introducing the bottle

[clintonhillmama]

dd is 6 wks. we started introducing the bottle about 2 wks ago, but she's not really diggin' it. with my ds, he just took it. i naively thought that babies who didn't like the bottle were a myth!

what can i do to help? so far, we've tried a variety of bottles & nipples, but she doesn't seem to do that much better with one or the other. dh is the one giving it to her.

any help or advice is appreciated. it's very important to me that she's able to take an occasional bottle for a lot of reasons, so please no flames for bottle feeding.

[Right of Passage]

If you're in the room that might make her refuse it more. You may have to leave your home completely to have her take it. So maybe take a quick trip to the grocery store, or a walk with your son while daddy tries the bottle.

He can always try cup feedings if necessary as well. She might be more likely to take that than a bottle.

Good luck.

[YummyYumYumMama]

i worked in daycare in the infant room. there were two breastfed babies who had difficulty taking the bottle.

for one baby who was not in my room, her parents bought a breast-shaped bottle and that helped. more info if you google 'breast shaped bottle'. AFAIK adiri is the only company that makes it.

the other baby just would not take the bottle AT ALL but obviously HAD to eat while she was at daycare. i would spoonfeed her the milk, but she was 4 months old. i don't know how to feed a newborn, but i hear that some people use medicine droppers or cups as alternatives to bottlefeeding. so this baby was actually in my room and so i had to figure out how to deal with this issue - i mean, if you are a 4 month old in daycare for 6-8 hours at a time, you NEED to be able to be fed. and i was the only teacher in the room (with 2 other infants as well) and sometimes spoonfeeding her was not an option as it took so long and the other children needed care as well. so, basically, at each feeding i would offer her the bottle first, then when she'd refuse spoonfeed her most of the contents of it, offer it again at the end, and spoonfeed her the rest when she'd refuse. each time i offered her the bottle, i would try to drip a few drops out onto her lips. it took maybe a week, but one day she just latched on to the bottle and drank it all up. within another day or two, she was taking ALL her bottles without any trouble.

so... basically, i think it can just take time. the breast-bottle might minimize that time for some babies, but i don't think it's necessary. i think just trying it - and making sure you are NOT AROUND when it is being offered - is good.

does she not latch on at all, or will she latch on, suck, and then get upset? because fyi i've also had a lot of breastfed babies in my classrooms who are particular about temperature. if the temp isn't just right, they'll latch on, try it out, and then cry and not take the bottle.

[stellimamo]

I would second dropper feeding or cup feeding and definitly leaving at least the room.

We had to give Elliot a bottle a few days ago at only 2 weeks because of my gallbladder problems and it went ok. At first dh had a 3 nipple on the bottle but went he got the #1 that helped a ton.

We are going to keep giving him a bottle every few days so he doesn't forget so that when I have to have surgery he'll be able to eat.

[bluesymama]

When I had to give Toren a bottle before we got his Lingual Frenulum clipped- we tried almost everything before finding one he would accept- which turned out to be an Avent bottle, with the straight nipple. Even then, though, he was fairly reluctant with it. Daddy had to do it- and it was slow going...but he did take it. Did you try Avent already? If so- I second cup or syringe feeding...

[clintonhillmama]

dude, i could open a bottle store with all the bottles i now have!
we've tried the avent, nuk & born free (which we had from my son), then i saw there's a wide mouth nuk, so i bought that. no dice. she just opens her mouth up when the nipple is in there, and wiggles her tongue all around. sometimes she gets a sucking pattern going, but not for long, and she's none too thrilled about the whole experience!

some friends of mine have sworn by the playtex nurser - i was trying to avoid this due to the drop in liners, since they seem wasteful and then you have to actually have them in the house in order to use the bottle , and i'm sure to run out at some point - but i bought it yesterday. so we'll try that one today when dh gets home.

keep your fingers crossed for me!