How to prevent reverse cycling??

[Super~Single~Mama]

So...I need my sleep at night so that I can function at school. BUT - my baby HATES the bottle!!!! He HATES it. Won't take it. Won't take milk from a sippy cup either. Or a spoon. He gets mad when BM is in anything other than a boob. We want to try a different type of bottle (we've been using dr brown's since he was born) but I don't know which ones to try. I've heard good things about Born Free - can anyone tell me more about them?

My son will be 8mo on the 10th, and he's used to being able to nurse all day whenever he wants, and now I'm starting school back up and he refuses to take the bottle. I can't come home during the day to nurse him b/c of my schedule, and its a pain for him to be brought to me, although it could happen once if it had to. It would be better if he would take the bottle though.

I know someone will tell me that he won't starve, and he'll take it when he's hungry enough, but today I got home from a short (3.5hours) trip to school and he was crying and screaming, and had tears running down his face and it was like he was crying - grandma is so mean she won't just give me to my mommy to feed me and I'm never going to eat again - it was terrible. I don't want him to go through that while I'm at school everyday!!!!! And no, I cannot postpone school until he is done nursing. It is not possible at this point in time.

TIA

[tessie]

I had a similar situation in that she refused a bottle (although I did try formula as I couldn't express enough) and it was a no go, regardless of how we tried to feed it to her. However she was already a good eater of solids, and had dropped off the day time feeds quite considerably, so she was able to manage during the day on food and water. (And surprisingly she didn't reverse cycle, she started sleeping through.) So, you could try upping his solids intake?
At eight months it is ok for him to reduce his bm intake somewhat.

To be honest I think it's something that he will get used to but it will take a little time. (And for anyone else who will be away from their baby my nursery recommends that you start making changes six weeks before they are due to start daycare.) I hope you find a solution that works for you both.

[madeleines_mom]

Ugh, that sounds so frustrating.
I found the bottles that worked best for my DD are the Playtex Drop ins with the wide nipples (they have a wide base so she has a wide "latch" like at the breast). You might want to give those a try, however I'd feel really bad if he didn't like them either. I find she likes the silicone nipples better, and make sure you get the FAST FLOW ones now that he's 8 months old. The slow ones my DD has no time for anymore (granted she barely ever gets bottles).

I'm so sorry you're going through this. I don't agree with the "he/she won't starve" attitude at all. I can totally relate to how you feel about not wanting to make your kid super upset in the process of getting him used to a bottle. My only advice is to offer it often and maybe one of these days he'll just get tired of fighting it and take it.

Good luck!

[Ruthla]

I'd try using faster-flow nipples, to see if he'll be more eager to drink from the bottle if the milk flows faster. Also try different kinds of sippy cups, straw cups, open cups, etc.

Another tactic to take at this point would be to have the DCP (which in this case is grandma?) encourage him to eat more solids while you're at work. At 8mo, he can't go a whole day without milk, but as he gets older this will work even better. If he's willing to be spoon fed pureed mush, then how about mixing ebm with cereal so at least he gets some milk in him that way?

Also, I suggest taking the baby into your bed, if he's not there already. This will help you get more sleep even if he does continue nursing a lot at night.

[Super~Single~Mama]

Thanks for the ideas! We do bedshare already, but he pops on and off so much that I can't sleep well while he's nursing. It doesn't bother me when its just a few times a night, but more than that and I don't sleep.

We can't give him more solids yet, he started on solids a little later than most (7ish months) and we gave him too much too soon, so he got really constipated, and that took a week to resolve (it was so bad, I felt like such a bad mommy). So he was back to EBF for a week. Now we're starting solids again - last night was his first taste the second time around - and he's just getting a little at dinner time for a while.

We will try the wider based nipples!! Grandma is going to go to the store later, and I'll make sure she gets the faster flow nipples.

thanks for the ideas! keep em coming!