Community› The Bump Month Clubs› October 2015 Moms
October 2015 Moms
New Discussion

Bottle feeding nightmares!!!

ameares721ameares721 member
edited December 2015 in October 2015 Moms
During pregnancy everyone gets you so worked up about breastfeeding, but there's no talk about baby struggling with a bottle!

Breastfeeding has been a dream! Even at 31 days early, we had no issues. No latch issues, no supply issues, no discomfort or weight gain problems.

At 4 weeks we introduced a bottle of breastmilk. She took an ounce or so when my husband tried it and then she freaked out. My mother tried when I left the house for a few hours and she drank 4 ounces but pretty much fought it the whole time. We have tried numerous times in the past 8 weeks to no avail.

Today was her first day of daycare at 11 weeks old and she fussed her way through 3 ounces total! I went in to BF her at lunch which I will continue to do when I return to work next week, but she still should have had closer to 7 ounces during the time she was there.

We have tried medela bottles (regular and calma), munchkin, and Dr. Browns. All the same results. She also will not take a pacifier.

She has been to a chiropractor. The pediatrician had no concerns to suggestions. I spoke with a lactation consultant who recommended an ENT practice that has two speech language pathologists on staff who help with bottle feeding and we have an appointment for Thursday. They will also examine for any lip/tongue ties which can be corrected in office same day if needed.

I'm curious if anyone else has had a great breastfeeding experience but then baby struggled with a bottle?! I would love to hear your stories, suggestions, etc. If the ENT practice can't figure it out, I will need to have a backup plan! With my return to work next Monday, I have to know that she won't be starving herself until I pick her up!!!

Thank you so much for reading! Natalie thanks you, too! :)
Report Reply to Post

Re: Bottle feeding nightmares!!!

  • CarrmennCarrmenn member
    Breastfeeding my LO has been absolutely amazing and SO easy . We both were just naturals at it and forever grateful. However, I will be returning to work soon so we decided to practice bottle feeding since he will be left with my MIL. He won't take a bottle from my hubby and worry he won't take it from her either :/ we try a couple times a week and he hates it he spits it out and cries for breast :(
    Report Reply
  • Loading the player...
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    Same boat here. Breastfeeding hasn't been easy, but it's gotten better. So far bottle feeding seems like it will be more difficult. Oi.
    Report Reply
  • swickham7swickham7 member
    My little one will only take evenflo glass bottles when she is switching between bottle and breastfeeding, we went through a couple different ones before we found these that worked for us.
    Report Reply
  • oceanlove13oceanlove13 member
    Same issue with my first. Tried many different bottles and different nipple flows. Have you tried chaning the flow of the nipple? When you go back to work and she is at daycare, she will probably get used to having to drink from the bottle when she gets hungry enough and will gradually increase her intake amount to what you would expect. It may just be a transition time. We had decent luck feeding my son in a bouncer chair. My only theory behind this was the lack of human contact verse when he was being held and fed a bottle he was expecting to nurse making the bottle feeding more of a challenge. I think these transitions are completely normal to go through. Sounds like you are doing the right things.
    Report Reply
  • Livvyloo87Livvyloo87 member
    We had the same issues with LO refusing bottles. What we did was I would start to feed her on the breast and half way through give her the bottle. We were consistent with this and did it once a day everyday and within a week she was fine with the bottle from the start. We don't give a pacifier as didn't want to confuse her too much. I think the key is to keep trying and be consistent - make sure the milk is warm enough and squeeze a little out onto LOs lips/mouth so she knows the milk comes from the teat.
    Report Reply
  • tulegrl14tulegrl14 member
    Nuk bottles have worked wonders for me. My LO would go back and forth between bottle and breast with no nipple confusion
    Report Reply
  • koriemokoriemo member
    A few moms in my breastfeeding group experienced "reverse cycling." The babies hated bottles, so hey ate as little as possible during the day, then nursed all night.
    Report Reply
  • brossi359brossi359 member
    Same issue here! Try sending a little something with you're scent! Also my LO took to the tommy tippie much better than the dr Browns! Once he got used to a bottle he will take any brand now so we stick with tommy and dr browns
    Report Reply
  • J1DJ1D member
    My baby will take any bottle or the breast. He's not picky at all, but I've noticed he dribbles less and doesn't spit up as much with the Lansinoh Momma bottles. We got one as a free sample and I ended up buying a bunch more.
    Report Reply
  • momma2charmomma2char member
    My daughter wouldn't take a bottle at all and would have a complete meltdown until this morning when we tried the Nuk orthodontic bottle.. We pretty much tried every other bottle until this one! It has an angled nipple sort of like the nipple when baby is properly latched. She immediately took it without a fuss and drank almost 4oz (her complete feed) and didn't spit anything up afterwards, I'm super impressed :smile:
    Report Reply
  • momma2charmomma2char member
    Here's a pic of what the nipple on the Nuk looks like :)
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    kirstienlowell said:

    Here's a pic of what the nipple on the Nuk looks like :)

    We just tried that. She liked the shape and tried to suck on it, but it still flows to fast. Her mouth would fill and she would choke on it. I'm hoping I can find something similar that is no flow.
    Report Reply
  • tulegrl14tulegrl14 member
    edited December 2015
    cbolton19 said:

    kirstienlowell said:

    Here's a pic of what the nipple on the Nuk looks like :)

    We just tried that. She liked the shape and tried to suck on it, but it still flows to fast. Her mouth would fill and she would choke on it. I'm hoping I can find something similar that is no flow.
    Did you get the slow flow nipples? All the bottles even the small ones come with medium flow so you have to buy the slow flow separate. Same thing happened with my LO and then got the slow flow and he does much better.
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    tulegrl14 said:

    cbolton19 said:

    kirstienlowell said:

    Here's a pic of what the nipple on the Nuk looks like :)

    We just tried that. She liked the shape and tried to suck on it, but it still flows to fast. Her mouth would fill and she would choke on it. I'm hoping I can find something similar that is no flow.
    Did you get the slow flow nipples? All the bottles even the small ones come with medium flow so you have to buy the slow flow separate. Same thing happened with my LO and then got the slow flow and he does much better.
    Ohhhh. I thought it said slow flow, but maybe not. I'll have to look. I am trying to find some no flow nipples that we can try. Though it seems like the couple I have seen online don't ha e the orthodontic shape.
    Report Reply
  • momma2charmomma2char member
    Ohh I checked and mine was slow flow but I did notice it flows quicker than other slow-flow bottles.. My girl is used to a forceful letdown so maybe she's just used to it coming out quick from the bottle and that's why I couldn't notice! Is there a way you could almost angle the bottle so it doesn't flow as fast? I have no clue if I even make sense or if that's possible. I hope you guys can find something that works soon! :(
    Report Reply
  • tulegrl14tulegrl14 member
    edited December 2015
    cbolton19 said:

    tulegrl14 said:

    cbolton19 said:

    kirstienlowell said:

    Here's a pic of what the nipple on the Nuk looks like :)

    We just tried that. She liked the shape and tried to suck on it, but it still flows to fast. Her mouth would fill and she would choke on it. I'm hoping I can find something similar that is no flow.
    Did you get the slow flow nipples? All the bottles even the small ones come with medium flow so you have to buy the slow flow separate. Same thing happened with my LO and then got the slow flow and he does much better.
    Ohhhh. I thought it said slow flow, but maybe not. I'll have to look. I am trying to find some no flow nipples that we can try. Though it seems like the couple I have seen online don't ha e the orthodontic shape.
    I don't think they make a no flow nipple for the nuk but if your look at the medium flow nipples that come standard with the bottle say 0+ month so stores often mislead that they are slow flow, but they do sell a separate nipple that is slower than that, it does leak out when tipped but at a much slower rate than the other.
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    @kirstienlowell Yeah, I tried tipping it a few different ways. I think I have a forceful letdown too, but I have been expressing or pumping a little before I feed her (if I'm too full) because we were having the same issue with nursing as well. She would choke and gulp when I let down. It's taken us a while to get nursing down. I assume it will take a bit with the bottle too. Thank you! I hope we do too.

    @tulegrl14 I will have to look for that. That is annoying. The one we have drips pretty fast. There are so many bottles/nipples. From my research too even slow flow (between different brands) can have a huge variation in the actual amount as well. I may try the Madela calma and see if she does better with that, but I think she likes the shape of the nuk better. I guess it's all trial and error.
    Report Reply
  • tulegrl14tulegrl14 member
    edited December 2015
    cbolton19 said:

    @kirstienlowell Yeah, I tried tipping it a few different ways. I think I have a forceful letdown too, but I have been expressing or pumping a little before I feed her (if I'm too full) because we were having the same issue with nursing as well. She would choke and gulp when I let down. It's taken us a while to get nursing down. I assume it will take a bit with the bottle too. Thank you! I hope we do too.

    @tulegrl14 I will have to look for that. That is annoying. The one we have drips pretty fast. There are so many bottles/nipples. From my research too even slow flow (between different brands) can have a huge variation in the actual amount as well. I may try the Madela calma and see if she does better with that, but I think she likes the shape of the nuk better. I guess it's all trial and error.

    If you haven't tried Tommie Tippee closer to nature, I think they have a no flow nipple for there bottle. I heard good things about medela calma, they just have a hefty price.
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    tulegrl14 said:

    cbolton19 said:

    @kirstienlowell Yeah, I tried tipping it a few different ways. I think I have a forceful letdown too, but I have been expressing or pumping a little before I feed her (if I'm too full) because we were having the same issue with nursing as well. She would choke and gulp when I let down. It's taken us a while to get nursing down. I assume it will take a bit with the bottle too. Thank you! I hope we do too.

    @tulegrl14 I will have to look for that. That is annoying. The one we have drips pretty fast. There are so many bottles/nipples. From my research too even slow flow (between different brands) can have a huge variation in the actual amount as well. I may try the Madela calma and see if she does better with that, but I think she likes the shape of the nuk better. I guess it's all trial and error.

    If you haven't tried Tommie Tippee closer to nature, I think they have a no flow nipple for there bottle. I heard good things about medela calma, they just have a hefty price.
    Oh awesome! We haven't tried the Tommie tippee yet. I'll have yo check them out. Looks like I'll be at babies r us today. Thank you!
    Report Reply
  • ameares721ameares721 member
    Update! We saw an amazing SLP who knew exactly how to help!

    It had nothing to do with the bottle type at all! Because I have a fast milk flow and an oversupply, my baby wasn't having to do much work at the breast to get milk so she never properly learned how to suck like she would need to from a bottle.

    We were given some exercises to do including playing with the pacifier and rocking her while we try the bottle and it has worked wonderfully!!!!

    She had no lip/tongue ties and needs a smaller nipple to start but she has finally gotten the hang of doing the work :)
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    @ameares721 What's an SLP? We could be having a similar issue. I don't think I have an over supply but I do think I have a fast let down. She doesn't like her pacifier either. We found one that she will kind of take sometimes.
    Report Reply
  • ameares721ameares721 member
    @cbolton19 speech language pathologist. She was working at an Ear,Nose,Throat (ENT) practice with a doctor who also corrected tongue/lip ties. I have a super fast let down and my oversupply was to compensate for baby not working hard for milk so my boobs were doing all the work (boobs are so smart lol). She also would not take a pacifier. Before we went to the SLP, she couldn't take one, now she can but its not her preference. An SLP is trained in anatomy of the mouth and some specialize in infant feeding techniques to help with corrections. She also had me breastfeed in the office to see how baby was latching, sucking, swallowing, breathing, gulping/coughing, etc.
    Report Reply
  • cbolton19cbolton19 member
    @ameares721 Ok. Cool. Thank you! She's taken a pacifier a few times but obviously doesn't like it. I got her to take a bottle for a little too, but not long. She'll do ok then push her tongue out. I'll have to check out getting help from someone like an SLP. Thank you for the info!
    Report Reply
  • crbpjbcrbpjb member
    We were in the same boat. Easy breastfeeding. HUGE struggle with bottle - completely rejected. This is what worked for us: she was still basically asleep and I was out of room. My mom dripped a little in her mouth to get her interested and took it slow. I think getting her to taste/want it and having her be hungry/half asleep was the trick. Now she takes bottles like a champ.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
    Report Reply
Sign In or Register to comment.
Choose Another Board
Search Boards
"
"