Tips and resources to support children birth to age five
Question: How to introduce a bottle?
Hi All,
I thought I would reach out to the early learning community for some help. My 7-week-old is on a bottle strike. He refuses to take a bottle (filled with expressed breast milk). We are trying to get him accustomed to a bottle in preparation for a transition to day care.
So far we've had someone else give the bottle, while walking, bouncing, sitting, at all different times of day, tried different nipples, and today a different bottle system. The bottle strike is on day five, although we did make progress today, he sucked a little and a bait-and-switch from the breast worked for a while.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Erin
I thought I would reach out to the early learning community for some help. My 7-week-old is on a bottle strike. He refuses to take a bottle (filled with expressed breast milk). We are trying to get him accustomed to a bottle in preparation for a transition to day care.
So far we've had someone else give the bottle, while walking, bouncing, sitting, at all different times of day, tried different nipples, and today a different bottle system. The bottle strike is on day five, although we did make progress today, he sucked a little and a bait-and-switch from the breast worked for a while.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Erin
Tags: babies, baby, bottles, breast, feeding
Views: 2
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sarah Borgida on -
Hi Erin,
Did you warm the milk? And did you use the smallest nipple possible? We had this problem for a little while then all of a sudden, it went away - but warming the milk helped a lot....we tried giving it to him cold at first (bad advice; don't get me started).
Don't give up, but don't force it. Take a little break then try again. It will work - I promise!!!
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Permalink Reply by Erin Okuno on -
More suggestions here: http://www.earlylearning.org/blog/archive/2009/07/07/bottle-strike-...
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Permalink Reply by Patricia Nan Anderson on -
I agree with Sarah, Erin. Your little one will catch on eventually - just be calm and unstressed as much as you can about this. Try to take the attitude that it doesn't matter one way or the other. Infants are aerials for adult emotion and any anxiety on your part will make him think "If mom's worried about this, then it must not be very good." Once you give up worrying, and just offer the bottle as a fun alternative, he'll pick up on it.
You might try putting just an ounce or two in the bottle at first (so you don't worry about wasting the milk - freeze the rest) and offer a bottle several times a day. I'm betting within a week he'll have come around....
Of course, nothing will ever take the place of the real you... and that's a nice thought!
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