HELP!!! i need my baby to take a bottle
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Topic: HELP!!! i need my baby to take a bottle
Posted By: angel4
Subject: HELP!!! i need my baby to take a bottle
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 9:35pm
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ok my henry is 4months old. I have been exclusively breastfeeding him from birth (nothing else has entered is wee system) at about 6 weeks he had the odd bottle of expressed breastmilk.
My partner and i are getting married in two weeks so I have been expressing milk like mad for the day. Today i left my partner with baby henry with a bottle for him to have if he got hungry. I came home to two very unhappy males. He wouldnt take the bottle at all. Calmed him down with a breast feed and tried the bottle myself later - no go. I don't know what to do. I can't exactly be breastfeeding him during my wedding ceremony. He only needs to have one bottle feed. Oh btw he hasnt had a bottle since 6weeks. I don't know what to do. Help please anyone |
Replies:
Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 9:39pm
Hmmm I did the whole one bottle a night thing about three months before I needed to leave her .. so two weeks is  but ..
He probably wont take a bottle from you as your the milk bar and he can smell the real thing. Secondly .. Issy was fussy when it came to bottles and we tried three different types until we found one that she would take (thanks .mel) and that was the nuk teats and bottles (they are most breast like apparently) So maybe try a new bottle and get your DH to feed him. ------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year  http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: angel4
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 9:45pm
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i feel so stupid. I assumed because he had taken it before with no problems that he just would again.
Will try the nuk ones next. Thank you |
Posted By: lilfatty
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 9:53pm
You never know .. he might take a bottle tommorrow .. babies are like that  ------------- Mummy to Issy (3) and Elias (18 months) I did it .. 41 kgs gone! From flab to fab in under a year http://www.femininefitness.co.nz/category/blog - LFs weight blog
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Posted By: angel4
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 10:07pm
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im discovering that ae. Will deffinately try tomorrow and everyday before the wedding but may just end up having to breastfeed him. Thank you so much for you help
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Posted By: Shezamumof3
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 10:33pm
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I agree with lilfatty, try the NUK ones, or try the Tommee Tippee closer to nature.
My little boy has been bottle fed from 4 weeks old, we are lucky he took the bottle right away(I think cos he was so hungry and my boobs were useless). But yeah, definitly dry another bottle and see how you go, but just keep offering him a bottle after a breastfeed and hopefully he will eventually take it. for your wedding, you could just feed him before the ceremony and he should be good for 3 hours, which would get your through the ceremony and pics 
good luck edited to change she to he, lol ------------- |
Posted By: angel4
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 10:36pm
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Thats what im thinking i will have to do if he won't take a bottle. Though it does limit stuff for the future so its probably something i should work on
Haven't wanted to be away from him yet so it hasn't been a problem. |
Posted By: Shezamumof3
Date Posted: 18 December 2008 at 10:40pm
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Yeah I know what you mean, I STILL dont like leaving Caden, but he loves his bottles so if I do go somewhere without him its ok.
Definitly just keep working on it with him after each breastfeed(so he isnt hungry and annoyed). It takes some babies a while to take to a bottle and some babies take to it right away. You will get there ------------- |
Posted By: first
Date Posted: 19 December 2008 at 9:33am
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I have had the same problem with bottles. My guy had no bottle till he was four months and then I wanted to just make sure he would take one and well he didn't want a bar of it.
It took about a week of trying before he did. I use the tommy tippie closer to nature ones. Make sure that whenever you offer it that you are prepared to put him down and let him have a good break before you offere the boobie if he refuses the bottle. Otherwise he learns that he just needs to fuss over the bottle and you'll give him boobie. Also what size teat are you using. I had to get a size three teat as my milk lets down quickly and he was getting frustrated with the teat. I also found that he prefered to chew on the teat and drink that way rather than suck it properly so this allowed him to do that also. Good luck. And how exciting about your wedding. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/"> 
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Posted By: fire_engine
Date Posted: 19 December 2008 at 9:40am
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The other option is to try a sippy cup - he's getting to the point where he might be able to take one. You could also try the sippy cup with water rather than EBM.
I have to be honest - there are a number of babes/mums in the July 08 thread in a similar situation and they have not succeeded, even trying pretty much everything, so having your plan (b) of feeding before the ceremony is probably a good idea. There's a thread about sippy cups for bottle refusers - I've just bumped it up for you. ------------- Mum to two wee boys |
Posted By: SJD
Date Posted: 19 December 2008 at 11:18am
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My daughter had to literally be starved for three days (day time feeds only) to take the bottle at four and a half months. Plunket Family Centre and Plunketline have lots of handy tips - basically I was told to get Dad, and the grandparents on board to do the feeding, like mentioned above they generally won't take it from you as they can smell the milk on you. Ironically though, after three days of this, she finally relented (with a Nuk teat) with me.
Once she took to it though, there was no issues going forward - changed bottles and teats with no problem. I will definitely be mixing expressed milk with breast feeding this time around. |
Posted By: fire_engine
Date Posted: 19 December 2008 at 12:43pm
Good tip about the Family Centre - when I was there, another girl was there to get her baby to take a bottle as she was going to work the next day  ------------- Mum to two wee boys |
Posted By: angel4
Date Posted: 20 December 2008 at 1:40pm
| THough i would let all of you who have given sugestions that yesterday i bought a sippy cup - figuring it wouldn't be a waste of money because if he didn't take it now he could use it later. Anyway this morning i got up and expressed 150mLs of milk and at 11am tried feeding him through the sippy cup - he took to it like a duck to water. Had the whole feed with it and then had a sleep like he normally would so i feel confident he had a full feed. The cup a bought was tommee tippee soft spout one. am so happy!!! Thanks so much everyone for your advice |
Posted By: fire_engine
Date Posted: 20 December 2008 at 1:47pm
That's fantastic! Glad it worked. Enjoy your weddine  ------------- Mum to two wee boys |
Posted By: busymum
Date Posted: 23 December 2008 at 8:08pm
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Eeeek some babies just decide to not accept bottles!!! Make sure the teat is close enough flow to what the breast is - they get frustrated if it is too slow. Then reintroduce the bottle once a day when he is having a non-tired feed. If he refuses it, you may need to half-fill him (to lessen the frustration) and then give him the bottle. It may even be that he will not have the bottle from you because he can smell "the real deal" close by. In a couple of days, whether he has accepted the bottle from you or not, get his dad to feed him the bottle for his once-a-day bottle.
Oh the other thing, just a theory but make the milk as fresh as you can, ie express into the bottle (or a cup then pour it into the bottle) and feed him that - rather than freezing and reheating. My theory is that that is an easier and more convincing way to start. -------------  |
Posted By: angel4
Date Posted: 12 April 2009 at 9:40pm
| Bump for nzpiper |
Posted By: palomino
Date Posted: 13 April 2009 at 9:18am
| *off to buy a sippy cup* lol thanks :) |
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 13 April 2009 at 9:24pm
| thanks angel. bought a sippy cup (not the sort you used but never mind) . Will try soon...fingers crossed. The pressure is off as we have just found out that we are all "assembling" at the venue rather than arriving in cars etc so I can get there early. Give him a feed and then he should be right for a few hours. Fingers crossed he doesnt have the 3 month growth spurt that day. |
Posted By: peanut butter
Date Posted: 02 July 2009 at 12:59pm
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Well, here I am again. WE never did get on the bottle/sippy cup in time for that wedding. Thankfully he fed before and then slept 4 hours!!!! So it was so easy.
But now...I am wanting to go back to work in a couple of months and the little monkey still wont take a bottle or anything. DH is useless as he gives up too fast. Any miracle cures found lately?????? |
Posted By: myfullhouse
Date Posted: 02 July 2009 at 2:03pm
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We didn't really try with Jack but I saw the Baby Whisperer on Good Morning and she covered getting babies to take the bottle on 3rd March. Here is a http://tvnz.co.nz/search/?q=baby+whisperer&sort=date:D:S:d1&start=30 - link to the TVNZ website and you can view the video of her segment. Good luck ------------- Lindsey 
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Posted By: Stogglebox
Date Posted: 09 July 2009 at 3:17pm
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Well nzpiper - I have been having troubles with my baby too - to cut a long story short she is now 5 and a half months old and I am back at work and she is taking the bottle but not drinking that much.
We started practising with her at 6 weeks - always my husband, until a couple of months later and not much progress I tried - with her in the bouncer, and she actually started to enjoy it a bit - like it was a game or something -she would grab the bottle and then drink a bit but still not really progress that much. (But it seemed like she was taking it from me because she associated milk with me?? I dunno... We tried Avent bottles/teats (cos we were given some) then a Pigeon Magmag one, because a friend loaned us one (a bit better than Avent I think), also a soft sippy cup (Avent, with and without the valve), but now we use a chu chu teat and think it is quite good. The hole is at the base of the teat so is more like drinking from the breast because the baby has to take the hole thing in her mouth. We got the Traz chu chu teat but apparently this is a copy of the original Japanese chu chu baby teat (who would know who is telling the truth). First bought it online, and then found another website (Auckland) selling the Japanese ones - www.goonnappy.co.nz for cheaper. You can also get them at 'Japanese lifestyle goods' - a shop on Dominion Rd. We use the Nuk bottle with the chu chu teat (cos the narrow ones fit most narrow neck bottles). So it has been a long, frustrating process. So now I am back at work and I feed her as much as possible in the morning before I leave, then I express milk around 10-10.30, and then I feed her at lunchtime (currently being looked after at home so can come to me, but later I will go to her daycare centre) and depending on the day (I have varied hours) she just waits until I get home to feed again. I am really happy with how it is going, and glad that I decided to feed her at lunchtime -firstly because she still only takes about 70ml from the bottle in the morning (not exactly a full feed) and also for my own sanity, because expressing milk is not especially easy sometimes either! And because it is really nice to be able to spend time with her at lunchtime. I really recommend, if you can, feeding your baby at lunchtime, which will also take the pressure off getting your baby to take the bottle. (I am at work at the moment, with not that much to do - wish I was at home with bubs!) THE END Esorry for the essay but I hope it helps! ------------- Mother of Natsumi Sarah born on 23 January 2009 |
Posted By: Rashika
Date Posted: 09 July 2009 at 3:41pm
ditto... this is exactly what I do and i have found it works well. T does take a fair bit from a cup now (never would take a bottle) and with the fed at lunchtime he manages well. he also gets fed just before he gets dropped off, lunch and when he gets picked up so doesn't really miss a feed anyway. It really is nice to visit him during the day too, i enjoy that bit of the day! ------------- Jan 08 :angel: http://lilypie.com"> 
 
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Stogglebox wrote: