Infant's First Day... Won't Take Bottle

[Soupyszoo]

Help! I need a link or advice or something...

It's dcg first day. She's 3 months, breasted, and I just tried to feed her for the first time with the bottle the dcf provided, but she just screams!

I did get her to latch on for about 30 secs and ate maybe an ounce but then she just started to scream again. I decided to take a break... Change her... Then oh my did she BURP! Lol poor little thing!

She's not screaming anymore, oh, and just pooped..

Do I just keep trying? Is there anything to make the adjustment from boob to bottle less traumatic?

Any advice is muchly appreciated! happyface

[sharlan]

Sounds like my day last Thurs. Baby screamed (4 mo) for over an hour before Mom came. Wouldn't even **** on the bottle.

Friday was pretty good, but today is Monday. So far, the only thing that is really making her happy is to put her in the stroller and walk, walk, and walk.

All you can do is keep trying.

[cheerfuldom]

Are you sure that she has even been offered a bottle before?

[wdmmom]

Sounds to me like she's never had a bottle before and definitely hasn't been transitioned over.

My families know if breast feeding is the way to go, the child must be bottle trained. I suggest nursing in the morning and at night. All bottles in between. I would contacr DCM and ask if this is a regular bottle she uses. If not, she needs to bring you what she is ued to. If she's not bottle trained, I would suggest DCM get on board right away.

[nannyde]

Did the parents SHOW you that she was able to eat off of a bottle?

I require ALL breastfed babies to eat at my house in front of me so I can SEE that they are nipple trained. I don't take anyones word for it because nipple trained is in the eye of the beholder.

I don't do nipple training here at all. I don't offer that. I can't have a kid under my roof that can't eat EASILY.

If the baby isn't nipple trained you are going to be in a serious mess come day three. That's when things fall apart. Three days of fussing and going long periods between eating plus the stress of not eating will come to a head by day three.

I would let the mom know that SOMEONE has to come over and SHOW you how the baby eats on the bottle she gave you. Either she comes and feeds off bottle or someone else who has fed the baby. If she admits that she hasn't switched the baby then she will most likely need to take off a couple of weeks to get her transitioned. The Mom needs to understand that as a parent it is HER responsibility to make sure that EVERY WHERE the baby goes the baby can eat. It can't be turfed over to a child care provider. Mom's job to make sure she NEVER leaves the baby ANYWHERE where the mom isn't 100 percent sure the baby can eat.

[Heidi]

I'm with Nan on this one. I've had one child over the years who was not bottle trained, and it was a 4 day long nightmare before I said "bye bye". Nice family, just clueless. We had talked about that BEFORE they started, and they promised to make sure it was handled, and then they didn't.

[sharlan]

Mine has been given the bottle, I fed her a bottle in front of Mom. She's just used to being held a lot. She absolutely LOVES the stroller so we've been doing lots of walking today. Luckily, she's the only one I have today.

[renodeb]

No not really. But she should of been bottle feeding at home for atleast a month so the baby is used to it. When she is isnt screaming try again. Make sur the bottle is warm enough and maybe advise mom to do a bottle at home so she gets used to it.
Just a note: Often times bf babies wont take a bottle from mom, so maybe another family member?
Debbie

[momma2girls]

I always make sure and let every Mother know the same thing. I ask, now the baby drinks well from a bottle, correct? If they do not , they will not return until they are drinking from a bottle. I had this happen once as well, DUHH!!!! I can't hardly believe anyone would just show up at daycare, and not be used to the bottle, or have never had a bottle!! You do that transition at home, not at daycare, for the baby to be screaming, not liking the bottle all day!! UGHHH!!

[Soupyszoo]

I'm pretty sure this is a brand new concept to dcbaby she's having a rough day now. She's hungry but doesn't know how to eat and can't sleep well because she's so hungry

[cheerfuldom]

Mom needs to take a few days off work and get baby transitioned over to the bottle. It you try this yourself, you will be dealing with a lot of crying this week, possibly much longer.

[Soupyszoo]

Just got her to take 2oz after a good 15 min scream. She was goin so good I wished I had made 4oz!!

[sharlan]

My DCM came over and nursed from 12:45 to 1:15. Baby has been asleep since 1:15. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!

[spud912]

Some babies won't take to the bottle at all, so I will only accept a baby into my care who does so with ease. I know my mom told me that I was one of those babies who would never take a bottle. She tried repeatedly, even to the point of only offering the bottle. After not eating for 2 days, she finally gave it up and breastfed me until I turned 1 (good thing for her was that she was a work at home daycare provider).

My younger dd only took the bottle on 2 occasions, which meant that I couldn't leave her with someone longer than 2-4 hours (depending on her age and the amount of solid foods she was eating at the time). Every other attempt at giving her a bottle (and there were lots since she wasn't very easy to nurse either) resulted in major meltdowns.

[harperluu]

I have had very difficult transitions with exclusively breastfed babies. Here's what I found in general:

Have the family feed the baby a bottle at home at the same feedings they would take a bottle normally in daycare. This seems to reduce the retraining needed on Mondays when a child is then expected to readjust to bottlefeeding.

Make the bottle very, very warm. This has helped in nearly every instance. If the baby does not seem to want it after a burp break, warm it up again to retry.

A starving breastfed baby is not going to do well at bottle feeding. I've dropper fed a baby to move past the "starving", and have had success with that.

Don't recline the infant as much as she would be reclined to nurse. This can be confusing to a baby's muscle memory causing a situation where the baby is expecting to nurse because they are in the nursing position.

Have the mom sleep with a receiving blanket each night and use during bottle feeding to give the baby a familiar smell.

Hope this helps.