Baby will only take bottle for Mother!! Advice please

Mr Reactionary

Hello

In the 3/ 4 days our 5 month old daughter will only take the bottle from my partner. For the first 4 months my partner was primarily breastfeeding with 1/2 bottles being introduced in the last 1/2 months without any issues prior to this week.

Now our daughter refuses to take the bottle from myself, granny, grandad, aunties etc

Does anyone have any experience of this and if so what did they do to get the baby to take the bottle from other people?

I am sure it is just a phase but i would like to try to get her back to taking the bottle from other people as soon as possible as it is increasing the work load on my partner and restricting what she can do on a day to day bases.

Currently i try to give her the bottle in a quite area without my partner present and ensure she is not over hungry leading to distress but to no avail.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Keane2baMused

It's quite possible your child still gets the 'scent' of the breastmilk from your wife and she associates feeding with her.

Try get her to go out for an afternoon or day and see how feeds go. She will drink eventually it just may take time and persistence.

tinkerbell

Just forget about other people giving her bottles for now. I would also not recommend you getting your wife to head off for the day so that you can try to force her to drink them, that will be traumatic for your baby. Baby wants to be close to their mother - that is normal. You just gotta go with it. Try again with a bottle in another few days / week (you that is, not grandparents or aunts, etc).

Sligo1

You could try wearing a lovely smelly t.shirt that mums been wearing for a couple of days when you try and give a fed? Or a pj top that's she's slept in. It might be tight on you and not very glamorous but if you're just around the house and needs must....

Keane2baMused

tinkerbell wrote: »

Just forget about other people giving her bottles for now. I would also not recommend you getting your wife to head off for the day so that you can try to force her to drink them, that will be traumatic for your baby. Baby wants to be close to their mother - that is normal. You just gotta go with it. Try again with a bottle in another few days / week (you that is, not grandparents or aunts, etc).

Why is it traumatic for a child to spend time with their father? It's a good chance to help them bond and give mammy a break which it sounds like she needs!

Keane2baMused

And for what it's worth I am a mother and also breastfed.

No notions of traumatising a baby for introducing alone time with daddy.

tinkerbell

Keane2baMused wrote: »

Why is it traumatic for a child to spend time with their father? It's a good chance to help them bond and give mammy a break which it sounds like she needs!

I never said it was traumatic for a child to spend time with their father :rolleyes:

I said don't get the wife to head off for the afternoon / day for the sole purpose of trying to force a mostly breastfed baby, who is currently refusing bottles, to force them to take a bottle. That is not fair on the baby and it is not a good way to encourage them to take bottles again. That's why I said it would be traumatic for the baby - if they are currently refusing and then their mother is gone for hours, the baby will get distressed, as well as being hungry. It's not a healthy way to re-introduce bottles from another person and it could backfire and the baby refuses bottles full stop.

There's plenty of other ways to bond than going about things like that. I said wait another week or so and try again then, maybe if the mother is gone for an hour or something but not for a whole afternoon / day. I'm sure the OP's wife probably wouldn't enjoy herself much anyway knowing her baby was going hungry at home without her.

I would suggest stopping the bottles for now and wait, and then considering introducing expressed breast milk in a cup. The baby is only 5 months old - no doubt going through a growth spurt, developmental leap, etc etc. It's normal to associate milk with mom (since the baby is breastfed) and want to be close to mom when having milk.

Keane2baMused

tinkerbell wrote: »

I never said it was traumatic for a child to spend time with their father :rolleyes:

I said don't get the wife to head off for the afternoon / day for the sole purpose of trying to force a mostly breastfed baby, who is currently refusing bottles, to force them to take a bottle. That is not fair on the baby and it is not a good way to encourage them to take bottles again. That's why I said it would be traumatic for the baby - if they are currently refusing and then their mother is gone for hours, the baby will get distressed, as well as being hungry. It's not a healthy way to re-introduce bottles from another person and it could backfire and the baby refuses bottles full stop.

There's plenty of other ways to bond than going about things like that. I said wait another week or so and try again then, maybe if the mother is gone for an hour or something but not for a whole afternoon / day. I'm sure the OP's wife probably wouldn't enjoy herself much anyway knowing her baby was going hungry at home without her.

I would suggest stopping the bottles for now and wait, and then considering introducing expressed breast milk in a cup. The baby is only 5 months old - no doubt going through a growth spurt, developmental leap, etc etc. It's normal to associate milk with mom (since the baby is breastfed) and want to be close to mom when having milk.

But they want to introduce bottles. Your post is completely defeating the purpose of the OP's topic.

There's nothing forceful about mama getting out for an afternoon or a couple of hours or whatever works for them. It is a good opportunity for dad to bond and help introduce the feeds.

jlm29

Op, have you tried a different brand of bottle/teat? My first boy took against bottles at one point, and I found he was more open to taking a latex teat than silicone- it's softer and more boob like, ya know!?!?!
Also, I found for him that I gave him half a feed, and when he was in the middle of feeding (and probably half asleep), I snuck the boob out of his mouth, and stuck in the bottle- he just kept sucking away.
My second boy doesn't like taking a bottle when I'm in the room, but if I'm not around, takes it no bother. Maybe your partner could go for a walk around the block or something- that way if baby still won't take a bottle, she's not far away. Different things work for them all, they're all just so different!

Roselm

You could try getting your wife to hold the baby while you hold the bottle, that way the baby might get used to associating you with feeding.
Also pay attention to whether you hold the baby differently to mammy, as the baby might have a preferred position. Good luck!