Returning to work & baby hates bottles

Re: Returning to work & baby hates bottles

• l4rk member

  March 2016

  There are other ways to feed babies milk like spoons, syringes, etc. Have you tried any of those? Bottles are a North American thing but lots of countries have other methods of feeding their babies!

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• alandaim member

  March 2016

  My first child decided she didn't like bottles when I went back to work as well. Have you tried a different feeding position or location? Sometimes they associate being held in your arms close with nursing and are confused by the bottle. When my mom watched my DD for a month after I went back to work, she put my DD in her rock-n-play to feed her. Then she associated that with the bottle. It worked good for a month and then I was off work for the summer. When she went to daycare in the fall they figured it out and she learned that if she wanted to eat she had to drink from the bottle. It only took a day or two for her to get use to it.

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• jodiedrich18 member

  March 2016

  I feel your pain and stress!!! Like you, our LO took a bottle fine her first week as we had to supplement after nursing because she had jaundice and my milk wasn't coming in fast enough. We quit after and she is EBF since. We reintroduced them in week 4 and again fine. Somewhere around week 6, she just decided to stop and would mouth it and get really frustrated. I was in tears every time she refused...i go back to work this coming monday so i was panicked about her being starving all day. There are some comforting articles and good tips about this issue on kellymom.com underneath the nursing/employment section. Also Google baby refuses bottle and there is a helpful dr. Sears article as well. I don't recommend some of the other results since people just suggest having a family member bring the child to work for nursing...that's definitely not possible for my or many others situations! Both resources also cover alternatives to bottles like a pp mentioned. These resources helped me to try to experiment with different things for LO. It seems like a trial and error to find things that work for LO so definitely keep your head up.  

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• jodiedrich18 member

  March 2016

  One of the things that has helped me also is LO will not take a bottle from me; my DH or mom has to be the one to attempt and I actually have to leave the house and she has done better when I do that as opposed to just going upstairs or another room. 

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• klbh member

  March 2016

  Another thing I heard is that although it's good to experiment with different bottles and methods, you also shouldn't cycle through them too frequently because babies need to grow accustomed to new feeding routines. It's a hard balancing act for sure! 

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