How do I get my baby off the boob, and on to the bottle?

Question

I am trying to ween my 4 month old from nursing. He took a bottle fine for a week, but now he just screams. I am a little frustrated. I love nursing, but I need to stop for a number of reasons. Does anyone have some suggestions? Thank you!

Answer 1

How sad that you can't continue breastfeeding! Is there really no way?? Four months is awfully soon.

I had to wean my daughter at 10 months because I needed medicine for my own health that would be bad for her. She would not drink anything that tasted like milk (even my milk) from a bottle, so in desperation, I tried putting whole-milk yogurt in the bottle - she loved it! After a week I started mixing formula with the yogurt, a little more each day, and soon she was on all formula.

BTW, in later life she had mild allergies to cows' milk, so maybe the easier-to-digest yogurt would have been better for her anyway.

Answer 2

I'm nursing and bottle feeding my 3 month old. I searched everywhere for the "perfect" bottle. I finally found one and she has no problems transitioning between the bottle and the breast. It's the MAM ULTIvent bottle by Sassy. The nipples are shaped so that the baby has to strip the milk from the nipple and not suck it out. If you go to their website at www.sassybaby.com they have a brochure that explains how the bottle works. It truly helped my daughter to take a bottle. You can also find reviews on it from other parents at the Target website. Good luck.

Answer 3

I went through the same thing with two of my kids. They took the bottle fine for a while, then just decided that they wanted nothing to do with it! (I wasn't trying to stop nursing, just make it so I could leave for a little bit every now and then.) Try putting breast milk in the bottle. Try different shaped nipples. I had the most success with the wider, more breast shaped nipples. (I think playtex has them with the disposable liners?) With one of my babies, I had to resort to standing by the dryer (laundry) with it on to distract her into taking the bottle. It only worked with me, not my husband. But after a little more than a week of that, she started taking it a little bit better sitting down, no dryer. And then about another week later, she would let my husband feed her. Be patient and persistent!
Good luck!

Answer 4

I also had a terrible time trying to get my son to take a bottle after being breastfed for 7 months. The only way I could do it was by slowly replacing individual feeds with a bottle and by using a Pigeon Peristaltic nipple on his bottle. Of the 11 mums in my mothers group only 4 managed to wean without this particular type of nipple on the bottle. Good luck.... I hope it all works out for you both.

Answer 5

I pumped milk and fed formula.
But my little girl was 10 months.(Teeth!!)

If you are trying to get him to take a formula bottle, warm it up but not too hot (breast milk is warm), wait until he is very hungry (3-4 hours from feeding), get him ready and positioned like you would if you were going to nurse. Hold him close to you, make him think he is really going to nurse, even take your boob out, (he smells your milk and sent and knows it is time to eat) then give him the bottle and see if he will nurse on it.
If he is hungry he will eat it. He might refuse, a little but tease his mouth with the bottle nipple and he should take it after a few tries.
It is hard because formula tastes like crap compared to breast milk.

If that wont work have daddy start feeding him at feedings. Your baby wont smell your milk and sent, and cry to nurse.

If it is too hard trying to ween him just pump your milk and store it in some breast milk containers in the freezer, you can use it for up to a year.
Honey, breastfeeding is best for your little man. Formula is expensive, it also makes their poop hard for them to push out... I wish I never used it.
If you are weening to work or drink, its not worth it. Pump your breasts at work in the bathroom. And if you want to drink, pump and dump it...but for yours and his sake nurse him for as long as possible!!

Answer 6

If you aren't a single mother, try having the father (or anyone else in the house, for that matter) the bottles. Babies do better when someone other than Mommy gives them a bottle - they know they aren't going to get the breast from anyone else, so they take the bottle.

If you're a single mom and have to do this on your own, you could try to go "cold turkey," but that's hard on both of you.

Answer 7

It would be great if you could still nurse him,too bad you have to stop...try having someone else bottle feed your baby...usually baby's can smell the breast milk if you your self feed him...try different bottle nipples.. pump some of your milk and put it in a bottle...good luck

Answer 8

cut out some feedings... give him a bottle in the morning... and give him the nipple the rest of the day.. then a few days later give him the bottle in the morning but then when u feed him again do another bottle and then the rest nipple... every couple days cut a nipple feeding to a bottle, hopefully that will work for you.. the feeding before bed will be the worst though... so that may take some time

Answer 9

I feel for you. Stopping breastfeeding when you don't really want to truly sucks!!

I'm having the same problem with my 11-month old. I go back to work in 3 weeks (FT 8:00-4:30 plus travel time) and I've been attempting to get her to drink formula so she'll be able to have a bottle or two at daycare. (She H*A*T*E*S the formula though!!!)

I tried for a week with different bottles, sippy cups, straws, positions, times of day, you name it. I even laced it with quik strawberry syrup a few times. No go. She freaks out and gets completely hysterical so I gave up. The only thing I didn't do was try different formulas (because they don't sell single serving trial cans of different brands and I wasn't about to invest $20-$30 a case in a bunch of different kinds!!)

Of course I have a bit of wiggle room on this one because my baby's 11 months old and I only want to partially wean her. I plan to continue to BF 3x a day for 6 more weeks. I know that most of this is my hang up, and I'm sure she senses my sentiments on it, but my heart's really not in weaning her at all so persevering on this one is very tough.

If worse comes to worse for us I might be calling the pediatrician and making the switch to milk a few weeks early.

Her pediatrician says some babies can't tolerate breast and bottle (formula) together and you just have to cut them right off the breast. My sister-in-law had to get my nephew on the bottle when she returned to shift-work as a paramedic at 9-months and she just cut him right off the boob. It took her 4 hours to get him to drink 4 ounces that first day, but now (a month and a half later) he slugs back a bottle like nobody's business!

I know this sounds cruel, but really, if you HAVE to make this transition, and can't think of another way around it (pumping etc.) then you just can't let him control you. If he is thirsty, he will drink from a bottle! Don't force it, don't get into a battle of wits with him (or you'll just both end up frustrated) but just keep offering it throughout the day.

I've asked questions about this here on Yahoo and a couple people told me that they heard breastfed babies will take a straw better than a bottle or a cup.

They recommended those plastic Rubbermaid "juice box" containers, but before investing in those, just to try it out I just took one of my daughter's empty little Heinz plastic fruit containers (with the lid), filled it with water, cut a little x in the lid and poked half a straw through it. Sure enough she was sipping away at the straw in no time!! She's even had a few sips of formula without protesting too much!!!

I don't know if this will work for a baby as young as yours, but I hope some of this info eventually might help you too!!

Good luck! (Sorry about your need to quit BF-ing and congrats on your little bundle of joy!)

Take care.

Answer 10

Your baby is not going to give up her perfect food for formula. have you tasted the two substances? If you love nursing, you should fight to keep that relationship. It is so important for your baby.

There are few medications you have to avoid while breastfeeding. Dr. Hale's guide is a good resource.

You may have to pump and gradually decrease the ratio of good stuff:-( My baby would never take a bottle, even though I pumped when i had to work.