bottle rejection and seperation anxiety

polar0805

What did you do if your DC wouldn't take the bottle.  I've read to try everyday but it's often just me all day and night.  Some nights my DH gets home by 4:30 but has to leave again at 7 so in between that time we're trying to fix dinner and get the kids ready for bed so it's not conducive for him to sit down and try to give luke a bottle.  with Ben, I was back at work by this time so he really had no choice but with Luke I'm staying home and he's become very attached to me and won't take the bottle when I'm gone....which makes it very hard for me to leave him with my mom or mil...I don't want them to have a hard time....the past couple of times I have left him he has screamed...and he's not the screaming type...very happy with me all day long. 

JOEBunny

My DD was like that.  I finally got a bottle she would take, but it took a month of me trying.  She initially would not take the bottle from anyone but me, but after a couple days she would take it for DH.  After many different bottles, she finally took the Platex Drop in with a latex nipple with 3 extra holes punched in it with a sewing needle (my grandmothers suggestion!).

I just took her outside for a little walk at her normal evening feeding time and tried to give her the bottle a few times.  When I got the right bottle she took it right away without screaming. 

Ciarrai

Honestly, I just left them and wished for the best. Neither of my girls took/take a bottle well.  DD#2 will not take it if I'm in the room, house or area in any way.  It took my sitter this summer three tries to get her to take it.  Two days of her screaming and finally falling asleep hungry.  I was only gone 4-5 hours so she wasn't too hungry or anything, but it was the third time before she would take it.  (Our sitter this summer was a teenager.)  Our sitter/daycare lady this fall got her to take a few ounces the first few days but it was over a month of her going twice a week before she would take more than 2-3oz from her and she's still perfectly content with 4-5oz three months later.  DH had the least amount of trouble (she does better with men than women) being at home and all that.  I still had to give him a few different bottles and nipples to try before she took them and even then it would take 30 minutes or longer to eat for the first few tries.  Eventually they do take it - whether the sitter/DH learns how to give it better or DD just gets used to it, I have no idea.  But she eventually will take it.  That said, it's no fun for either of them in the process.  Have you tried leaving the house even just for a walk to let your DH try without being home?  I swear DD#2 always seems to know when I'm home no matter if she can see me or not.  Otherwise, you can always try sippies and other things like that...

marrymemylove

Well thankfully he's too young for real separation anxiety. It sounds like it is just that he doesn't like be separated from the milk supply. Around 8-9 months they work out they're separate from you and they don't like it because you can move.

?My DS totally refused a bottle also. We had the luxury of DH trying it, and also a few other people, made no difference. I think part of it was that for the first 5 months I was home so I was very available. You've probably got that too. So he'd just hold out. Even at 6 months he would rather starve from 9am to 1pm and again until 5pm than take a bottle.?

It made the first year really hellish I hate to tell you. I basically never left him for more than 40 mins at a time except when I tried to go back to work - and the daycare would ring me after an hour and make me come and get him.

Some kids are just hard. I wish I could guarantee a placid easy baby next time - I'd have #2 like shot if I could fix that.?

jdchris

DD took a bottle early on, but after we got good at nursing she would refuse.  It became a big problem because she went back to daycare around 5 months.  I had to go down there and nurse her every few hours, and they supplemented her from a cup (not a bottle).  I have heard to try these other tricks too:

prop DC with a pillow and face them with the bottle

hold them in lap facing outwards and feed with bottle

Good luck!