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

[Soupyszoo]

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.

Thank you!!! I will try all this!!

[Crystal]

I would also ask Mom to leave a shirt that she has worn and not laundered. Drape this over your arm that baby is laying on while you feed her. This will give her a sense of being with Mom and may make her more willing to eat. It is possible Mom is the only person who has ever fed her, so smelling Mom sometimes helps.

[MNMum]

Make sure baby is using a slow flow nipple. Parents may need to bring several different bottle types - they should be working on this at home as well. Mam, Tommee Tippee. Try to be supportive and helpful. Most babies will be able to transition - but not all.

I breastfed all my babies and went back to work when they were 16 weeks old. We introduced the bottle with all three at 2 weeks. Baby #1 and #2 had some hiccups upon my return to work but did well and continued to nurse when I was home, bottlefeed when I was gone. Baby #3 took a bottle initially and then flat out refused. We tried everything. He did take a bottle from the MAM nipple for about a week. Then he just reverse cycled when I was gone. Took one or two ounces total while I was away, and made up for it at night. Some days my husband would drive him into work once, but he would take a few sips from a sippy cup otherwise. He was happy while I was gone for the most part. He was quite fat, so I was not concerned with weight gain, and I did not work fulltime.

[Soupyszoo]

Make sure baby is using a slow flow nipple. Parents may need to bring several different bottle types - they should be working on this at home as well. Mam, Tommee Tippee. Try to be supportive and helpful. Most babies will be able to transition - but not all.

I breastfed all my babies and went back to work when they were 16 weeks old. We introduced the bottle with all three at 2 weeks. Baby #1 and #2 had some hiccups upon my return to work but did well and continued to nurse when I was home, bottlefeed when I was gone. Baby #3 took a bottle initially and then flat out refused. We tried everything. He did take a bottle from the MAM nipple for about a week. Then he just reverse cycled when I was gone. Took one or two ounces total while I was away, and made up for it at night. Some days my husband would drive him into work once, but he would take a few sips from a sippy cup otherwise. He was happy while I was gone for the most part. He was quite fat, so I was not concerned with weight gain, and I did not work fulltime.

They sent tommee tippee bottles. She finally ate on the third try! happyfacehappyfacehappyface

[Honeyfoot]

I had a baby like that. She would scream all day. Wouldn't even eat for her dad or grandma- only her mom. I spent a long time searching for ways to get her to eat for me and the only things that worked were softly singing the alphabet to her while she drank and sticking a clean finger in her mouth along with the nipple (it felt weird, but really helped for some reason).

[nannyde]

They sent tommee tippee bottles. She finally ate on the third try! happyfacehappyfacehappyface

You can end up with a belly full of air doing a tippee cup on a baby that young. They are designed to have a strong attached seal and ****.

[Soupyszoo]

You can end up with a belly full of air doing a tippee cup on a baby that young. They are designed to have a strong attached seal and ****.

I've never heard of them. What's makes them different than say Avent or dr brown?

[nannyde]

I've never heard of them. What's makes them different than say Avent or dr brown?

Oh I'm sorry... I misread that. I thought it was "cup" not bottle. I've seen many parents trying to hand feed out of a tomme tippee CUP when they won't latch a nipple. Just make sure it's an actual NIPPLE not hard plastic cup lid.

Doing by sips ends you up with a baby in terrible stomach pain.

[Soupyszoo]

Oh I'm sorry... I misread that. I thought it was "cup" not bottle. I've seen many parents trying to hand feed out of a tomme tippee CUP when they won't latch a nipple. Just make sure it's an actual NIPPLE not hard plastic cup lid.

Doing by sips ends you up with a baby in terrible stomach pain.

Oh! Ok yeah this is an actual bottle with nipple. The milk does come out a little fast but today she did great with it. But she did have a lot of gas yesterday, but I think it was from all the adorable screaming while attempting to bottle feed her :: once she relaxed and latched on and ate she farted for several minutes straight!!

[bice99]

Trying different speed nipples works, too. My DD never used a slow nipple. With me, it was either nurse in under 7 minutes or drown. LOL

[Lucy]

I may have missed it, but did you say whether you are feeding breastmilk or formula? I've had much more success with breastfed babies taking a bottle if it's breastmilk inside.

Mom pumps, then puts it in sterilized ice cube trays. About 3 trays will fit in a gallon sized Ziploc. Mom dates the Ziplocs and brings them to me. I have a week's worth in my freezer at all times, and carefully watch the dates. I use doc brown's bottles with a doc brown's warmer. (Note: I made a mistake and have corrected it below to Avent bottles because of the large opening) Each cube is about an ounce, so I put however many cubes in the bottle and slowly warm it in the warmer. Sooo easy.

[Soupyszoo]

I may have missed it, but did you say whether you are feeding breastmilk or formula? I've had much more success with breastfed babies taking a bottle if it's breastmilk inside.

Mom pumps, then puts it in sterilized ice cube trays. About 3 trays will fit in a gallon sized Ziploc. Mom dates the Ziplocs and brings them to me. I have a week's worth in my freezer at all times, and carefully watch the dates. I use doc brown's bottles with a doc brown's warmer. Each cube is about an ounce, so I put however many cubes in the bottle and slowly warm it in the Doc Brown's warmer. Sooo easy.

Is breast milk! Oh my gosh that's a great idea!

[Lucy]

Is breast milk! Oh my gosh that's a great idea!

ERROR---- It was Avent bottles. The reason is because they have a large opening and the cubes can easily fit. Any with the small opening, the 1 ounce cubes won't fit in. Sorry for the mistake!!

[Lucy]

Is this situation improving?

[Soupyszoo]

Is this situation improving?

Lucy, she doing great! Best baby I've ever had! The family is amazing! She eats without a problem now! She's wonderful lovethis

Thanks for asking