Baby just chews bottles,doesn't understand she needs to suck

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Infants

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amother

Wed, Jun 07 2023, 6:01 am

My 12 week old does not know what to do with a bottle. She just chews it. We tried a few different kinds/shapes. We tried me giving it and my husband. We tried cold. We tried even just the nipple with a finger in it. We tried the whole bottle with my pumped milk. Any ideas or tips to help her take the bottle? Thanks!

amother

Slategray

Wed, Jun 07 2023, 7:09 am

Try holding her to your bare skin while you feed her. She may need the smell of you to understand that it's time to eat.

(I am assuming you have checked that the hole in the nipple is big enough for milk to get through comfortably.)

Bubbles77

Wed, Jun 07 2023, 8:54 am

You may have already tried them, but I reccomend the lansinoh brand bottles.

amother

Marigold

Wed, Jun 07 2023, 10:07 am

I'm speaking from experience and I hope you can avoid the pain we went through with my dc as a baby. Even though we took dc to many many doctors and therapists, who didn't pick it up.
This Can be a sign of a tongue tie. Even if your baby nurses ok there could be restriction that's limiting baby's ability to suck on a bottle.
Meanwhile, look on Amazon for Dr. Brown's specialty feeding system. Make sure it's the one that says specialty feeding. It looks the same as their other bottle but it works differently. It allows the baby to drink without sucking, it uses compression to make the milk come out of the bottle.
Really, you should get the tongue checked out asap.

amother

Thu, Jun 08 2023, 2:36 pm

Thank you, will try these suggestions/bottles.

We have tried bottles with different size holes, but she seems to need the slowest flow, as she gags very easily when too much comes out.

As for tongue tie, she has been checked by 2 doctors and 4 lactation consultants (3 of whom are nurses, 1 was just a regular ibclc). Ironically, my oldest had tongue tie and lip tie - she took a bottle before we snipped them, but afterwards she refused.

amother

Marigold

Thu, Jun 08 2023, 2:47 pm

amother OP wrote:

I know you said you already checked it out. I just have too reiterate the fact that not all doctors and nurses or lactation consultants are trained to recognize ties. Especially if you have one child who was tied, it's even more likely that you'd have another one. I would still urge you to go to someone with extensive experience recognizing hidden ties.
I can't even tell you how many doctors and lactation consultants checked my dc We put narrowly avoided a feeding tube and we did actually put dc throughh invasive testing. It could have all been avoided if someone had picked up the tie. Everything resolved once it was taken care of.

amother

Sat, Jun 10 2023, 2:57 pm

I really appreciate your concern. However 6 trained professionals have already checked for tongue tie, and yes, I know not every medical person knows how to tell, we have already been down this road with older dd and it took several weeks until we clarified that we needed to treat tongue tie and lip tie. Also my older dd had it as part of a genetic condition, which is not relevant for the current baby, so no reason to suspect this time just because previous kid had it. So again, really thank you for looking out for us, we have checked it out several times over. There is no urgency now for baby to take a bottle, she is nursing and gaining weight like a pro (she doubled her body weight weeks ago), so her inability to take a bottle isn't interfering in her functioning, and I don't have to go back to work for a good few months, so plenty of time to work things out. I am looking for tips now to teach the baby to take the bottle to make our lives easier for those times when I have to go out and it would be better not to take the baby with me (e.g., a dr appt) or to let my husband take a night feeding once in a while so I can catch up on some sleep. Additional tips would be appreciated.

flmommy

Sat, Jun 10 2023, 10:20 pm

If you squeeze out a little milk to help her get excited and know what's coming could that help?

Chana Miriam S

Sat, Jun 10 2023, 10:30 pm

Try cup feeding her.

amother

Amaranthus

Sat, Jun 10 2023, 11:33 pm

I had the same issue but my baby was about four/five months. If he was hungry and I wasn’t around he did take the bottle.
Also now at seven months he can take a bottle.

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