5 Month Old Rejecting Milk...

Start the sippy cup with breast milk and give him solids and table food. Supplement when you can with breast milk. Sounds like he self weaned from the bottle. My youngest would never eat baby food only table food. So I just ground that up and we went with it. Some of his first foods were spaghetti and ranch style beans. Who would have thought. We never looked back. Eats great, loves milk. No problems.
Good luck,
L.

Try not to think of it as he's rejecting the milk, he's just not so thrilled with the bottle. Your life will be much easier if he's not attached to a bottle, so try the sippy cup. Otherwise try using the breastmilk to mix the cereal. If it comes on a spoon it may be more interesting. As soon as all 3 of my kids started solids, they refused the bottle of breastmilk a sitter offered. It's kind of like refusing to eat leftovers. Re-heated breastmilk just isn't as good as the fresh stuff and being snuggled up with mommy. It is important for him to get your milk to meet his nutritional needs, but as many others have suggested, he may prefer to nurse more before and after daycare, then just snack on his "solid" food while you are at work. Your milk supply should be able to adjust to a new schedule even if you end up not pumping at work. Be confident that the milk will be there in ample quantities when he's ready to nurse, and it will be. As long as you feel he's healthy and growing well, don't stress too much about this change in routine.

Warm Regards,
S.

Mom of 3: ages 8, 5 1/2, 18 months (all nursed about a year)

Try a different bottle! More like different nipples. I say this because my mom told me that when I was a baby I did the same thing. I nursed but refused the bottle. I think I didn't eat for like 2 days. I loved my pacifier - it was an ortho NUK. So they looked everywhere to find a bottle nipple with the shape. Try finding a bottle nipple that looks like yours, or like their paci. Each one of my kids liked different bottle nipples at different times. The older they got the more they didn't care about the bottle nipple itself, so I could buy any type at that point.
Good luck!

I agree with the sippy cup. I started mine on a sippy at 5 months and she did great! I have stayed home with her, so not having the breast wasn't the problem, I just didn't want to have to wean from a breast AND a bottle. When I do leave to go somewhere without her, I leave breastmilk in a sippy and she takes it fine.

I don't work, but my son did the same thing about that time. He never really took a bottle. And certainly never did again. I tried some sippy cups (Nuby has one with a really great soft nipple that my cousin who is an OT recommended), then I actually started him on those straw cups and he liked those better. He just turned 15 months and still loves to drink from a straw and it is way easy eating out with kids cups!!!
I used Nuby of those too.
Good luck,

Your baby is probably just going through a little phase! Keep offering the breast milk and eventually he will drink it. When my baby (3 mos) rejects breast milk from the bottle, sometimes I keep trying a few minutes later and he will take it, or maybe he has a burp that won't come out, or maybe the milk smells a litte bit-surprising I know, if the milk is fresh within a couple of days in the fridge, but sometimes this happens-there should be no smell to it-if there is, he may be rejecting it for that reason. If not, he may just need a new size nipple. I also have a 5 year old so I've been there! Keep trying! :)

This happened with my DD at 5 months. The sitter was lucky to get her to drink one bottle a day. I changed the nipples on her bottles from slow flow to fast flow. We had immediate results. She now takes all 4 bottles that I send with her.

Hi G.:

I am an infant feeding specialist. Your breast milk is more important than the purees at this point because that is where he gets most of his daily nutrition. Purees are important eventually, but they are watered down fruits and vegetables with very little caloric value. I would offer the bottle before purees. The other thing you need to look at is your bottle system. Is your milk coming out too fast? Does he have milk coming out the sides of the nipple? Was he drinking a bottle in less than 8 minutes before? Did he sound "gurgly" during and after drinking? Remember he has to work harder at the breast than the bottle. Sometimes my patients "shut down" if the nipple flow rate is too fast or even too slow.

R. Elkin, MOT, OTR/L, CKT
co-inventor of The RES-Q Infant Wedge

Have you tried a sippy cup? That also didn't work for my 2nd son, but is worth a try. Some kids just naturally know what's best and will refuse breastmilk unless it's straight from the source.

What worked for me was to nurse when we dropped him at the caregivers and then they would page me when he got hungry - once he started solids that would hold him over till lunch. Then in the afternoon, I would nurse before driving home and as soon as we got home, just before dinner and then once or twice more before bedtime. Also, for working moms nite time nursing is often a given to make up for the time away during the day and it's really important for maintaining a good milk supply.

My son never had solids at home until he was well over 9 months - that allowed him to still get the necessary breastmilk since he had two servings of solids during the day. Also, my husband and I worked our schedules so I would go in very early and my husband would drop him at daycare around 9pm - I fed him just before I left the house at 5:30 am and then when my husband dropped him off. That would often tide him over till about 11am and then I'd go over and then once in the afternoon. Fortunately, the daycare was 5 minutes from the office. There was, however, a huge benefit because I got to know the caregivers well and I knew that my son was well cared for.

G.- I had this too- believe it or not, I switched my daughter to a sippy cup and she did fine! Another thing she preferred to drinking was when I mixed it with cereal and spoon fed her. Other suggestions include changing nipple level size (higher #'s = faster flow) and mixing the milk in cereal to make sure he gets the nutrients/vitamins he needs from the milk. A bf kiddo is a smart one- he probably knows what he prefers!!

G.,

Yes. My daughter did this. Kids are smart. She decided that she prefered warm snuggly nursing over the bottle and wouldn't do it. Fortunately, this happened later than 5 months for us - maybe closer to 9-10 months. I nursed more at night to get her the nutrition, then I quit work at 11 months and we had no more nursing/pumping stress. She had started loading up at night anyway, secretly transitioning us without my noticing it! She's still pretty smart at 5 1/2.

Dr. Sears says the secret to working and continued breastfeeding that smart moms and babies know is nightnursing. Just a thought, if you view nursing as a priority.

Good luck.

Went through similar event. I switched to the Playtex bottles with disposable liners. The nipples that were used back in the day that seem to be "naturaully" shaped. That was ALL I could get her to use b/c they seemed more real. Try giving the milk in a sippy cup. Maybe he's just a bit more advanced and ready to move up!

i have 2 children and one of them did the same as your child. what i did was ....
1. made sure i was using the proper nipple for my child's age.
2. give the breastmilk/bottle first.
3. after the milk, then they can have the solids.
(think of the milk as the entree and the solids as dessert)

your breastmilk is much more important than the pureed food.

good luck!

I would start pouring it in a sippy. He's probably ready for a sippy cup anyways.
Good luck!!

You are lucky you made it so long! My child refused to ever take a bottle. She co-slept and reverse cycled (nursed all night while we slept) so she was not adversely effected. I would not panic too much if your baby is still nursing a lot at home, is nursing overnight, and is still having lots of wet diapers.

I remember daycare being frustrated and that one trick we tried at that age was changing to sippy cups. Sometimes this would be enough to at least get my child to take some pumped milk.