My 8 Month Old Will Not Accept Anything but the Breast. HELP!

Well, think of it this way: Your baby is really bonded to you and loves you and sees you as a source of comfort. That is so important! Crucial at this point, really. So well done.

I was not able to pump (due to low milk supply), so mine only had the breast as well. I know it's hard sometimes when you're rushing back to them! Sympathy there...

And when it comes to the sleeping, I also recommend co-sleeping, especially if yours is nursing and will sleep in your room (but not necessarily in your bed). Our son would never have slept well in another room. It definitely would have injured our bond to do that. However, if you let him sleep in our bed, he'll sleep all night, waking up just enough to wriggle back to the breast if he comes off, and then sleeping again. I'll admit: It's inconvenient to have ours in the bed every night. I wish he were the type to sleep right next to us in his own bed instead of literally with us. OTOH, he's not and I'd rather have a good relationship than not! Anyway, yours might just be hungry or having bad dreams and needing to nurse. If you had him with you, that would be so much easier! Good luck with whatever you decide!

My daughter is 6 mo old and went through a period of refusing the bottle of breast milk when I went back to work parttime despite taking the bottle for practice while I was on leave. She got over it pretty fast when she realized I was not going to come home and feed her every time(and I only work 2 days)yet still doesn't take much from a bottle. Now that we have introduced baby food, she would rather eat that and wait for me to breastfed. Most babies will not starve themselves so as long as he is getting some food and then nursing when you home, he should be fine. We recently introduced the sippy cup as an alternative.
My daughter has been sleeping through the night on/off for 2 mo but I usually get a good 6 hr stretch most nights. If she wakes I try to comfort her with rubbing her back or a pacifier for a while before resorting to nursing. We are down to only one feed early morning at the most. Putting her to sleep in her own crib/room worked wonders.

i 'm sorry i can't help with the breast feeding thing, but man maybe he needs to be weened some sort of way, if say you don;t come home and if he is thirsty enough he will eventually learn that the breast is not avail, and he has to take the bottle or sippy cup, i know it's hard, but maybe with some tough love of not rushing home to feed him his milk, he will get the picture i mean he's not starving or anything for it, since he is eating food,but maybe he just needs to learn that it's not going to happen all the time for him. as far as the bed thing, get tough with him, if he cries in the crib for you to come and get him don't he has got to learn to sleep by himself, i think your son is and i put this lightly basicaly spoiled by you and if that's the case stop now or he will get worse and more and more demanding of you, babies to me know what they are doing, but discipline can never start too early. so no more breatfeeding, he's relying to much on the fact that he knows u will give it to him, he won't strave behind it, and no more sleeping with you, let him cry himself to sleep i know that's not easy but would you want him sleeping with u forever? if u get him used to it now he'll never sleep in his own bed

ok so you think 8 months is bad i was 2 years. Our babies are our bosses but now when they know that they run our lives. So no more you have to show the lil that mommy is the boss. leave the cup with whomever is watching him and when you do not show up he will have no choice but to drink it try it.It is really harder for us.
i told him 1 month before his second bday that we were not going to drink milk from mommy anymore he was like ok and didn't touch it again. i was like if i knew it was that easy i would have done it along time ago lol.
he will cry at least the first day but then he will stop...
good luck!!

It sounds like you are describing my son exactly. He will only nurse... nothing else. It is tough. He eats his solids, but won't take any liquids. I have been offering him a sippy cup of water at each meal and let him play with it throughout the day, just hoping that he will eventually drink! I really don't know what to tell you expect to keep trying. Jakob doesn't sleep through the night either. He loves to nurse 2-4 time each night, even now at almost 10 months old. He is a stubborn one! I am just going to try to enjoy it, because I remember being so bummed after my first son, now almost 3, weaned.

Good luck!

I'd try different bottles, too, that might be the answer. My daughter has slowly, very slowly begun to sleep in her crib, she is 2. It took a long transition and I just decided not to fight it, we get bonding time and both sleep. Good luck!

Our 2 and a half year old is not a good sleeper never was he's down to waking up once during the night. I think its perfectly fine that your son wakes during the night especially since you are breastfeeding.
As for getting him to take a bottle or sippy cup he won't take one from someone else? Our youngest was very picky about cups. He liked the nubby cups and no other cups for a long time. My friend bf her 3 kids and they all went from bfing to drinking out of a straw so you could try that.

My friend's baby was like this - she is a college professor and always considered herself "The Flying Breast", racing between classes to get to daycare to nurse. I would say your son will give this up when he is ready - it's obviously the comfort and closeness he likes. Try giving him foods with a high moisture content to be sure he is getting fluids, and he will manage fine when you are not there. At 8 months, they can "make up" for it at later feedings - there is no risk to his health. If you can't get home to nurse, don't worry, unless your breasts are filling up so much that you are uncomfortable. You can always pump or express if this back-and-forth is getting to be to much. It's obviously not the taste of the breast milk because he will not take it in a cup or bottle.

On the sleeping, I think you have to be tougher. DO NOT take him into your bed no matter what! I know you will be exhausted but you will create a huge problem/habit that you will not be able to break. (Read Mamasource posts for all the moms who are exhausted with 3 year olds still in their beds!) At this age he should be going through the night and self-soothing. There are many ways to accomplish this. We did cry-it-out but other parents have done other things. There are many books on the subject. He needs his rest and you need yours. We used a white noise machine to drown out "house noises" and other small sounds, as our son was very sensitive to stimuli. You can get a small air purifier if that works for you and him, if you think it's a good idea.

Good luck with your kids and with nursing school!

You don't mention your day care provider, but my daycare provider saved me when I worked 35 miles away and could not come feed my breast-feeding babies at lunch time. The kids learned pretty quickly that they needed to drink from a bottle, or they would go hungry. I don't think they pulled the same act on her as they all pull on mom. Please consider that you need your sleep to study for your RN and will need even more in the future!

Relax, it will get easier.
My son wouldn't take a bottle either, ever. Once I went back to work, I'd feed him on my lunch hour, but by around 8-9 months old, he started drinking water from a sippy cup, yogurt drinks, etc. so he could get through day care without me.
Part of what my son was doing was nursing through the night, since he wasn't getting milk during the day. Not an ideal situation, but we all survived it. That stopped when he was about a year old, and drinking milk, eating regular food.
My only advice is don't stress about it, try to get your son to eat/drink more other foods. Gradually, he should get less dependent on breastfeeding.

I had the same bond with my daughter. I had to leave the house to try to have my husband feed her a bottle. We tried many different bottles with my expressed milk or formula, and she would MAYBE take a sip but wail for me. Eventually, we tried watered down apple juice at lunch time. I would nurse in the AM and PM, but at lunch all she was offered was the watery juice in a bottle (by me, while she was sitting in a high chair)and she took it!!! She drank apple juice at lunch for a month or two and then my husband tried giving her formula in the same bottle when I went to take a walk at night (in case it did not work I was close by) and she took that too! So maybe try a juice and definitely try different nipples and bottle brands. Good luck!

My son is the exact same way. I've purchase so many different bottles and sippy cups, all just a waste of money. I went back to work when he was 3 months, my mother was watching him. She was only able to give him a bottle right before nap time. Once he started solids, we tried to load up the milk in his cereal. At around 6 months, he flat out refused anything in the bottle, so we resorted to just giving him solids in the day, then I would nurse him when I got home. He's a healthy big boy, about 26 pounds at 9 months, so I wasn't worried he wasn't getting enough. Don't worry about the milk so much. make sure he's getting enough calories.

Not sure what to do about the sleep myself. My son still wakes several times in the night, 3-4, but he sleeps in a separate room so I am able to get some sort of meaningful sleep inbetween. It's tough going to school and doing all that you do. You've done a great job with the nursing, you've already accomplished so much. Good luck!

I can't help you with the breastfeeding, because I bottle fed.

But my advice on the sleeping is as follows:

My son (who is 3) and I have co-slept since his birth. He didn't sleep through the night until he was 2.5 year old. So don't think that kids at 8 months should be out for the night.

My advice would be to take him to bed with you or if that's not possible, then put the crib mattress on the floor next to your bed so he knows you're near.

I've never had any problems with my son sharing my bed, and it's only made us both happier (we get full nights sleep) and healthier (mom-child bonding time).

Let us know how it works out.

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