My baby doesn’t like drinking breast milk from a bottle. What can we do?

Question

My baby brother will not take the bottle. My step-mom needs to go back to work in 2 days, and hes going to daycare! Hes 4 months! We need help and fast!

Answer 1

First of all, your step-mother needs to STOP giving him the breast, PERIOD. My baby was very finicky and it was difficult to get her to take the bottle. The only one she would take was the Playtex Ventaire Natural Shape. Make sure you get the "Natural Shape", because they have a bigger nipple than the rest of the bottles out there (which feels more like a breast against their mouth), and you don't have to mess with disposable bags (been there, done that...what a pain). He is now 4 months old, so it might take more than 2 days...more like 3 or 4. Trust me, when he gets hungry enough, he'll take that bottle. Keep on trying and stick with the program. He'll convert, I promise!!

Answer 2

Eventually he will get hungry enough and take the bottle. Try Avent and / or Playtex. Also you might want to try a beginner sippy cup. They have some ones for younger babies that he might like better than a bottle. A really good one is the Avent starter sippy. It can sometimes take more than two days to accept a new form of feeding next to the breast. I would have someone other than mom give the bottle. If he sees, smells, feels, or hears her or is in someone other way knowing that she is around he is gonna try to hold out for the booby. My son only took a bottle but maybe twice and only when my husband gave it to him without me around. He then only took about -less than one ounce. I wasn't going back to work just could be around those two times so I wasn't interested in continuing with the bottle. I still nurse him now and he's sixteen months, although he takes cups, straws, sippy cups. But I'm sure that at some point your little brother will eventually take a full feeding from the bottle. He will get hungry and give in. Also, when you have someone else give it try when the baby is partially sleeping. Babies tend to be more accepting when they are in a sleepy state. Good luck and don't worry too much. He'll eat :)

Answer 3

Getting a child to take a bottle after being exclusively breastfed takes a little time. I just started back to school and my son is 4 months old. He didn't want anything to do with a bottle, so I tricked him. I started to breastfeed and let him suck a few times. Then I took him off and put the bottle in his mouth and he took right to it. Then after 5 or 10 minutes, I took the bottle out of his mouth to burp him. If he had a fit trying to take the bottle again, I would repeat the trick. It took 1 night of tricking him, 1 night of taking the bottle from me, and 1 night taking the bottle from my husband. Keep giving him breast milk. If he tastes the formula in a bottle and is not used to breast milk in a bottle, it may be more difficult. Good luck.

Answer 4

Sorry, there is no fast solution to this.

Latching on to a breast is very different from latching onto the nipple on a bottle. If a breast fed baby does not practice it from day one they usually can't do it. Even if you offer breast milk in a bottle early on the baby may never be able to do it.

I pumped and offered breast milk in a bottle with my daughter and she could not get any milk out. My Doctor and a lot of mothers I asked about this said they had the same experience.

Answer 5

Since he will be fed by other people when he's at daycare, someone else besides your stepmom should give him the bottle. When she does it, he thinks "hey! This isn't how Mom is supposed to feed me. Absolutely not." She should give the bottle and the baby to someone else and leave the room.

When she is able to feed him, she should breastfeed only. Then he will learn to associate bottles with other people and nursing with her.

The link below is "How To Bottle Feed A Breast Fed Baby". If she's able to pump successfully, there's no reason she should switch to formula.

Answer 6

My son was the same way at 4 mos. old. I tried a variety of bottles. We ended up using the Platex disposable ones. ONce my son was in daycare, he took the bottle from them. He saw that everyone else had one, and I was not arround. He had no choice but to take a bottle. Your brother will be fine. The first couple days may be tough, but eventually he will drink from the bottle.

Answer 7

I have the same problem, I'm using a sippy cup. She is 6 months though.

She used to take the bottle with no problems then my supply became sufficent and now that i'm going to start school (college) she won't take the bottle so i bought sippy cups and using that.

I use nuby sippy cup because it has a rubber trainer mouth spout thingy. It comes in 9 oz and i think 6 oz.

she takes that better now the the bottle ever. You can find them in wal mart
this is what they look like
http://www.babybungalow.com/nu3stnospstn.html

they are called nuby 3 stage no spill baby bottle.

she has no problems with it.

good luck.

Answer 8

I had the same problem with my son I ended up using a soft top sippy cup one of the ones with a silicone top like a nubby you can find them at walmart and they only cost about 2.00 dollars. If that dose not work there are special nipples that are as close to the real thing you can, you can get them at most toy 'r' us stores I don't know what they are called though

Answer 9

Also let someone else try giving the baby the bottle. Baby will associate Mom being present with being breastfed. If someone else feeds baby with the bottle, it should go a little bit smoother.
Consistency is key though.

Answer 10

You just have to keep working with him he will be fine maybe you should try the big nipple bottles that act like a nipple on a mom. That is what my son has.