Trying to give a EBF baby breast milk in a bottle.

Both my babies went through several weeks of this. It’s not fun. Waiting for baby to starve won’t help unfortunately. You have to just keep trying…different bottle types, different flow rates. When I went to work, daycare would spoon feed baby milk if she refused the bottle. Ultimately what ended up working is using a silicone comotomo fast flow so that if she chewed on it milk would come out, and also we could squeeze the bottle and a bit of milk would come out…she eventually figured it out and now takes the bottle okay. https://www.lllsa.org/bottles

It really depends on the bottle and if they like it. Try using different brand bottles. I heard dr brown, Phillip avents, and mam bottles are good cause they mimic the real thing and also let someone else feed her the first few times.

My baby is ebf but I’ve been doing bottles lately of breast milk and formula and he really likes the Nuk brand and Tommee tippee!

Some things to figure out first is if your baby likes the taste of your milk. High lipase can cause it to taste pretty gross. Some babies don’t mind, but worth it to find out. Also you can’t be around and you can’t be the one offering. They’ll know you’re around and refuse it. Some babies also are picky about nipples. An alternative is to spoon feed

@Kaleigh i did not 😭😭i have only tried the tommee tippe bottle so far and it didn’t work

@Rebecca thank you so much, you’ve given me hope! Will have a read of the website x

@Emily I’ve only tried tommee tippee so far and hasn’t gone to plan but will try the nuk, thank you xx

@Cecilia will be looking into it, thank you🥹

@Monét how do i know if my milk has high lipase?

@Emily will give it another go at the weekend. Thank you! 🥹

At this age it’s more likely a baby won’t accept a bottle if they never have as they’ve lost the innate sucking reflex they’re born with. Have you tried cup feeding? I’d push milk in a sippy or open cup rather than a bottle at this age. Ultimately though some babies just never accept a bottle or cup of milk (mine being one of them!). As they’re more established on solids it becomes less of an issue with being able to leave them. As others have said make sure you taste the milk to rule out high lipase, offer consistently at the same time of day, ensure someone else offers the milk with you well out of the way. I’d also not offer when baby is starving rather when they’re quite content so that it’s low pressure and they can almost play with it to start! Good luck x

Semi success story - my daughter only started drinking from a bottle around 9-10 months having previously not touched one. She'd just chew and play with them. She won't really take milk but will take water and now uses a straw cup as well without any teaching from us, she just did it one day. To get her onto a bottle though, we tried ALL the bottles and teats. When none worked, we made a bigger hole in our MAM bottle so it came out fast and literally squirted it in her mouth when she was chewing. It worked and she started sucking after a while! We think she just didn't get it and with the slower teats, she wasn't interested in trying. But once she was getting something from it, she worked it out. Might be worth a try?

Could you leave the room and a partner or someone try when they give hunger cues? My baby is a lot younger but if I'm around will want me.. I haven't given her a bottle but my partner does and she was resistant at first but now happily takes it

I’d suggest not being the one to give the bottle. Have someone else do it, like dad or grandparents until baby’s used to taking a bottle

I highlyyyyy recommend the lansinoh bottles. My ebf has not rejected the bottle once since we gave it to him. The nipple is a lot softer and more flexible compared to others mam ect so baby took to it more naturally