Today we tried giving Gabriela her first bottle (of breastmilk). The books say you should start a bottle between 4 and 6 weeks, and today she was six weeks exactly. Well, she was NOT having any of it.
This girl screamed like nobody's business. She arched her back away from the bottle (something we've never seen her do), and even put her arm in front of her mouth and sucked on that instead.
She ended up back on the boob. We tried the bottle a couple more times during the day, but with no success. I'm hoping she'll come around because I have to go back to work in November, and she's going to have to eat during the day.
oh goodness.
3 comments:
We had trouble with this too! Don't give up!
What kind of bottles are you using?
Many breastfed babies have difficulty switching from breast to silicone because they are so different in texture and more work for baby at first.
You should try the Playtex bottles...not the ventaire ones, the nature-latch kind with latex nipples. (the bottle is the kind with the drop in liners) Both my girls REFUSED bottles to the point that it was RIDICULOUS. But both went to town on this particular bottle/nipple combination. Strange I know, but it has worked for many of my friends' babies as well. It's worth the $3.50 you'll spend on the bottle to give it a shot!
Another thing that helps (which you might have already tried) Is to give the breast milk to Gabriella immediately after you pump it, not waiting to freeze or reheat later. That way it's the same temperature she's used to.
Everyone says to have Dad give the bottle, and mom do breastmilk to avoid confusion, because baby will always know the real deal is an available option... but that didn't work for us. My babies associated me with food, so I was the only one who could get them to take the bottle at first.
Also try giving her the bottle when she is not hungry,(but not super full either)...like an hour after she eats, or when she's napping and too asleep to know the difference. Put her against your breast, but put the bottle in there instead...and hold the bottle nipple with your hand the way you would hold your boob (wow is that too graphic for the blog? you can delete this after you read it if you want!) so she doesn't feel like you're shoving a foreign object in her mouth, but helping her eat like normal.
She's a smart baby, she'll figure it out!
Good luck!
Kaiya would never take a bottle either, so eventually we just gave up and she never had one. Once she turned 4 months we started helping her use a cup, and she would take breastmilk from that if I was out. That might be a last resort, but good luck!
Oh yeah, should have warned you. Wesley starved himself the first three weeks when I went back to work. But your friend is right. It's the Playtex Nature Latch Nurser. It's the only he would take. Three weeks into his bottle refusal, I called his pediatrician in tears, ready to quit my job because he wouldn't eat while I was at work. She said she has never heard of a baby refusing the Playtex Nurser. I got it that day, and it hasn't been a problem since. Don't worry, she'll catch on.
Post a Comment