Breastfed baby refuses being bottle fed

[Eldia]

Hi all, I ve left my 6 months LO recently with my Mum and a bottle of breast milk and he drank it in one galp and was still hungry. Next time I went away for a couple of hours and left a bottle of breast milk he refused even taking a sip. So we put it down to different tit/ not being hungry. Today we made him formula first time to try for future event of emergency. Again refused all together and then ate hungrily from the breast. What to do with bottle refusal as I am now anxious what to do if there is an emergency and I need to be away for 4 hours or more or if the milk supply starts dwindling as he is not yet ready for weaning - does not sit, show interest, grab food and stick it in his mouth, etc. To top it all, the pump does not work on me and hand expressing takes me a day to try and collect 50ml so is a massive struggle, this is why we tried formula today as cannot express on demand even with a two day notice.

[Hidden]

Have you tried "sippy" cups or small cup? Its actually better gor your baby to drink from a cup than bottle. As I understand he is not sitting yet but when you hold him upright and try to give it that way. My son never used bottles and dummy(exclusively breatfed, until 6 months) he just wouldn't use them so we skipped them and straight went to drinking from cup. Yeah, it was a bit messy at the beginning but he was more than happy to drink from "big boy" cup. It's better for their teeth.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

You can read more here

babycenter.com/0_sippy-cup-...

[Eldia in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. Will give it a go xxx

[mrsamy]

What kind of pump are you using? If electric have you checked that it's the right nipple size. If manual have you tried switching to electric.

My output increased when I switched from manual to electric pump and changed nipple size

Keep trying. My son at first used to drink from the bottle and then went completely off them. Even when he started nursery. He wouldn't drink milk until he came home and could breastfeed. Now he's taking his bottle. It takes a while(sometimes a long while) but eventually they'll get there.

[Eldia in reply to mrsamy]

Thank you. I am using Medela electric and the nipple size appears to be right but 5 ml collection tops. Very frustrating. Manually is much quicker but then again minuscule collection in the end so have to collect several times throughout the day to get half of a single feed and do the same next day. This is why I considered having formula for emergency back up when I really need to be somewhere and cannot take him with me. Will persevere.

[mrsamy in reply to Eldia]

I suppose you've tried the usual massage breast with a warm towel before expressin and massaging during expressing.

Keep persevering. Hopefully it'll pick up.

[Eldia in reply to mrsamy]

Thank you for reply, yes, tried it all. Unfortunately, on top of it all also have blocked ducts issue reoccurring every 7-10 days since LO was 1 month old.