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Rejects bottle at 4.5 mos - what worked for you??

plainandsimpleplainandsimple
in Babies: 6 - 9 Months

DS refuses to take a bottle. I return to work in 2 weeks and his dad will be home with him full-time. Our first child nursed at home and took a bottle of expressed milk at from dad, babysitter or day care with no problem. Here's the background:

- DS had a few bottles at younger ages (like maybe 4-10 weeks old) and drank them, but we got lazy and didn't give him one for awhile and now he refuses.

- I have left the house for 3 hours for DH to try. He cries & waits me out.

- He is NOT a fussy baby at all otherwise, and nurses like a champ

- We have only tried Avent bottles & nipples

- He is drinking expressed milk, warmed up from the freezer

Anyone have ideas that actually worked for them? Certain bottle, certain position, certain distraction, etc? He sleeps through the night and I really don't want him to go on bottle strike all day and wake up all night to make up for it. TIA

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Re: Rejects bottle at 4.5 mos - what worked for you??

  • AsquaredAsquared member

    Playtex drop ins/ sippy cup/ open cup/ spoon feed....  my second wouldn't do a bottle either, but luckily I resigned after that, so it wasn't totally essential- pain in the butt sometimes, but those are some other ideas that may work.

    GL!

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  • DiveFrogDiveFrog member

    I know it is counter to what everyone says...but have YOU tried to give him a bottle? Everyone says have Dad, or caregiver try giving him the bottle, but I have had a few girlfriends who's babies didn't take to the bottle until they offered it. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Your DS has an association with you and food. He hasn't gotten food from anyone else up until this point. Once they got their babies to accept the bottle from them it was easy to have someone else give the bottle.

    I also second trying different bottles and also fresh milk.

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  • alisonann15alisonann15 member
    DD would not take one until the day I went back to work. The first day was hard but by the second day she got the hang of it. The first day I made really small bottles and the second day I made 3 oz. bottles. and she worked up to drinking 6 oz within the month. I use Avent bottles as well. 
    Alison & Britten-Married April 16, 2011 in Miami Beach Farrah Ann arrived May 4, 2012- 6 weeks early! 5 lbs 6 oz. and 19 1/4 inches Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
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  • amandadotamandadot
    Try switching to a sippy with a straw or a learner sippy. DD would only take an Adiri bottle but now that we do sippies, she much prefers them over bottles. 
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
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  • emberlee3emberlee3 member
    DD refused until I was gone for a longer stretch5 or 6 hours. She was only 2.5 months, though. At your LO's age, you could try a sippy cup or solids. My DS had bad reflux, so when he refused to drink, we spoon fed him breastmilk slushies. There are lots of options!
    DS born 8/8/09 and DD born 6/12/12.
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  • traveltheworldtraveltheworld member
    I know it sounds really weird, but try tasting the milk.  I found out that I had high lipase level and that's why DS won't touch it when I went back to work at 4 months (even though he took it frequently when he was younger).  We eventually had to give him formula, and at first, had to feed him via spoon.  Now he is slowly drinking it from a sippy cup.
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  • luphoff05luphoff05
    My doctor told me "I've never had a baby that wouldn't take a bottle". Well mine was apparently the exception! We tried every bottle and nipple you could find. We tried different people, times of day, locations, etc. I called the Dr. asking for help and all they said is "if you wait long enough eventually the baby will take it". I waited 6hrs, 8, 10, even 12hrs at one point....still refused. This is when I felt it was beyond healthy. So we had to go to plan B and start solids (cereal) earlier than we would have liked. Between that and me rushing home for a quick feeding on my lunch break it seems to be working. 

    I'm not telling you this to stress you out...but just to help you feel okay if it doesn't work out with the bottle. I felt like a failure when NOTHING worked and everyone kept telling us "it will work, it always works eventually"...well that just wasn't true for us. So best of luck to you, but don't feel bad if it doesn't work the way you hoped!
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