Bottle strike

Nikkipal82

LO took two bottles at four weeks, but I didn't really know you were supposed to keep giving them. When we tried again at ten weeks she refused. We tried different bottles. Different people giving the bottle. She still refuses. It's my first day back at work and she hasn't eaten in over 12hrs. My pedi said she'd be ok even if she refused the whole time I was gone, which she has. Did anyone go through this? What happened? She mentioned spoon/cup/syringe feeding. I work 12+ hr shifts. I hate the thought of her so hungry and upset. Thanks.

emberlee3

I'm so sorry.  That makes going back to work even more stressful.  When I was on ML with DD, I never really left her for more than a few hours.  She always refused a bottle, but we didn't think too much about it.  Then I went back to work, and she refused bottles all day my first day.  My mom was watching her before the nanny started.  What helped was that I slept in a t-shirt and then had my mom drape it over her chest and hold DD like she was BFing.  She did took an ounce here and there that way.  DD preferred the Tommee Tippee bottles--they are very breast-like. 

She got used to the nanny within a week or two, and her intake increased.  But she always had a very strong preference for me to feed her (I switched to FF at 5 months), and she would flat-out refuse from anyone other than me, DH or the nanny.

Amelia4

My LO refused to take a bottle when I went back to work, too.  The t-shirt trick that @emberlee3 mentioned worked for us.  After a few days, K realized he was going to lose the fight and started taking full bottles.  So for us it was a short lived issue.  He preferred breastfeeding directly, but would take a bottle if that was the only option.Different bottles, different temperatures, sippy cup, etc. never worked for us. Just keep trying!

ss265

I have heard that the Playtex drop ins with the brown latex nipples are the "magic" bottle that a lot of babies like. I also recommend Tommy Tippee - DS was finicky with bottles until we switched to those. Otherwise, I feel your pain, just be patient and hopefully LO starts taking bottles soon.

sdlaura

ss265 said:

I have heard that the Playtex drop ins with the brown latex nipples are the "magic" bottle that a lot of babies like. I also recommend Tommy Tippee - DS was finicky with bottles until we switched to those. Otherwise, I feel your pain, just be patient and hopefully LO starts taking bottles soon.

This is the only way we could get DS to take a bottle.  We ordered the brown latex playtex drop-in "nurser" bottles on Amazon.  We also used latex Nuk pacifiers to get him used to sucking on something.  I'm sorry you're dealing with this - I found it to be super stressful when he wouldn't take a bottle!

ebp913

sdlaura said:

ss265 said:

I have heard that the Playtex drop ins with the brown latex nipples are the "magic" bottle that a lot of babies like. I also recommend Tommy Tippee - DS was finicky with bottles until we switched to those. Otherwise, I feel your pain, just be patient and hopefully LO starts taking bottles soon.

This is the only way we could get DS to take a bottle.  We ordered the brown latex playtex drop-in "nurser" bottles on Amazon.  We also used latex Nuk pacifiers to get him used to sucking on something.  I'm sorry you're dealing with this - I found it to be super stressful when he wouldn't take a bottle!

Us too. We loved the Playtex ones but we used the silicone nipples.  

MickeyM04

Sounds like our day yesterday.  They asked me to bring something that I wore or that smelled like me, so last night I slept with one of her blankets and then brought that in today.  Fingers crossed!  (Ironically, she was taking bottles from DH up to the day before her first day of daycare yesterday.  Then yesterday, no dice.  Sigh.)