Please help me get DS to take an occasional bottle of EBM

[buliej]

DS will not take a bottle of EBM - ever! I really need (would like) DS to take a bottle every so often...I'd like a full night sleep every once in a while (DH is happy to do the 1 night feed on Saturday night) and when my mother-in-law sits wso I can run out and do errands without DS (which she kindly does once a week) I'd like to be able to not worry about how long it's been since the last feed.

What amazes me is that DS had to take a bottle in the hospital - because he was early and weight loss would have meant admission to special care - we gave him a bottle for the 5 hospital days (both formula and then EBM when it came in). Once home, for 2weeks we gave him EBM tops ups via bottle at almost every feed. Then we stopped because I was so worried that he'd reject the boob and only want a bottle - and now, he'll only take the boob.

I think I have tried every type of teats made and have spent at least $200 on teats in the hope that one of them would work with DS.

As a last resort, I am hoping that at about 6-7 months he will take EBM via a sippy cup as an alternative to the breast. Do you think that is possible?

[BeautifulMadness]

you poor thing...that must be tough

i cant really offer any advice as both my boys were bottlefed from the get go...

[Kmn]

Try the sippy cup now too - he may be able to manage it OK.

I had a similar thing - a bub who had mostly ebm for his first couple of months, and then decided bottles were horrid. This is what worked for us.

1) give bottle when he was not being cuddled or sitting on me - either with him propped on a cushion on the floor, or in his baby-chair or pusher.

2) get him sucking first -on a finger or the leg of a teddy (ew!) and then swap for the bottle

3) We had to have bottle days - I'd make 6*20 ml ebm bottles, and try for a few minutes each feed - and if it didn't work then move on to the boob.
eventually we got there - over several weeks. And it was a few weeks more before he would take a bottle for someone other than me.

[luna moth]

See if he'll take it from a cup now, or even a spoon. Plenty of babies skip the bottle. My little girl certainly isn't interested, no matter how hungry or cranky she is, but will take 20mL or so from a spoon, enough to tide her over until mumma's back with the real thing.

But I just feed her right before I go anywhere, and I don't go for more than three hours. My heart starts aching after two anyway

[buliej]

Audax - I do the same - feed right before I go. I usually am not away for more than 2 hours either (and isn't it funny how you miss them so intensely even for a short period) but this past Saturday we were looking at childcare centres as our area had an "open day" of childcare centres and we got a call from the inlaws who were babysitting that DS was crying (hungry? who knows!) and we had to rush home...it had been 2.5 hours since last feed and we would had liked another hour. Walked in the door, put DS on the boob and all was fine but I wish we could have finished doing what we set out to do.

[gypsy79]

Have you tried the Pigeon bottles? My DS initially took a bottle of EBM, but then after a couple of months he refused. We tried Avent and Tomme Tippee, and I had just about given up when someone recommended the Pigeon. He still wasn't a big fan, but he would take the bottle eventually.

[WeeMansMummy]

Defo try the sippy cup.
I've had an LC feed W at 2 weeks from a normal cup.. It was so weird but it worked. She just held him and chatted and poured little mouthfuls in his mouth. You could give that a go.
I've also heard of people putting a bottle of ebm under their arm and switching from the bottle to the breast... Perhaps this would work in the reverse too.
Good luck!

[HotI]

i have tried different bottles, different cups, different positions, different temps, different people, diluting the EBM, adding fruit but my DD just spits it out once she tastes it. From 6 months she would drink water but not EBM no matter what i have done.

[~Minny~]

I havent read through all the replies so sorry if im repeating

DS would only take a bottle of EBM if i wasnt there......and that means even if i was in the house and he knew he would refuse it flat out, if i tryed there was no way or if DF tryed and i was home he just wouldnt do it. It wasnt until he knew i wasnt there that he happily took it!

[buliej]

Thanks all. We've tried peristalic teats by pigeon - no luck...and DH has tried when I wasn't home (I got a phone call during my 2.5 hour movie outing with the girls !)...but we haven't tried the sippy cup - it sounds like that should be next. I think he really doesn't like "fake" nipples - he won't let a dummy near his mouth either.

[buliej]

I'm reviving this because we've had zero luck with anything...except we haven't tried sippy cups yet because I think DS is just too little (he won't suck so we'd need something that doesn't have a valve but he gags if the flow is too fast - he's even done this on my breast at certain times when they are "full"). My MIL has tried, DH has tried, FIL has tried - I've left the house - I've let him go 4 hours during the day when I haven't been home - he'd rather cry than take the bottle of EBM my husband offered. The MCHN suggested letting him go up to 6 hours during the day - I just can't do this - I had a hard time with the 4 (and that only happened by accident because I was late coming home from an app't but had left a bottle of EBM to try after 3 hours thinking I'd be home no later than 3:15 after prior daytime feed). Another MCHN suggested trying with the bottle for 45 minutes even if he screamed - something else I won't do (and nor will DH who would be the one on the front lines).

Should I just grin and bear it for now (as this can't go on indefinitely - see next sentence) - for now, it's really a matter of convenience - I'm not returning to work yet (only working from home part time starting mid-July). However, I will be returning to work in the office two days/week in mid-Sept (DS will be 9 months) and if he won't take anything but boob we will have a problem because I will be away from roughly 7-7:30am to 6pm two days/week. Should we hire a mothercraft nurse to help us? Would the fact that they are a mothercraft nurse even make a difference?