Bottle Issues

kmhb2010 · May 2012

First, I would like to say how much I love this board...I don't get to post all that often, but I read a lot and this board by far has the most supportive and nicest people. I made the mistake of posting on a different board the other day and felt like I was being told I'm a bad mother.

Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone else's LO won't take a bottle. My DS is EBF and has taken bottles in the past although he's never liked them and it's taken work to get him to latch on and take it, but he would. Well, I had to go back to work on Monday for just this week and he was staying with a good friend. He did nothing but scream every time she tried to feed him and barely ate while I was gone. (Cue the tears and mommy guilt for me!) Everyone told me it was normal for babies to react this way and he still had good diapers, but he was eating constantly at night and sleeping less to eat. Well, today was the student's last half day and he was having a horrible time. I ended up crying in my principal's office and she told me to go home and take care of him and not come back until tomorrow - plus she told me to bring him tomorrow and Friday since we just have work days. (Have I mentioned how much I love her?!?!)

Anyways, I'm sorry this is long but is anyone else having this issue? Now I'm even more terrified to leave him for longer than 3 hours. My pediatrician is wonderful and called tonight and said that I can try a sippy cup around 4 months and both of his sons had this same issue. I just feel like a horrible mom and although I love breastfeeding he's gonna be in daycare in the fall and have to take something. I know things will be different then since he'll be older and we'll probably have started solids but I feel like I should be doing something now. We're waiting at least a week or two to even try a bottle again to give him a break from the negative experience.

Thank you if you got this far. I realize this is probably more of a vent, but we seriously tried everything I could find to try and nothing worked.

preggersINschool25 · May 2012

I'm working on this issue myself. My LO has taken bottles and started to develop a preference to them and now it is a struggle to get him to eat from a bottle. Here's what I'm trying -

I tried a faster nipple. I really think that helped. It's hard to say for sure because he has only gotten two bottle with the faster nipple. He did have to be in more of a sitting position because he was getting milk on his clothes. But my LO prefers to sit. He doesn't like being held like a baby.

The other things we do to get him to take a bottle is keep him calm. If he is crying, he won't eat. So we calm him down with a pacifier and then quickly switch and pop the bottle in his mouth. If it doesn't work the first time, we do it again and again.

Our secret trick (best if you have two people) try to feed him the bottle and in his ear crinkle his crinkle book loudly and for a long time and he gets distracted by the sound and will eat. Anything crinkly works.

jmccall79 · May 2012

I didn't get the luxury of breastfeeding (milk never came in) but we had some "nipple" issues with some bottles, he liked certain ones but had a harder time latching on them. I'd say try a different bottle...Ian really likes the Similac bottles, he can get his lips around the nipples really well. He likes to have 'a lot' in his mouth and these were the easiest ones to allow him to do that. He also likes the Avent and Born Free ones too. The ones we had a hard time with were the Playtex Vent Air. I too suggest a faster flow nipple. From everything I ever read about breastfeeding, while I was pregnant, was that you may have a hard time once they get use to a bottle, because it's "easier" for them and they may not want to nurse after that. Good luck to you and LO.

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