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Need to start baby with bottle at 6 months

756 views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  Crunchie 
#1 ·
I am trying to pump and give my baby bottle but he has been used to the breast so he doesnt take the bottle at all.. He doesnt take the sippy either... I have to go back to work so I need to give my milk to his care provider but he doesnt have it..

Can you suggest tricks and techniques to get him on the bottle? Please help...
Please give some suggestions how to achieve this...
 
#2 ·
First of all, he probably won't take a bottle from you. He knows you have the real thing! I know my boy never took the bottle from me. Have your partner/husband/mom try.

Second, there are different kinds of bottles & nipples. If he doesn't seem to take to one, try another.

Will you be going back full time? What kind of hours? How often does he eat now?

I can say, at first, he wouldn't take it, but when he got hungry enough, he settled and took it. It's sad
to think about your hungry baby, but he'll eat it if he's really hungry.

I worked full-time for about 5 mos, but now I am working half time. I go in at 8 and leave at noon. He, now almost nine mos, waits those 4 hours for me to get home from work to eat. Good luck! If you give us a little more info, maybe we can offer more advice!

Oh, and
 
#3 ·
Are you giving him the bottles right now? If so, he may not take them because mama is right there. Do you have a partner that can try while you are not in the room?

How far away is your provider from work? Would you be able to scoot there on your lunch hour to breastfeed your son? Do you have anyone who could bring him to you at work for a feeding or two?
 
#4 ·
Maybe try a sippy with water in it to test it? Just an ounce or so. That is how my DS learned to take it. We use the Born Free sippy, which is an extra safe plastic and has a nice nipple/ spout that is soft. When I have to be away from DS for a conference he will take milk in the sippy- but only if he know I am not around. He also barely eats at all while I am gone and reverse cycles like crazy. Mine never took a bottle.
 
#5 ·
Thank you for the tips..

I am going back part time (4 hours) & I have a 45 minute commute each way so I will be away from him for 5.5 hours...My mom in law will be living with me for 2 months and she will be helping me take care of him...after that I will have to look for a day care close to work..

I usually nurse him every 2-2.5 hours.
- He is up at 7 am (most of the times)
- He sleeps at 9 am after breastfeeding (I feed him so he can sleep longer)
- He is up at 10.30...plays for an hour
- Feeding at 11.30 ( I started with rice cereal with expressed breastmilk last week, his first solid food ..
- He wants to sleep again around 12.30pm or 1 sometimes 2 .. but only if I nurse him..sleeps for hour or more and then gets up around 3 or 4
- Sleeps again at 7.30pm
- He started sleeping with me in my bed at 4 months because it was too stressful to get up and go to the crib and it was convenient for a while and I would like to get him on the crib again because the bed is too small for the 3 of us... He is teething now and needs my breast even more...

I know I am doing it all wrong but he was extremely colic till 4 months and I was totally stressed and tired...He also got a ear infection without being exposed outside so I didn't give bottles..

I will ask my mom in law to give him the bottle and see how it goes .. I had Dr. Browns and I bought the Playtex Vent Air ... doesnt like either.. do you recommend any particular one Heather?

TechnoGranola.. I can try to breastfeed him once I have him in a daycare closer to work but right now he will be home without me..

I have the playtex 'the first sipper' for 8 month olds... He doesnt suck but chews on it because he is teething ...

I have not tried someone else feeding him when I am not around so thats a really great and new idea for me.. I will try that out and let you all know how it goes..

He is allergic to dairy so I plan to give him my milk till a year if possible.. I am off dairy too..

Please do recommend what else I can do for 2 feedings without me..

Thank you so much everyone
 
#6 ·
My son is really liking the Breastflow bottles . I think they are from the First Years? Only at BRU. The nipple is really really soft. You might try those. My son actually will take a bottle of EBM from me, but he looks at me the whole time with this wierd look on his face.
 
#7 ·
What are your work hours?

I know you said you wanted to get him back into his crib, but IMO, you are better off co-sleeping when you return to work. Your babe will have the comfort of you all night long and have full access to the breast. This is especially important, as he may decide to cut down on his day feedings and feed more at night. This may be a bit tough on you at first with extra night feedings, but likely something you will adjust to.

And you are not doing everything wrong! In fact, you sound like you are doing an amazing job, especially with wanting to keep your son getting mama's milk!
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by TechnoGranola View Post
And you are not doing everything wrong! In fact, you sound like you are doing an amazing job, especially with wanting to keep your son getting mama's milk!
:

Check out the family bed & night time parenting forum. A lot of us here cosleep. It facilitates a happy & restful momma, as well as encourages a good bfing relationship.

If he doesn't like either of those nipples you mentioned, try the avent. That's what we used. OUr babysitter also brought over a first years bottle, which he liked very much too.

I wanted to suggest, that when we were first teaching/acclimating Finn, I would pump and have my husband give him the bottle right away. That way, it was the freshest and right temp. Try it, it may work. I still had to hide in the kitchen, though. We also played "work" for about 3 days when I was getting ready to return to work. DH would keep him (he stayed home first couple of mos) the first day we got to noon, the second to 2, and the third till 3 - until I would come down & feed him.

Plus, if it's only going to be about 5 1/2 hours, he may just wait for you. He's bigger now, and if he doesn't want to take a bottle, and would rather wait for the real deal, that's his choice. A lot of babies will choose to be a little hungrier than take that "yucky" bottle!

PS - if I were you, I'd skip the rice cereal, it's nothing but empty sugar in your baby's tummy. we went right to oatmeal, and very shortly after that just did straight self feeding. That way, you know how much your baby is ready to eat and how hungry. It's easy to shovel too much food in a little one, if you're spoon feeding.

Try some applesauce or pear sauce, mashed potatoes (sweet or regular), chunks of avocado or banana. Your baby doesn't need anything but bm for the first year, and it's really more about expirementing and learning what food is and how to put it in your mouth!
 
#9 ·
I just bought the Breastflow bottles from BRU. I am going to try them tomorrow and I will let you know how it goes.

My old work hours were 8.30 to 4.30 so I can pick 4 hours either in the morning or in the evening..

I would like to also co-sleep and keep him close so he does not feel seperated from me at night... Today since the time he woke up after I nursed him... I left him alone with my mom in law and didnt see him till 10.30 ... she fed him cereal and when I finally took him at 10.30 he wasnt smiling at all.. He usually smiles when I make him smile...I could feel that he did not like it and he had a wierd serious look...I will look at the night time parenting forum...

I will try oatmeal cereal ... I didnt think about the empty sugar...I will try the other foods also now and see how it goes.

Thanks again everyone!
 
#10 ·
We used Breastflow with ds1 - that was the only bottle he would accept. DS2 was pickier - he refused every single bottle under the sun, including the Breastflow. So we went with the Adiri Natural Nurser - the new one - and he took to it immediately. That was after days and days of struggling with him.

My niece also took the Natural Nurser immediately. It's a pretty neat bottle, actually. Expensive (you can find it at onestepahead.com) but neat.

DH had to warm the breastmilk warmer than usual and he ran the nipple under warm/hot water so it all felt soft, squishy and toasty against ds' face.

If you are interested, I'd definitely get both a blue (medium flow) and orange (faster flow) bottle. The white (slow) is unbearably slow and the blue may be too slow for a 6 month old.
 
#12 ·
I like the breastflow bottles better than others too, but that said, dd still doens't take a bottle. She finally learned how to drink from a sippy cup. One thing that really helps dh and feeding her just a little bit at a time before she's really hungry. Once she's hungry, she absolutely will not drink from anything except me. So maybe have your mom offer him a bottle/cup every twnety minutes or so and see if she can get him just to take a drink. Also, dd is very particular about how she's being held/sitting. She would only take a bottle if she were lying on the floor flat on her back and now she'll take the sippy sitting up.
 
#13 ·
We did sippy cups but threw those "valve" piece away so all she had to do was tilt it and liquid came out. She didn't have to learn a new way to suck to get the valve to open. She was exclusive BF'd for so long that she didn't "get" bottles and couldn't deal with sippies with the valve left in. We also tried straw cups very early on.

HTH!
A.
 
#14 ·
I havent been trying too hard but will have to now since I have to go back in a few days..

I will look into the cosleeping forum also .. My baby's pediatrician told me that if my baby is really hungry he will take the bottle... I dont want to use that approach so I thank you all for all your tips...

Actually the ped also said I shld not sleep in same bed as baby & he shld go to sleep on his own now and sleep thru the night... I shld leave him at his bedtime in the bed and let him cry to sleep 3 days and the 4th day he will be an independent sleeper... somehow that also isnt too appealing...

He is too scratchy and scratches his eyes and wakes up all the time so I sleep with him... my ped recommended I give him benadryl everyday so he sleeps better...I dont know if that is a good idea to give benadryl everyday...

what do you think about this?
 
#15 ·
Your ped's advice is awful. Can you look into a new ped?

My one year old does not sleep through the night, and my older one didn't start sleeping through the night until she was 7! Before that, she always woke up once in the middle of the night and climbed in with me.


I think you are correct in listening to your instincts about NOT letting your baby cry himself to sleep at night. Why would your ped think a SIX month old needed to be so independent? Babies are SUPPOSED to be dependent!

And medicating your baby to drug them up to sleep? That's absolutely absurd! Babies waking and sucking throughout the night are some of the things that help protect them from SIDS! Does your doctor not know anything about babies? I wouldn't give Benadryl EVER for any reason. Your ped's advice is down right dangerous in my opinion.

Mama, PLEASE check out The Family Bed and Nightime Parenting forum for tips on how to co-sleep safey and to learn what is normal for an infant of that age! Also, your baby may reverse cycle and end up nursing a lot at night, if he isn't happy with bottles during the day, so you may need some additional tips or advice on that.
 
#16 ·
Don't stress too much about this. Some babies decide to wait the 4 hours until mommies milkies are back, rather than accept the bottle. If a 6 month old baby can go 6 hours at night without milkies, like your ped thinks, he can certainly go 4 while waiting for you to return. The catch is - he won't do both. If he starts waiting 4 hours for you to get back from work, he will reverse-cycle and nurse LOTS throughout the night. Good thing you are co-sleeping eh?

This is another way of my telling you the ped if full-o-crap-ola!

Have you looked at the KellyMom site? She's got great info on going to work while nursing. I wish I had understood the reverse-cycling stuff sooner. The important thing is what he eats in a 24-hour period, not that you are gone 4 hours in the day or that you can sleep 6 hours at night. Lots of babies learn to cluster feed when mom is around and aren't so interested in learning the bottle. Really, really, really - it's going to be OK. You and your baby will figure this out together. There's no right or wrong thing here - you don't HAVE to use the bottle at ALL and the dirty little secret is that MOST babies ARE NOT sleeping through the night at 6 months.
 
#18 ·
She infact said that I can give him benadryl at 7.30 when he sleeps and asked me what time I sleep (I said 11) so she said give him one more then...

I think I shld change my ped.. I like another doctor in the same group.. maybe I shld go to him.. I have heard good things about him..The only thing I worry is they may not like me for changing within the same group.. maybe I shld look for another group ..
 
#19 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by MommytoTwo View Post
My son is really liking the Breastflow bottles . I think they are from the First Years? Only at BRU. The nipple is really really soft. You might try those. My son actually will take a bottle of EBM from me, but he looks at me the whole time with this wierd look on his face.

My experience exactly! Though, I have rarely given my son a bottle--but the couple of times I did, he looked at me with his little brow all furowed...I could almost hear him thinking, WTF?

The Breastflow nipples are the only ones he likes. He took an Avent nipple a couple of times, but the flow was just too fast.
 
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