EBF breastfed baby refusing bottle
Show your support
do you heat the milk? This helped a lot with me! I also upped the teat size when he suddenly started refusing a bottle around 8 weeks. Just keep trying! Also if you have someone to help maybe try getting them to give a bottle as mine would refuse bottle from me or even refuse the bottle if I was in the room.
@Harriet Rose thank you, I will give that a go. Funny as she had a bottle for the first 8 weeks of her life!
@Immy I do heat the milk but maybe not enough. I think the teat size is ok but will defo leave the room and get someone to try
Have you tried different bottles? Also, smell the milk first - does it smell right? If you're following storage guidance, it won't have gone off, but it can break down and start smelling like soap. This can affect the bottles and teats, so you'll need to give them an extra hard clean between uses.
We had to get very strict with milk storage - use immediately or freeze immediately. We can't store it in the fridge for more than a couple of hours before feeding, because it starts to break down and smell odd. My LB will refuse it otherwise. Google tells me this is something to do with lipase content. Good luck! Getting my LB back on the bottle is the only way I manage to get any sleep 🫠
I’d say just keep trying with the bottle. You could give it to her empty to play with so she gets more used to it. I would say though, she may not take a bottle. I know that’s really not what you want to hear, but my baby has never taken one. All you can really do is keep trying with it. When she’s six months you can introduce a sippy cup and give milk from that.