Refusing bottle and food

Liyah • 💛Mama of three💛

My son is refusing to take a bottle. He’s ebf and I’m with him majority of the time but I have a ton of frozen milk from my hakka. I’ve recently been having to be away from him for three to four hours because of appointments and my mom tried everything to get him to take a bottle while

I was gone and he refused. We have several different bottles and he wouldn’t take any of them. My boyfriend tried to give him a bottle of breast milk today and he just wouldn’t take it. No matter the flow of the nipple or what kind of bottle he just wouldn’t. But he does take a pacifier pretty well. We’ve tried getting him to use the same brand bottle as the pacifier and it didn’t work at all.

I’ve started blw and he won’t even eat. He just plays with the food and every time he gets some in his mouth he just pushes it right back out. We’ve tried yogurt and apple sauces too just to see if he’d try it and still no. It’s like he won’t eat or drink anything if it’s not straight from the breast. I bought a sippy cup for his age group and he just likes to chew on it with his gums.

I’ve looked up so many tips to get him to use a bottle and eat and I’m having zero luck. I want to get a part time job and be able to let my mom have the kids but I can’t even leave for a couple hours because he’ll just refuse the bottle and cry the whole time.

Has anyone gone through this before? I seriously need some advice or help.

127 views • 2 upvotes • 4 comments

COMMENT (4)

Ka

Posted at
When I had to return to work at 3 months post-partum, my baby refused the bottle at daycare. This was absolutely heartbreaking because he would go 8 hours without eating. This lasted about a week. Then he started taking the bottle just a little bit - like 2 oz during the day. Then a little more until after a month, he had no problem with the bottle. It was an extremely difficult journey so I’m sorry you’re going through this. If your Mom keeps trying, it will eventually work. What I learned is that some babies will “reverse-cycle” and get all of their milk at night instead of during the day to compensate - which is what my baby did until he started taking the bottle. So he was okay, but it was still so hard.

Al

Posted at
I second what Kat said. Eventually they will take the bottle. You just have to keep offering it. My son did this and it’s so hard, but he did eventually take it. Just patience and keep trying. I found it helped to distract him. We’d go for a walk and offer the bottle outside while holding him. It worked, he’d look up at the trees and kind of forgot that’s what he was drinking from. Good luck mama! It will get better

Sa

Posted at
Yep same here. Both of mine refused bottle, no matter what wouldn’t take it. We tried all of the ways, bottles, everything. My mother in law was able to spoon feed really runny breast milk cereal, like 1-2 ounces, so I could be away for like 6 hours (nurse right before I leave and right when I got home and he would have cereal in between).

Ge

Posted at
I think starting off with introducing foods most babies don’t really show an interest or just play with it. I do blw and purées for my daughter she will probably eat a few spoonfuls of whatever I give her or just play with it. Like today, I gave her banana and she sucked on the banana for like a few seconds then started playing with it lol. I think eventually they will understand it better and start actually eating. Wish I had some advice for the other things you mentioned though 😖