Bottle refusal

[special child]

Hey all,

I am having a little difficulty getting Noah to drink from a bottle. He is just me me me...Booby boy!!. He has had a really bad cold the past couple of weeks and has not really been drinking well from me either. How ever does take some from time to time...when it suits him. I have thought of topping him up on ebm thru the bottle but he is flatly refusing. He wont drink from a cup either. I have also tried him with diluted juice and water and still nothing.....

Any suggestions as to how I will be able to get thing happening?

Cheers.

Nola xoxo

[MantaRay]

Nola, neither of mine were ever good at taking a bottle either. At this stage I wouldn't worry with a bottle at all - he is old enough for a sippy or straw cup and that way you won't have to transition him from bottle to cup later. I was lucky that mine took to the cup straight away, but I would recommend persistence, and trying different types of cups. There are different types of sippy cups, some require more sucking than others, and also straw cups, so you can experiment with the different sorts. I would give each a few goes before trying the next, and then just keep persisting until you have some luck. It could be that he is just not interested due to the cold, and when he is feeling better he'll drink well from a cup. Good luck, I hope you have success soon.

[~Raven~]

You could just keep trying and he might get it once he's used to it.
One way that worked for me was to let Caleb play with it and figure it out for himself. It was a bit messy though so maybe just water till he gets the idea.

[Smoke Jaguar]

Try changing the teat - DS wouldn't drink from a bottle until I changed the teat, but it took me ages to figure that out! I had been trying to use a Nuk one, then changed to the Pur teat (he was 6 months old by then, so it was the older age one). Also, as I had an oversupply for so long, DS found it harder to drink from that Nuk teat than one with a faster flow and hated it.

[Barb Glare]

Hi, Nola,

I tend to agree with MelanieR. At this point I would head straight for a cup (sipper, straw or just plain) If you do get him to take the bottle, in 4 mnths you will be being pressured to wean him from the bottle - another whole drama. He's a big boy now, he knows how the boob workds. Often when we have a cold we feel like just small frequent drinks - keep the throat lubricated. It can still be a bit raspy even when other symptoms have abated. If you are getting cabin fever, feeling you have to be with him all the time, arrange some-one you trust to care for him and head out. Leave food and drink - he will cope without you. He'll drink when he's ready, and at this age, they can like to assert their will (something they will do for the rest of their lives) and they can often refuse just because they can! He will take drinks fine when he's ready
Regards
Barb

[Smoke Jaguar]

Maybe I'm just lucky, but DS will drink from a cup, sippy cup or bottle. But I held off bottles for ages, so maybe that's why he's an easy drinker. Tried bottles at about 3 months but he wouldn't have a bar of it and wouldn't cup feed (and when I had an op when he was 5 months old this was a problem, because he was still being exclusively BF), so left it till I changed the teat at about 6 months. We had no problems getting him used to a sippy cup or normal cup, but then he doesn't often have bottles, either - it's only occasional, when I'm not around...which isn't often.

[Clarrie]

I'm having exactly the same trouble with my little girl who is 7.5 months old. To make things worse, she has just started daycare and so the pressure is on to get her to drink non-booby fluids.

She absolutely refuses the bottle, tenses up and pushes it away when it gets near her. She's less intense with a sippy cup, but is not interested in drinking from it. I've found a sippy cup that she can "work", but she chooses not to and just chews the spout intead. I've tried diluted juice as a teaser, and got her to maybe drink 10 mls but she just pushed it away.

She's been in daycare for 2 weeks now and they are also not making much progress with her drinking. As a result, I'm coming in to pick her up at 2pm to give her a breastfeed. Next week she will be at daycare from 7am until 5pm. This is such a long time to go without any fluid at all, I am so worried.

Solids-wise, she's an absolute champion - so I am less worried about her starving and more worried about her getting dehydrated. Please tell me that she will eventually come around! How long does this kind of refusal last for?

[MantaRay]

Clarrie, I am sure she won't dehydrate herself. When there is no alternative she should drink when she needs to. Have you tried water in the cup? What about a straw cup?

See how you go next week. I was worried about the boys not drinking enough (they would drink from a cup before starting day care, but not much), and they were fine. I was surprised how much they drank when I wasn't there and there was no choice. Hopefully it will be the same for you.

BTW, there is no need for her to drink anything other than EBM at day care if you don't want her to. Jack used to drink some water, but mostly only EBM at day care until after 12 months. Tom is still only drinking EBM and a small amount of water at day care.

[Clarrie]

Thanks Melanie - yep, have tried water and a strawcup. She likes to play with the strawcup, but can't work it yet.

Unfortunately re EBM, I just can't pump very much of it (whole nother story) and so I'm planning on giving her formula at daycare throughout the day. She happily took formula from a bottle a month ago for 5 days in a row, and then these problems started.

Personally, I'm fine with her not drinking milk throughout the day (since she gets breastfeds at 5am, 6.30am, 5pm and 7pm) but want her to be drinking some water or juice while in daycare.

[Snacks]

I agree with the persistence. Natty refused everything but booby til only a few weeks ago. I'd been offering her a cup from 6 months, and it mostly served as a play thing until a couple of weeks ago when she just decided that she'd have a swallow. She never drinks much tho.
I think Melanie's right, Clarrie - I doubt your DD would let herself get dehydrated. I'm sure she knows how the cup works and will use it when she absolutely needs to.

[Clarrie]

Thanks so much for your encouraging words, guys. I was so stressed about this until your responses and now I feel a lot less anxious. I guess it's like everything with bubs, they'll come around when THEY want to and there's not much you can do until then.

I've got to remember that my LO is a smart cookie and if she's really thirsty, she'll know to take the cup.

[MantaRay]

I'm glad you're feeling less stressed Clarrie. Take care and all the best.

[Liz]

DS still won't drink diluted juice. He's a water boy! (oh - he has a cup of milk at night ) I had to find a sippy cup without a valve to 'teach' him that there's actually drink in there.. then we moved on to nonspill ones and he has a straw one too. He drinks heaps from the straw one.. dunno if it's the novelty or not??

DS never really took to the bottle.. but then I only offered it a few times.

Nola - hope Noah feels better soon. I'm sure he'll start drinking more when he feels better.

[Kristen]

THANKYOU so much for starting this post.

My little girl used to have a bottle of EBM every night until she was 8 weeks and was BF during the day. After that, I stopped expressing and therefore her bottles also stopped. She had the odd bottle here and there since then which were fine, but of late she's not been feeding well from me, and I wanted to top her up by bottle.

Well... she won't have a bar of it. At first, her problem was that it was almost like she had no idea how to actually suck from it. She'd sit there and chew on it and push the teat out with her tongue and roll it from side to side, but never actually suck. Now, it's a screaming match - once the bottle goes in her mouth she screws up her face and wails - and the only thing that stops her wailing is the boob!

The reason I am getting worried is I've just started working P/T and it means even though work is only 10 mins from home, I can only manage a 2 hour shift before I have to leave to go home and feed her. I just can't keep doing this! And as for going out with hubby to the movies and having her babysat... forget it!

I am DESPERATE for some help!!!!!! She was drinking fine before from her Avent bottles and teats - but I've now tried the Pigeon teat as it's supposed to be more like a nipple, I've tried leaving the room while DH tries to give her the bottle, we don't force it on her but she still screams. We've tried every day for 10 days now and nothing... PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

[Barb Glare]

Hi,

It is really stressful, isn't it? It always surprises me that so many advise to give a bottle once a week (or whatever) from early on so "they learn to take a bottle" In my experience they really want the boob - and may at any given time just refuse the bottle!
But, she will be fine. Calm perseverance is the key here! Who is caring for Mia while you are at work? Are they calmly and patiently trying to give her a bottle while you are at work? How many days per week/hours per day are you working? Have you made arrangements to pump for her.
Try....walking around the garden with her while you try to give her her bottle, destract her, make feeding into a game.....slip her off the boob at night when she is pretty much asleep and slip the bottle in. Act as though you really don't care if she has it or not, but she is missing out on a lot of FUN. Make sure the bottle top isn't screwed on too tight - this will impede flow.
Once she gets the hang of it you'll wonder why you worried so much
Regards
Barb

[Kristen]

Thanks for the reply Barb!

I have tried slipping the teat into her mouth when she'd BFing, but she instantly knows there's something different and screws her face up and starts crying. She's far too clever for me to trick her!!

I will try more distraction techniques (or, I will get hubby to do so as he will be the one with the bottle!) and see how we go - I just really need to get her back to taking EBM - it's so stressful

[Snacks]

Hey Kristen. That sounds really hard. We have tried the bottle again a couple of times since my last post. I don't know if this would work for Mia because she is a bit younger, but I found that if I let Natalie have a hold and a play with it she would suck a bit and drink a bit too. She doesn't down the whole bottle, and it does take a while for her to drink anything, but I figure it is a good association to make (ie bottle = fun + milk) just in case I need her to take it at some stage. (Again tho, its not as much of a stress for me cause Natty's on solids too, so I'd understand if it didn't work for you... Just thought I'd share in case that's of any use!)

[Kristen]

Hi Amy -

Yeah, Mia's a bit too young to grab the bottle herself and hold it - we try putting her in her bouncer in front of the tele and give it to her then (she loves watching the tv) so as to distract her from crying - but she usually just purses her lips together so we can't put the teat in!!

I hope we get there eventually!