NCDR: bottles

bumpuser9353653

For those who EBF and had to incorporate a bottle into your LO's routine, did you have trouble at all?

It took forever for Raegan to take one before and now Alex is the same way. Dr. Brown's, breastflow, mimijumi, Medela ... She hasn't taken to any of them.

We waited until 6 weeks to introduce it, but didn't try very hard. But now I'm concerned about what will happen when I go back to work in a couple weeks because she still refuses to take one.

Are my kids freaks for hating and not taking to bottles? Everyone I talk to had no issues with their kids, so I'm at a loss.

JEPES1348

I think this goes without saying, but we had to find the right nipples, rather than bottles. LO was bottle fed BM in the hospital for a month, and ate from bottles more overall than she ever did from the breast. As such, we finally figured it out (after consulting with the Preemie board), that P like the standard size nipple, rather than the wide-base nipple, which is, I guess, easier for LOs transitioning from breast to bottle. Now that I have collars that fit standard flow nipples, we use Dr Brown's and Playtex standards nipples on Medela and Ameda bottles.

ComeMai

We had luck with Tommee Tippee. I had to find the right nipple & the right flow for the nipple.

sarenu1

Our issue was tempature. He has to have it super warm, if it's not warm he refuses it. So play with the tempature a bit.

km_md

We are still struggling with this too. DD won't eat if I have to leave her for some reason, and it's very stressful. I've been continuing to try and give her the bottle in hopes that she will eventually take it. Yesterday she took 2.5 ounces, which is the most she's ever drank. I try it every day when she is in a good mood and do it as long as she is happy. We've tried a ton of different bottles and nipples but the girl just prefers the boob!

I hope you can find something that woks soon!

BoothBaby

DS got pumped milk in a bottle fairly often early on (from around 2 to 7 weeks), and had no issues with it. Then he fed straight from the boob exclusively for a while. Around 3 months, we tried giving a bottle again, and he refused it. Poor guy would just scream when we tried to put it in his mouth.

I read a blurb online that talked about how babies are rejecting the bottle altogether, it isn't necessarily the type of nipple or whatever. So we just stuck with what we had (a mix of Dr. Brown's, Medela, and Avent). It took a while, but eventually he took the bottle from me. The trick at the time was that I stood holding him and swayed/bounced to soothe him, then gave the bottle while doing that. Just guessing that maybe it made him feel more comfortable/secure, so he was more accepting of the bottle?

After that, he took a bottle with no issues, from anyone. We made sure to give him one a few times a week to make sure he stayed familiar with it. Now I use one several times a day to supplement extra BM.

freezorburn

We never really succeeded at bottle training. We tried a bunch of different brands, probably had the best luck with Tommee Tippee. We tried warm and cold BM. 

I think we just had too much upheaval going on in the early months to do it successfully. Lots of trouble establishing BF, dealing with tongue-tie, DH traveling back and forth to the new job, international move, etc. I've heard that some people really need to provide a consistent environment to bottle train, and in many cases the mother needs to be outside of baby's radar before they'll take a bottle (from someone else). We weren't able to do either of those things.

bumpuser9353653

I'm really tempted to try a couple more brands like playtex, nuk, or tommy tippy, but DH is convinced Dr. Brown's is the answer simply because that's what worked for Raegan. :: rolls eyes::

@Mapleme‌ - when she refuses it's like this hangry cry paired with "get this out of my mouth." She gets so worked up, will swallow a little gulp that gets in her mouth, and then passes back out from exhaustion. She almost has a look of disgust when the nipple is in her mouth.

km_md

@Mapleme‌ DD will refuse to put her mouth on the nipple or refuse to suck or turn her head away or cry lol she has a lot of tricks for refusing

TJ1979

We finally got P to take an ounce yesterday from an avent bottle. The nanny got her sucking on a soothie (which is a feat in itself) then switched over to a bottle. P also refused doing the HANGRY cry and choking on any drops that made it into her mouth.

kmc84

We never had luck with a bottle. At 3 months we had success with the Avent sippy labeled for 4+ months.

bumpuser9353653

Ok I just bought some wide base Dr. Brown's nipples so we'll see if that makes a difference. If that doesn't work, I may have to look at a different bottle.

flummadiddle85

kmc84 said:

We never had luck with a bottle. At 3 months we had success with the Avent sippy labeled for 4+ months.

Kinda this. I tried basically every bottle I could, every tip , trick, variation, etc. We didn't introduce terribly late (between 2-3 weeks I think?), and he was initially fine. Then started refusing. I switched to the MAM nipple, and it improved a bit, but eventually refused that as well. I went and bought a bunch of bottles, and returned them all when he refused (BBB and BRU doesn't say you can't return the used bottled, and I told them they were used). I tried the Avent sippy, and it helped a bit again, but he started refusing that too.... Really, he didn't take much until we started WCM and water in his sippys. It was sometimes stressful to leave him that first year.

Mandmeesh

We never found a bottle M would take. I think he drank from an actual bottle maybe? six times? I had to travel back and forth from work to nurse him (though I was crazy and refused to listen to whoever told me "oh don't worry, he'll eat when he's hungry.")

flummadiddle85

Also, you could look into alternative feeding solutions. Open cup, spoon, medicine dropper/syringe, or that one system that basically hooks a straw up to your boob if you need to supplement or something, but still BF only hooked up to a finger. Sorry... I forget what it's called... SNS maybe?. DH was never terribly fond of any of those ideas since he thought it would be harder for everyone else (you know what's hard on caregivers? A screaming hungry baby) So I didn't have a whole lot of help with that.

bumpuser9353653

So apparently the wide neck Dr.Brown's nipples require a different "natural flow" bottle. Lame. Now I have to go buy one b/ c I already sterilized the nokes and threw out the packaging.

We did get her to take 1/2 an ounce without her freaking out with the regular Dr.Brown's bottle. Progress?