Question for experienced breastfeeding moms about bottles....?

Question

I have an 8 month old son who I breastfeed exclusively. He has tried solids a couple of times and is not that interested. The problem is that I can't get him to take a bottle. He has never had anything other than my breast. I have offered him a bottle numerous times, putting it in his mouth or even just letting him pick it up and explore. He only wants to chew on the nipple. (He is in the process of getting his 3rd and 4th teeth) I really would like him to take a bottle so that my husband can feed him and I can get away for a while. I got a Dr. Brown's Natural Flow bottle. I have tried Level 1 and Level 2 nipples. Any good suggestions??

Answer 1

I am in the same situation and I give my son a beaker without a lid.He loves drinking from it but it can get quite wet!

Answer 2

give him a bottle or let him starve  

Answer 3

Did you try putting a little breast milk on the outside of the nipple?

And it may sound harsh, but he will eventually take it, you just can't offer anything else.

(and good job on bf-ing so long!  :)

Answer 4

My son would only take the wide neck latex (brown) nipples from Playtex (the drop-ins bottles.) We tried so many others! These seemed softer than silicone nipples so I thought that might be why he liked them. I did try to sit him up and distract him with a baby einstein video or something at first too, and then slip the bottle in his mouth. Good luck!

Answer 5

my son would never take a bottle, however, he was using a sippy cup successfully at around 6 months (stealing big sis's water and finally we got him his own). If you really want to get away, don't feel bad about him not taking a bottle, daddy can either spoon feed him expressed milk, try it in the sippy cup or he'll get the idea of not eating for just a couple of hours. And if you feed right before you leave, he definitely won't starve!! But I agree with mystic about the fact that 8 months is too old to bother with a bottle! As for daddy getting bonded with babe, the world didn't always have bottles yet other people bonded with the baby, you can do this in so many ways and I bet they already did months ago! As for my son, for a long time there, the only reason why he even cared where I was was for food, otherwise it was all about daddy!! They bonded very well without ever feeding!

Answer 6

Don't bother with a bottle at this age.  Use a sippy cup or a cup, but bottles at this age are not worth the trouble.

If you need to go somewhere without your baby, just go.  He's old enough to have some expressed milk or some water in a cup and solid foods while you're gone.  Don't worry about it.  He won't starve.

He probably won't take a bottle from you, but if you're gone and he's hungry, he might figure it out.  It will be fine.

Answer 7

Really 8 months old is too old to bother with a bottle. Use a sippy cup or real cup.

But honestly if you go out and he doesn't want to drink anything that's not a huge problem.  My 9 month old has never taken a bottle, he takes water from a sippy (even for me, he seems to just need it some days).  I go out and leave him.  He's fine for at least 3-4 hours, though if I take him out somewhere he will frequently go up to 8 hours without nursing (which is why I started trying to get him to take water from a sippy cup because it gets so hot).

Leave milk, leave a bottle and a sippy.  Daddy/sitter can even try spoon feeding the breastmilk but your son will probably choose just to wait for you to get home.  You wouldn't wake an 8 month old to nurse if they slept all night, so respect them if they choose to wait until you get home!

What to Feed the Baby when the Mother is Working outside the Home

http://www.kellymom.com/newman/17feed_ba...

http://mother-2-mother.com/normal.htm#br...

Normal Breastfeeding Patterns After Eight Weeks:

The following suggestions are "average" recommendations - keep in mind there is no "one size fits all" for nursing frequency. Some babies have predictable patterns, others nurse on irregular pattern. Some mom/baby pairs can go longer than others between nursing sessions depending on mom's storage capacity. A mom with larger storage capacity might note that her baby goes longer between feedings, and a mom with smaller storage capacity might note her baby nurses more often. (Remember, storage capacity is not related to breast size.) It is helpful to keep note of baby's weight gain and elimination patterns when "judging" whether or not baby is nursing enough

From eight weeks (2 months) to a year, here are suggested minimum number of times a breastfed baby should be nursing, in a 24 hr span:

From 2 - 4 months baby should nurse at least 6 times in 24 hr period

From 4 - 7 months baby should nurse at least 5 times in 24 hr period

From 7 - 12 months baby should nurse at least 4 times in 24 hr period

How to bottle-feed the breastfed baby

...tips for a breastfeeding supportive style of bottle feeding

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/bottl...

Alternative Feeding Methods

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/alter...

There are a number of options for feeding baby when you are unable to directly breastfeed - a bottle is only one of them. If your baby is older than 4-6 months old, consider going straight to a cup. If your baby is less than 3-4 weeks old, it is best to avoid the use of a bottle for a couple of reasons:

    * regular use of a bottle instead of breastfeeding can interfere with mom's efforts to establish a good milk supply

    * bottle use also increases baby's risk of nipple confusion or flow preference

Following are some resources for alternative feeding methods.

Bottle | Cup, Dropper, Spoon | Finger Feeding | At Breast | Back to Breast | Older Babies

Answer 8

Well if it's you offering the bottle, your baby would rather have the breast.  Let your husband try offering the bottle while you're not around (babies can smell their mother's milk).

If all else fails, try a sippy cup or a cup that he can learn to drink from instead of the bottle, your husband can hold that and help him that way.

Answer 9

my 7 month old daughter wants nothing to do with a bottle but will take a sippy cup.  we use the Nuby cups from walmart that have a soft spout.  she really likes water in a sippy cup, so we let her play with it.  that way she can learn without wasting breastmilk.

Answer 10

It just takes time - persistence on your part to keep introducing a bottle even if he bits the nippple.  Eventually, he will be hungry enough to drink the milk.  It took me a good month to wean my daughter who drank nothing but BM from my breast and never from a bottle...

Dr. Brown's are good bottles - but try the larger nipple - the nipple that has a larger base as I think it mimics the shape of the breast better than the smaller nipples.  My daughter had a tough time with the smaller nipples but with the larger, I'd hold her tight against my chest and "tricked" her into thinking she was drinking from me.  Now, she loves her bottle!  Oh, and I use the playtex drop-in's - I tried EVERY BPA-free bottle and playtex got the air out the best and has the easiest cleanup!  Good Luck - just keep trying and don't get frustrated!