Natural Birth and Baby Care.com

My Baby Stopped Taking a Bottle!

My 4 month old baby boy has been breastfed since birth but with 1 bottle of expressed milk each night. Last week he started to get very upset when he was given a bottle and he doesn't feed from it.

This has meant that he's now waking very early in the morning - he's hungry! I really need him to take this feed at night so I can get a good nights sleep! Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Many thanks
Emma

Answer:

Hi Emma,

Are you the one trying to give the bottle or is it someone else? If it's you, you can try and have someone else give the bottle - he associates you with nursing and some babies will begin to reject bottles from their mother for this reason.

A related idea is to make sure he's not getting the bottle somewhere he's used to nursing. So if you usually nurse him in a rocking chair, don't try and give a bottle feed there.

Have you tried a different type of bottle or a different style nipple? This will get some babies to start taking a bottle again, too.

You can also try a sippy cup with a softer spout. I have used the Avent Trainer spout with my little ones - the white spout is very soft (and BPA free). I've started with water at 6 months - but I've had friends who introduced it at 4-5 months.

Another option is to just try cup feeding him. A softer cup made of more flexible material might be easier. This would take longer than a bottle or sippy cup but he may be more likely to take it.


Related to these suggestions are a large medicine dropper or a deep spoon - again they're time-consuming but could be worth it.

Sometimes if you start the feeding with a cup or spoon, baby will accept the bottle a few minutes into the feeding.

You can also try varying the milk temperature - if he's having it warm now you might try it cooled from the fridge. You can also try the other way around, even slightly warming the nipple in warm water if that helps him.

Think about if you changed anything. Were you giving fresh milk from the fridge and switched to thawed from the freezer? Sometimes babies object to milk preserved in a different way than "usual."

If he'll fall asleep, or mostly so, without taking the bottle you could try giving it to him when he's very drowsy and mostly asleep - he may automatically take it at that point.

And a final consideration is how you're handling the early-morning waking. Is he in your bed or a bed of his own? Could you bring him to bed to nurse where both of you fall back asleep?

Best of luck with figuring out his reluctance and getting back to plenty of sleep for both of you!