night from me. Then he took the bottle. This third baby is the worst. She doesn't drink milk (except from me), and she doesn't eat well either.

I wish I didn't have to work, so I could nurse my baby during the day instead of her being semi-hungry all the time.

I think you can accept at this point that maybe the bottle will never work for him, and feed him before and after, and try offering him water from a straw or sippy or a dropper or a regular cup when you are away, so he is hydrated. But keep offering the bottle, maybe with time he'll accept it.