Advice needed: what to do with babies who refuse bottle feeding?

jessickay

Member
I have a 5 month old boy and still exclusively breast feeding him. I am about to go back to work and very worried about his feeding when I am not around.

He has been totally refusing bottle since 2 months of age despite me changing different bottles and teats (medela, avent natural, nuk). At first, he will still cry when we give the bottle but nowadays he just plays around with the bottle teat using his tongue.

I have tried to go out physically and starving him to see if eventually he will take the bottle when he is hungry. He still did not take after 6 hours.

I even tried him on sippy cups but he refuses to suck on the spouts too. Not sure if he is too young for it.

Have thought of giving solids when I am at work as a solution but even then he will need to drink water right? And how to give water without a bottle?

Would appreciate mummies who experienced this problem to give some advice! Thanks!
 


hi,

Totally understand you. My boy is currently 6 months old. He has been refusing the bottle start 3 mths old. same like you i have been changing the bottle teats (avent, nuk etc) and i have change milk also. But it seems not to help. I went to meet the PD, and she claims probably my son has SILENT REFLUX. She prescribed us with medication and have been on it for like almost to 3 months. Recently baby start to reject again, she prescribed me probiotics and yes it did wonders! You might wanna check with your PD. is he loosing weight?

you should monitor his milk intake.
 
Hi Jessikay,

my little one is now 6 months too and she refused to take the bottle since 3 months old. We also tried changing bottles and teats and also tried sippy cups, she just refused and would rather starve and wait for the breast than give in and drink from the bottle. Then one day we just sat her up and tried to feed her by cup and it worked. It was a bit messy at first but we keep the cup half full (we use those colourful plastic kiddie cups from ikea but I suppose any cup should be fine) and tip it towards her slowly so she gets a little mouthful at a time. Its been a very effective method for us (and given me the peace of mind to go out to work again!!)

People have made comments that she's so young etc but my grandmother told me that during her time when they couldn't afford milk bottles, thats what they did - just feed the baby by cup.

Good luck with your little one!! Hope you better luck :)
 
I would suggest the use of NUK latex teats (the dark yellow kind). It worked for my girl.
 
Hi,
I have a 5 month old baby with the same situation, we tried different bottles and recently introduced pigeon pp wide neck bottles and they worked for her. Hope this helps!
 

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