My LO wouldn't take EBM from a bottle - not cold, not room temp, not heated, not nothing: booby milk came from the boob or no where! DH tried numerous times to get him to take a bottle and at the most he would have about 20ml.
When he was about 8 months, I was having one of "those days" tired and emotional (DH was away) so I gave DS1 (who's 16) a bottle of Bellamy's formula to give to my LO - he drank it all! My LO - not the 16YO!!
It took until he weaned for him to take a bottle off me, even then he was a little sceptical and would poke my boob.
Good luck and try not to stress - I'm sure he won't starve and will take food/milk from his carer when you are not there.
Happy to report that we have had a bit of success...
DS is allowing water to go into his mouth from a small Ikea sippy cup without a valve - I think he is swallowing some although a lot of it is coming back out - but he seems happy to allow both the cup and the water into his mouth. Today, our nanny (on her 2nd day!) got him to take 40 ml of formula from a bottle (I'm around - working from home in a separate room and he can't see me). I had run out of EBM and didn't want to skip a day of trying with a bottle. Funnily enough, he did this 2 hours after a breastfeed so he wouldn't even of been that hungry or thirsty.
I've also been putting EBM into his food and he's taken it and the nanny put formula in his lunch today - so he received more liquid via his breakfast and lunch as well (and his eating has improved). I'm finally beginning to believe that we will get there. Tried the straw including Barb's suggestion above - he didn't take to it but we will also persist with the straw option but he's a bit younger than Little Chicken's or Belfie's little ones (plus he was a month early so he's even younger) and I think that he's not quite ready for a straw as he just wants to chew it. I do have to "show" him how it's done a bit more though.
The times he has taken the bottle (these little amounts of late), the people (DH or nanny) have used distraction techniques. Although I did not want DS exposed to television, DH was watching sport while he was trying and that seemed to distract DS from the fact that there was a bottle in his face and he took 20mls. Today, the nanny walked around while feeding him. Although I know my MIL had tried the walking around approach before - it could also be the nanny's attitude - like "this will happen"!
Gosh Belfie - they are stubborn aren't they - FOUR days!!! silly little ones! they like what they like, that's for sure.
Now I'm encouraged to get back into an expressing routine - I was throwing so much out that I lost motivation to make the time to express - but now that it won't all get tossed, I'll get back to it....although maybe he will only want formula from a bottle and BM from the breast - who knows!
Wow - Cass 72 - your post wasn't up when I posted mine - I think that's going to be the case with us - and that's the formula that we are trying as well! I'm fine with him getting the boob when I'm around, I just want to know that when I'm not he will get what he should be having in terms of milk/liquids.
Been there, done that, complete and total refusal of the bottle. I persisted and persisted for a few weeks (I had to go back to work so she HAD to go on the bottle) and about 2 days before I went back to work she finally realised that you actually need to suck the weird plastic thing instead of screaming about it not being a boobie and boom, that was it, no more issues at all.
Thanks Rumpled Elf...It may be the same with DS. The most he has taken from a bottle is 40mls (formula - I've stopped pumping for these trial feeds as I was throwing out so much EBM) - twice from the nanny and 3 times from DH in the bath (DS loves the bath and is so relaxed that we figured we'd give it a go)...but that is certainly not enough to replace a feed. We've also been trying a non-valve sippy with not very good results with formula although he will take water from it (but for some reason refused to this morning for the 1st time). DS also doesn't seem to get that he needs to suck from the weird plastic thing which is why we thought the non-valve sippy might do the trick. I hope he gets it soon. Thurs will be an interesting experiment as I am going to be gone (for the first time) for 5 hours and our carer is going to offer him the bottle/sippy when he usually BF's. I am dreading hearing that he cried the whole time.
I realized that given his solids intake and his morning/bedtime BF, he'll probably be OK the 2 days/week that I'll be in the office (although OK is different than happy). However, I am still dreading the upcoming event I have where I will be away for 30 hours. It's going to be so hard on DS - he'll wake-up and I (and my boobs) won't be there. At least DH will be, so DS will have his dad, but I don't know how he's going to go for 30 hours if he continues to refuse to suck the bottle (or take it from the sippy).
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