Will only take milk from breast

[MamaV]

Hi, Need a bit of feeding advice. My DS is 5mths and has been exclusively bf. I am due to go back to work in Feb so thought we'd better try giving him milk from a bottle or beaker.
He won't take ebm or formula from the bottle (will drink water though). DH has tried feeding, have tried different brands of formula and different bottles but to no avail. He just screams very loudly
Have tried water in the Avent Magic cup and he happily bites at the spout but doesn't seem to get much out.
My thinking is it is better to avoid the bottle and go straight to the beaker/cup so we don't have to go through the same thing again in a couple of months.

Any advice on which strategy to take to introduce formula and which cup beaker works best? Thanks in advance.

BTW - he is on solids and taken to them very well

[Starofbethlibbhem]

MamaV, we had this problem a few months ago. We got a NUK bottle with flatish teat and he took to that on the second day with the childminder (he waited until I bought our second breast pump that same day though - grr) I have now stopped bf completely - might be worth a try?

[Frieda]

I had exactly this problem with DS ? and he ended up never taking a bottle at all. (I've heard anecdotally that boys seem to be worse than girls at this!) I went back to work when he was 6.5 months (just two days a week to start with). I think I must have tried every teat/spout known to man ? silicone, soft, slow-flo, fast-flo ? you name it ? but to no avail. In the end the nursery managed with a combination of a beaker with a hard spout, and open cup (and lots of patience!) plus adding the milk to his food.
Seems strange, though, that yours will take water from a bottle ? he obviously can do it, and no doubt would, eventually, in a situation where there isn't any alternative.

I do sympathise ? is must be a concern for you, but honestly, if he's eating well, he'll probably be fine, as long as he's getting plenty of liquid, too. You'll still be able to bf morning and evening, and probably supplement with some expressed milk when you're not around.

[sievehead]

Aptamil first, avent wide teat. They will take it eventually if they are hungry enough!!!! Try wrapping a scarf or something of yours round the bottle and letting someone else try. It worked for us! I know its difficult though......

[kinderbobsleigh]

And please remember that your baby will be two months older in February and you may be worrying for nothing. With solids that contain plenty of milk and cups of water, and a breastfeed morning and night, you may find that is all you need.

[MamaV]

Thanks for the advice everybody. Will probably try adding milk to his solids rather than trying another bottle ... only because we are sure to get more problems when moving away from the bottle. Will also try a different beaker. Any suggestions which is good for a first beaker? Thx

[moongirl]

mamav--how you getting on. I was looking for threads with advice on this as have similar situation to you. DD is now 5 months and won't take a bottle full stop, and takes water from a cup with hard spout but no milk whatsoever from anything except breast. I'm back at work in feb (3 weeks...arrrgggh) and not sure wether to just give more solids with lots of milk added and baby yoghurts etc or go cold turkey with the bottle one day.

[hercules]

Playtex are brilliant although you can only get them from independant chemists. THey were and still are the only think dd will drink milk from apart from breast. They are a funny shape and very similar to drinking from the breast.

[Piffle]

dd would take milk EBM from non spouted cup from 6 months, incidentally the cup she preferred were the avent bottle lids, tiny and perfect.
Never took a bottle until one day DH was stuck in London, in traffic jam with dd on way to me, she was screaming hungry, all EBM was gone, he pulled into Spar grabbed Aptimil first pre made and washed the bottle that had stored the EBM along with the teat inside it
And she took the lot...
Since then she took a bottle really well and continued to BF for months afterwards too!

[moongirl]

hercules--sure playtex are bras! so now have interesting vision of the shape these cups must be.

[moongirl]

so out of curiosity just looked at www.playtexbaby.com: do you mean the teats with bottles or the cups? As mamav says i'm thinking of avoiding bottles now as dd not taken one yet and we'd only have to wean her onto cups in a few months anyway...

[tangerinecath]

I had exactly the same problem with my dd MamaV. My HV (that rare thing, a good one!) suggested the following routine to wean her off the daytime breastfeeds:

6.30 Breastfeed
7.00 Breakfast made with 2oz formula
10.00 Snack - fromage frais or fruit puree
12.00 Lunch - savoury puree mixed with 2oz formula and offer a 2oz bottle of formula
2.30 Snack - fromage frais or fruit puree (whichever not given in the morning)
4.00 Tea - as lunch
6.00 Breastfeed

Then bf as normal during the evening and at night.

The idea is to keep their tummies full, and make sure they get all the nutrients they need from formula mixed with food and fromage frais. I mixed a little baby rice in with the puree/milk mix to thicken it enough to get it into dd using a spoon, otherwise it just went everywhere! It's a bit of a faff, and it took ages to get all the food into her, but it worked a treat and dd suddenly decided to drink from a bottle at 5.5 months and hasn't looked back since. I was worried about her fluid levels to start with but she still had plenty of wet nappies and was putting on weight as usual. Dd is still bf twice a day (first and last thing) but all daytime feeds are now from the bottle.

Good luck

[moongirl]

thanks mamav for this thread and tangerinecath for the latest advicei was planning something like this but not sure what so it's great to have a guide. dd has just gone to sleep with no breastfeed at all since waking so i feel blue but determined to continue after our horrid morningshe's had 3oz in sips of formula from a cup all morning, and was so cross she refused solids mixed with formula (but carrot and milk didn't look that great)next stop: buy baby yoghurts.