Geraldine

Such a relief to know that I can supplement a bit now (to delay weaning to six months)

Thanks

Sarah

From reading this page it seems i’m not alone. My daughter is now 3.5 months old.
I have been breastfeeding since day one, with the odd bottle feed here and there to try and give me a rest and so my partner and the grandparents could enjoy feeding her too. The last month or so she refuses to take the bottle from anybody, we tried breast milk and formula. Shes almost choking herself because shes gets so wound up. Tried lots of different techniques from searching on the internet but no joy.
I can now see my little girl is getting her first tooth and i can feel it when i’m breastfeeding her which can be painful, especially now as shes starting to bite me. I would love to get her to take a bottle but it seems hopeless.

I will try your tips from above, fingers crossed i can report back with good news.

I’ve been trying to introduce a bottle since week 1 with my daughter, to enable me to have a break from breastfeeding for one or two feeds a day as I have a 2.5yr old also. My baby girl is 5 weeks old now, and I’ve only ever managed to get her to take 1oz maximum, which she takes very badly, screaming and agitated. As soon as I offer her the breast she is fine. I’ve tried using breastmilk in the bottle but it ends up down the sink. I’ve tried different teats and formulas with no success. She is very unsettled in the evenings anyway, but I’m going to give your sandwich method a try if you think it will work with such a young baby.

Also do you have any tips on settling colicky babies as she is taking at least 2.4 hrs to settle in the evenings, and I’m finding it really hard as I don’t want to upset my 2.5yr olds bedtime routine, so am currently keeping my baby downstairs with us in the evening to avoid disturbing him, but would really like to be able to get them both settled together upstairs.

Thanks
Best
Goody

Sometimes there is something going on that you may not be aware of that suddenly changes a baby’s tolerance of bottle feeding.

A sneaky bug or cold creeping in, maybe a new environment or one of the parents away on business, Christmas/New Year, all those sort of things can make a baby feel unsettled. When a baby feels unsettled, they desperately cling to what they know and reject any change, which can and has made bottle feeding more difficult. I have seen that by reducing variants and keeping things simple and constant, babies feel less threatened and more amenable to bottle feeding.

Choose one bottle, one teat and one time to reintroduce the bottle. Try the sandwich feed, starting with breast then bottle then breast again. Don’t lock horns, regain your baby’s trust and then you will start to move forward. This way of introducing the bottle has worked for thousands of clients and I am only aware of 1 baby who refused bottles but accepted a beaker. The primary difference is the time taken to win a baby back round to bottle feeding, so be patient and persistent.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Geraldine

Thanks for this post, I will try your suggestions. What’s the success rate of your clients?