[aprilushka]

I know there have been topics before, but I decided I better ask my own questions. Back at work today, baby shy 5 days of 4th month birthday. She doesn't like the bottle-- we already knew this, she's always been so-so with it, might suck once or twice, but after that she messes around and keeps pushing out the nipple with her tongue. We can let the bottle drip into her mouth and she swallows, but that gets frustrating. DH tried a dropper and that didn't work too well and he's afraid she will choke. I've also suggested he try a spoon.

We gave bottles to her off an on from 4 weeks to about 8 weeks but DH didn't really try to work with her and I didn't want to push it myself as the BF parent, so here we are. I warned him it might be a problem but he thought it would be fine.

My question is-- for those of you who had this problem, did you just stick with the bottle until the baby took it, or did you have to perpetually use a spoon or something else until cup drinking (and could anyone do cup drinking at 4 months-- I thought it might be too early but we could try)? If you stuck with the bottle, how long did it usually take until the baby took it and was there anything you did that helped the baby take it better?

We have an Avent bottle and a Platex nurser (the kind you attach breastmilk bags directly to). If any other bottles have worked out better for bottle hating babies please also suggest those.

 

[lauren]

Did the day care provider try yet? For some reason there has been a magical effect of being in day care and my babies taking the bottle. Honestly, bottles that they rejected the day before were accepted perfectly once at the day care. Can you do a trial time at day care?

We have had good luck with the playtex nurser more than anything. A lot of people have liked the Avent. There was a thread a little while ago about 'Dr. Brown's' bottles that some members said worked really well for bottle resistant babies. I don't have personal experience with these but other seemed to swear by them.

Sometimes it just suddenly gets better without known reason!!

 

[aprilushka]

No DC provider, DH is SAHP.

We'll try the cup and then I'll see about getting one of those Brown bottles.

Thanks.

 

[laohaire]

My DD, who never took a bottle, could use a cup with DH guiding it around 5 months - we didn't try before then, so it's possible a 4 month old could use it.

That would be, I think, the best idea. Another idea is to use a medicine spoon (where there is a tube so you can put maybe half an ounce in there at a time).

 

[melissel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aprilushka I know there have been topics before, but I decided I better ask my own questions. Back at work today, baby shy 5 days of 4th month birthday. She doesn't like the bottle-- we already knew this, she's always been so-so with it, might suck once or twice, but after that she messes around and keeps pushing out the nipple with her tongue. We can let the bottle drip into her mouth and she swallows, but that gets frustrating. DH tried a dropper and that didn't work too well and he's afraid she will choke. I've also suggested he try a spoon. We gave bottles to her off an on from 4 weeks to about 8 weeks but DH didn't really try to work with her and I didn't want to push it myself as the BF parent, so here we are. I warned him it might be a problem but he thought it would be fine. My question is-- for those of you who had this problem, did you just stick with the bottle until the baby took it, or did you have to perpetually use a spoon or something else until cup drinking (and could anyone do cup drinking at 4 months-- I thought it might be too early but we could try)? If you stuck with the bottle, how long did it usually take until the baby took it and was there anything you did that helped the baby take it better? We have an Avent bottle and a Platex nurser (the kind you attach breastmilk bags directly to). If any other bottles have worked out better for bottle hating babies please also suggest those.

Only have a quick sec, but my first was like this. My DH finally got her to take a bottle and then after 2 weeks back at work, we didn't give her one because I was home one long weekend, and that was the end of that. My answer is YES to cup drinking. It will amaze your family and friends

DH started out giving her EBM in a party cup (one of those throwaway, slightly flexible plastic cups) so he could bend it a bit, and proceeded very slowly. Once she figured out what was coming from the cup, she was happy to take it. After a week or so of that, we gave her a sippy with handles and a soft rubber spout with no valve in, so the milk would dribble out. He gave her EBM that way for a number of weeks before she was ready to actually suck milk, and then we just experimented and found a sippy with an easy-release valve. It worked great.

Definitely try it. Your babe will probably sputter and gag and be mad for a little while as she's learning, but hopefully she'll get the hang of it. Oh, and this was all around 4 months for us too.

HTH!

 

[aprilushka]

Looks like we'll give the cup a try.

Thanks all.

 

[kerc]

We too had bottle issues -- dh basically just squeezed the nipple into her mouth for a few weeks to get something, anything into her mouth. Although people say to use a slow-flow nipple, she seemed to prefer the fast one. And she was pretty established at nursing, still prefers nursing to a bottle.

Dh tried it all: syringe, different bottle, cup, feed away from him, in a chair, facing him, with my shirt, warm, cold, spoon. Basically I gave away 50 ounces of milk and the very same day dd started taking a bottle from dh.

but that also coincided with dh "getting" how the sling worked and why dd had lived in it for the first four months of her life (she loves it).

Anyhow here's one for stick it out. DD will now take a bottle, if she's hungry/thirsty. But it is definitely not her first choice.

One other thought for the bottle trying skills: you might try putting babe in a sling or something and then walking around with the bottle. It's a bit tricky but I managed to get it to work for a friend's baby (I was babysitting and getting ready to just nurse him, without permission

).

 

[aprilushka]

In the late afternoon yesterday apparently she started drinking well from the bottle. She's always been a big eater, so I guess her love of eating overcame her dislike of mode of delivery, which is what we were counting on before. We'll see how it goes today.

 

[Oonah]

we had similar issues... dh (a sahd) used a dropper and an Avent bottle. We finally bought a Breast Bottle and that seemed to work...she eventually gave up the dropper...I think that was about a month after I went back to work. Even now at 10 months she takes milk from the bottle but only the bare minimum....and fwiw...we still have the breast bottle at low flow.