What to Do When Baby Refuses a Bottle

I had the same issue with my daughter. I finally tried the Breast Flow brand that you can get at some (but not all) Target and some other stores. That was the only bottle she would take until 4 mos old. At six months, she started taking a Gerber Nuk sippy cup...sometimes the sippy nipple on the larger Gerber bottles, which is how she takes it now at 12 mos.

Not sure how old the baby in question is, but when weening my kids (who were about 12 mos. at the time), i put a little bit of chocolate powder into their milk. Prior to this, neither one would take a bottle, no matter what I put in it, who gave it to them or how hungry they were. It worked, however, now at 3 and 4-1/2, neither of them drinks white milk ... only chocolate! Good Luck!

My kids have all tested me when it comes to the bottle. At about 9-12 weeks, they pick a preference and my breastfed babies preferred mom over any bottle. I tried dozens of different nipples and bottles, etc. There is a new one that I bought last time (it's by "The First Years" and looks like an actual nipple placed on a bottle). Depending on how stubborn the child was (and mine are very stubborn) it took a bit of coaxing. I had to pump and leave the milk at room temp to get them to drink. Someone else (my husband usually) had to give the bottle when I was nowhere to be found. My firstborn never did take a bottle, and I had to just switch her to a sippy cup at 3.5 months. Amazing, but she was fine with it. Mom is such a comfort item at that age that it is hard to hear your baby scream and it often seems easier just to give in and feed them. So, tell your friend to enlist help and leave the house so that she doesn't hear or isn't tempted to step in and help out. Babies are aware of all those things.

For my son, whom I breastfed and gave bottles to, I used the "MAM" brand bottles, which I got from Amazon.

It is great! And it is BPA free.... and my son loved it!
I swear by these bottles.
And it accumulates no air bottles in the bottle as the baby is drinking.

all the best,
Susan

Has she tried the dr brown bottles or theres another one where they have made it to actually resemble the breast i think Johnson and Johnson make it. he only other thing is maybe try giving the baby a massage before a feeding some time it tires them out enough ey don't care what there sucking on. She needs to watch formula.... It will give them gas more and breast feed babies dont like formula and some do. Also have her start storing some babies who are breast fed need to be either cup feed or spoon fed. Good luck!

I had the same problem with my son - it ended up that we kept trying different bottles until he finally took one (ended up with MAM bottles) and it wasn't easy! We tried different people, times, everything - eventually we had to just take him with the bottles to daycare and he did take them from the day care provider. It was almost as if he realized that was it - when we tried at home he knew I was there and he saw me leave at day care?!?

Good luck!

oh do I feel for this mom! I had the same problem, but my daughter would not take a bottle, not even one time until she was 7 months old! I have heard that the mom has to actually leave the house because they can still smell if their around (although this didn't work for me)... we held out for almost 8 hours hoping she would get hungry enough to drink the bottle... that was torture and didn't work either! THANKFULLY, my husband wasn't working a normal type of job at the time, and my work was flexible enough that we actually met up in random parking lots (I worked in 3 different places) so I could feed the baby. It was really hard on him too, because he spent a lot of time with a baby that wouldn't drink a bottle!! At 7 months, she grabbed the bottle (we kept trying) and started chugging away like a pro... and would never breast feed again... which by this time, was fine by me!!!! Because we both had more flexible schedules, we just worked it out... I don't know what we would have done if this wasn't the case... but I do wish your friend luck :-) Either way... this moment will pass, and will become another funny story to tell in the future!

We had this problem with my grandson and found that sucking on a botttle was to difficult, he had a slight ear infection at the time, so I tried dipping a straw in his juice or milk until he got the hang of sipping thru the straw and he has never taken a bottle since. He still breast feeds when Mom is there but prefers a straw the rest of the time. I have done this with other babies and had the same results. It is worth a try.

Tell the mom to take a small 2 oz plastic bottle (with nothing in it) and put a regular nipple on it. Let her baby play with it, as a toy. Once she sees baby is comfortable putting the nipple in her mouth, put 1/2 oz of breastmilk in it. Baby will discover on her own that it's a feeding method. Just don't pressure her.

If mom wants to try something different, have someone else give the bottle (warm, not hot) to the baby about a half an hour before you expect her to get hungry. Mom will need to leave the room or house, so baby will try. It's like asking a starving person to use chop sticks. Offer it casually, when baby isn't hungry, upset etc. Two frustrations (hunger and learning a new skill) prove too much for babies and then they don't take it.

Let us know how it works out for her.

Ha I tried EVERYTHING possible my daughter never ever took a bottle and I have 1 of every kind of bottle out there. I worked only weekends thank goodness but I worked 8hr shifts and she would go the whole time with out eating my poor hubby. I had a lot of frozen breast milk wasted! I hope your friends baby will end up taking the bottle good luck

Breastfed babies love their mamas' breasts but will manage to take breastmilk when they're not there if they're hungry. Often they will not take it from the mother or if they can tell she is home! A caregiver can give pumped breastmilk in a medicine spoon or dropper, a sippy cup or any soft/plastic or paper cup that bends, or a regular spoon. Other ideas are for her to postpone her return to work if that's possible or work flexible or part-time hours if they'll allow that. Some moms are very fortunate to be able to nurse the baby once during their workday if they can get home or someone can bring the baby to them. My daughter nursed hers at the Wendy's at Harper Hospital where her husband met her for dinner during her 12-hour shift. Some babies just wait for mom and, if their weight is increasing and they have enough wet & poop diapers to be sure they're getting enough, that sometimes works. Most babies of working mamas want to nurse a lot when mom is home, maybe even most of the night if she can arrange to sleep and nurse at the same time. Moms and babies get very creative with these things. Sometimes they take to the bottle after a day or two when it's not given by mom. I would tell her to stop trying to do it herself altogether or she may have bigger problems. Nurse a lot, carry her baby around a lot, cuddle a lot to reassure the baby that she's there and have the caregiver do a lot of holding, touching, and carrying too at this young age. She can go on the LaLeche League website www.llli.org and look under Resources then under Answers. They have a lot of info on working and breastfeeding. I say, good for her for giving her baby the best! This can be done. Many, many women do it. Formula adds other problems and interrupts the lovely immunity the baby gets from breastmilk. These early months are so very important - I definitely wouldn't introduce formula for a healthy, growing baby who has breastmilk at hand.

It's really not usually the type of bottle or nipple, but the type of person. You said she has tried pretty much everything and I'm sure she is "expecting" the next feed to fail. So, she has to approach it w/ a positive attitude (different person maybe), I promise they sense that anxiety and will refuse whatever the person if offering. I've seen it first hand in daycare, one provider could not get one of the babies to drink and another woman tried, she took right too it and you could tell the first lady was just irritated and had no patience. I'm not assuming she doesn't have patience but I'm sure she is very frustrated as I would be too. I however used Breast Flow bottles and they made the transition pretty easy for me. It took him a couple of weeks to truly get the hang of a bottle as any breastfed baby, but that's what I would recommend. I ordered them on Amazon.com and I think they may be at Target. Hope this helps! Keep working on it...

I was always told that the bottles and nipples made a difference but with my son it did not matter what I tried on him. The only thing that helped him was to offer the bottle only and not the breast to get him switched over. It took a while for him to get use to the bottle. They will eat it when they are hungry. She just needs to keep a close eye on the number of diapers to make sure dehydration does not occur.

It could be the nipples on the bottle she is using.. try variuos ones and if it still doesn't work maybe put a VERY SMALL abount of something sweet on the end like yogurt, jam or whip cream. The unusual flavor might draw the baby to the bottle. It worked with my daughter. Good luck and best wishes.