Why baby refusing bottle

How worried should you be and what can you do to help your baby start drinking from a bottle again? These are the exact questions I was asking myself when my baby suddenly stopped taking the bottle with absolutely no warning.

So I spent hours pouring over every article and blog post I could find and talking with our pediatrician and lactation consultant to find out exactly what causes bottle refusal and how to fix it. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more about these links in my disclaimer policy. Want a list of all of my favorite tools for overcoming bottle refusal? Click here! In fact, this is the number one cause of bottle refusal for many breastfeeding families.

While breastfeeding, your baby creates a special bond with you. They associate eating with this special bonding time and will often want to cuddle and nurse rather than take a bottle. Many moms also see an increase in bottle refusal and nursing much more frequently in the evenings after starting day care.

Related: Use these 7 steps to help your breastfed baby love bottle feeding just as much as the breast. We started introducing food at 6 months and instantly our baby fell in love with eating solid food.

His eyes light up every time he gets to sit in his highchair and eat meals with us. Hey Jane, Thanks for reaching out to us! I would try to have someone else feed him, if possible. This can be helpful in getting that transition back to the bottle. I feel bad my husband struggles so I need to do this.

You should try it. Pump at night or whenever you have the most. It should be at least about 2 hours, make sure you try both breasts. I would suggest buying some lactation treats to help you produce more, they work wonders!!

The stress and anxiety of her not taking bottles is literally sending me crazy. Srsly help…. Weaning can be really difficult and emotional! We usually suggest dropping one of the middle of the day feedings first thats typically easiest on baby and then offering an open cup or strawed cup of milk with meals.

We have a post about How to Teach Drinking from a Straw that might be helpful! Reach out if you have any questions! I helped care for a breastfed baby in a daycare who refused the bottle when her mom went back to work. Another tip is for the caregiver feeding the bottle to place an unwashed article of clothing from the breastfeeding mother between the baby and the caregiver, such as a camisole etc.

This seemed to help calm the baby in the daycare. I have a 9 months old baby. So early I began feeding him solids. Please help! We do like to recommend straw cups and sometimes is really fun for the kids as well. My 1 month old is having a hard time with the bottle. I have a month left until I need to go back to work. The bottle? I do think I have a strong letdown most times. Hello, So sorry you are having trouble with your little one. My baby is 5 months. I introduce her bottle wen she was 4 weeks with both bf n formula but Suddenly last month she started refusing it completely wen she is awake.

As i tried everything but nothing helped. Plz plz guide me. Hey Henna, So sorry you are dealing with this, we know how frustrating it can be. It can take more than one try to really get some results. Worked for my 10 week old daughter. I got the idea while trying to clean her tongue with a sterile gauze. She would suck on it peacefully for a long time. Even if she got a little frustrated, she would pacify herself on the gauze and suck vigorously probably waiting for a letdown.

This trick might work for you if your child has the same problem. I tried this with the Medela Calma nipple, but I hope it will work for her with other basic nipples as well. Thank u for this! I have a five month old and have been back at work for past 3 weeks. She took a bottle maybe twice when she was around weeks old. Otherwise only breastfed. Hey Dora, So sorry you are dealing with this.

Hey Sara, We get how hard this can be! Finding that just right positioning for him, quiet place and just right window of being hungry! Hi…kindly help me…my baby shes 12months and I have weaned her off, now the problem is shes rejecting the formula and I dont know what I can do to make her take the formula.

Please help me. Hey Faith, We recommend mixing of the milk to slowly transition to what you are working towards, as it can take them a little bit to adjust to different tastes. Hope that helps, Desiree. I have a 2 month old baby girl who is refusing the bottle completely. What should we do? Not give her a breast right after she has been refusing the bottle?

Try giving it to her during a night feed? Keep trying 3x a day? I am supposed to go back to work in a month and nervous this is going to prevent me from doing that. Hey Liz, We understand how stressful this can be! When you are having your husband feed her make sure that you are not present as if you are near they can smell your milk and want that instead.

This may be during a night time feeding. Hey Deborah, Yes, babies have a naturally strong sense of smell and can smell the scent of mom and their breast milk. It is what gets them to turn their head during feedings as they smell and turn.

Its call instinct. Just like our boobs start hurting and milk coming out while the baby its hungry even if we are miles away. I can smell my own milk if I tip my head down. Hi our second child has decided to not take the bottle literally two weeks before my wife is about to go back to work on night shift.

He is mainly breast feed but was taking some expressed milk in a bottle here and there. We have tried 3 different types of bottles, different positions, different places, different times and different people. We are at a loss. Have you got any other ideas that we may try? We even tried a bit of custard on the teet! Hey Adam, I get how hard this can be. Making sure to find that just hungry window can play a huge factor as well! My daughter is quite a bit older, she has just turned 9 months old.

She would take bottles of expressed breast milk no problem while she was at daycare all day and also had no problem at home for my husband or occasional sitter. I definitely have enough milk saved to last beyond her first birthday. She just flat-out refuses the bottle to the point of screaming. I thought that was going to be our save because she seemed really interested and actually started drinking it but she ended up only taking about 1 oz from it and then pushed it away.

After giving it back, she kept throwing it off the tray and kept turning her head away refusing to try again. Should I try cold milk in the sippy? Do we just keep trying these things and keep trying to re-introduce her bottle? Any other ideas to try for an older baby? I was really shocked that you had just posted this! We are in the exact same boat as you. My baby is five months old and I have been home with him for the last month due to the virus pandemic.

Last week I was out and about and my husband went to feed our baby a bottle and he refused it. We just tried today again and this was our third attempt trying to feed him from a bottle.

It was freshly expressed milk and he will not take it. In fact we tried three different bottles. He just cried himself to sleep. Any advice is excepted, I will try anything! The last time we did get him to drink some of the bottle by plain white noise from a cell phone. That did not work this time. Hey Michaela, So sorry you are dealing with this in these uncertain times. Hey Becky, So sorry you are dealing with this. It does sound like you are doing all the right things, making sure you are distancing yourself when having your husband feed her.

And you can try it cold just for a change and see how she responds to that as well. My baby is 3. My feed is almost nothing. I also give mine. But now she refused bottle and only want my feed but my feed is almost nothing. I have tried different formula but she refused all.

Kindly tell me what to do. Hey Fatima, So sorry you are dealing with this, we know how hard it can be when your child is not getting enough food. This may read strangely but I am typing with one hand and holding my baby boy. This is my third child and both my wife and I work alternating night shifts at a hospital. My boy is 4 months and my wife has breastfed this entire time.

My wife went back to work last night for the first time since giving birth so it was my turn to have the kids all night. My boy refuses to take the bottle at all and has not eaten all night. It is now 8 am and after taking the other two kids to school he still refuses the bottle. We had no problem switching the other two kids to the bottle so we naively thought Oliver would be the same.

I thought he would eventually get hungry enough to accept the bottle but that is not the case. Should I resort to trying to feed with a syringe? I am a loss here and very worried. If my wife breastfeeds when she gets home that just resets the entire problem. Hey Mark, Thanks for reaching out! You are doing a great job at making sure mom is not home while trying to bottle feed, as this can make all the difference. You can definitely try a syringe if you need to, to get some liquid in him.

You can also try a different bottle we do recommend trying at least 2 different bottles since they are all different. Makes sure you are feeding him in the same position as he normally breastfeeds in. Make sure you are continuing to bottle feed at least 1 X a day even if your wife ends up breast feeding again. I will try a new bottle and try propping him on his side like when he is breastfed.

I got about 40 cc of milk into him last night with a syringe. The wife is helping me by not breastfeeding. Hopefully by tonight he will be so hungry that he will be willing to just take the bottle. Okay, keep us posted! You can also try utilizing a binky throughout the day so he can get used to having something similar to bottle in his mouth and for comfort!

We have a 14w old baby girl and she is refusing the bottle. However, this happened over night. Before it was no problem to give her the bottle for night feed and once in a while during the day too.

But in past two days she is having none of it. We tried to switch back to slow teat, to no avail. Hey Daniela, I know how hard it can be to pinpoint. Im worried because she did not drink milk for 3 days but shes eating solid foods. Hey Irene, It can take some time to adjust to the new milk, as it does taste different. You can read more about weaning HERE. Hi My 10 m. O baby stopped eating solids. She opens her mouth but does not swallow for a long time.

It lasts about 20 min. At last i will take out with my fingers. She is breastfed baby. No formula. No bottle though i am trying for bottle. Can u pls help me in this regard? I have tried different colour texture and flavors of food. She was a good eater. She is not teething now. Has got 2 upper n 2 lower incisors. Its been 10 days. I am worried now.

You can watch our free workshop for more ideas at this age to work on getting her accepting to table foods again if you do not think it is from teething. We are in the same fix with my grand daughter. My teenage daughter has a 4 months old now. Just a few days to four months we have introduced the bottle and she has completely refused to use it.

In December we tried and she happily fed but now that she is four months it seems her brains tells her otherwise. We have tried freshly expressed breast milk and formula milk too. We have Dr. All seems not to work with her. Kindly help; coz my daughter needs to briefly step up, may be just for some fresh air or visit the salon. Finding the right time to try this so that she is hungry but not over hungry can be key! It seems like he is having gas or getting air.

If i work with him, i can get him to take 2 more ounces after calming down. My questions are. Can i calm him down with a minute of breastfeeding it works and then back to bottle or is that too confusing?

Hey Joanna, So glad you are reaching out and figuring out what may work for your son! You are doing a great job with trying some different things and noticing his reaction. Back and forth can become too confusing for him, if he is just refusing and wanting the breast then he may think that is how it will always happen. The bottle is a different suck that they need, so you do want to explore if he is getting air.

Hi Currently my 3. She had taken it twice previously, but we took a long break. I have tried for 3 weeks now — different bottles, different level of nipples, sang to her, swayed, walked around with her, put her in a mobi wrap facing towards me and outward. My husband, sister, mother, mother in law, sister in laws have all tried too when I have been out of the home.

When I put my finger in her mouth, she does not suck either. She does not use the pacifier at all. What other recommendations do you have?

Have you tried giving her the bottle with pumped milk during the night, just before she wakes up for her night feed? My baby is exactly the same, the only thing that worked was this. Good luck! I have tried a bottle twice during a night feed from pumped milk earlier in the day. Got 2 sucks from the bottle, then she would wake up from this realizing it is a bottle. How many tries did it take until you baby took the bottle?

Good Day Please help, i have just stop breasfeeding my 13 Months baby girl, at night she does not want bottle milk, bottle drink what can i do, and my breast are swollen and very painful im using Pyridoxine pills, its been 3 days ive stop her.

Hi, Thanks for reaching out! There are some really great tips in the article. If you are doing it she will be looking for the breast, but with someone else and you not in the room it can be really helpful! My baby is 3months old I have been trying to bottle feed him for like 2months now and he never wanted to take the bottle.

I even tried putting a bit of honey on the nipple for him to try it and nothing. Any advice? We totally understand how hard this transition can be!

It can take awhile for them to be accepting of someone else feeding them. Also having the milk from the bottle is a different experience and utilized different muscles than the breast. If you have been trying the suggestions in the post without any success you can reach out for a feeding evaluation to provide specified tips for you.

If you are in the US you can receive an Early Intervention evaluation. Hi Alisha, thanks for writing this article. My 2 months old daughter has been taking the bottle once a day at night , given by her dad. Rest of the time, I nurse her, unless I or we need to step out. We tried the new bottle tonight, she refused it. Is there a way to get her to drink from the new bottle? Kids can sometimes take to one bottle over the other as they all seem to have little differences.

But, then she had a bad experience when my husband tried to feed her milk too hot maybe?? Bad body position maybe?? I was able to get her to take the bottle one time after about an hour of cajoling, but then I had to go to work for a hr day and hubs had to bottle feed her and now she just sees the bottle and starts crying. Any additional tips on how to undo a bad experience?? Hey April, So sorry you are going through this.

You can also try a different bottle different color, etc. So that she does not make the same connection. Hello my baby is 3 months I have been giving her the bottle but there was this one time I gave her the bottle and she was over feeded because I came back and breastfeeding her but now she is refusing to take the bottle and I need to go to work in 1 week.

Thanks for reaching out. Also, having someone else feed her when you are not around can be a huge help! Did you continue to give him breastmilk at that point? My goal is 12 months at 7.

Thanks so much in advance for sharing your experience! Due to supply issues Ive combined bottle feeding and breastfeeding for 6 months without issue. Last week my baby girl was ill with fever, for one day i only breastfed as she was too ill for a bottle. After her fever went, she continued to take her bottle as normal for 2 day.

Then after that she flat out refused, there was no warning and she had happily had a bottle the night before. Its been 5 days now and she is still on strike, ive tried different positions, walking, rooms, environments, teats, bottles and persons but she flings back and protests outraged!. Shes not teething either and is happily munching on foods. Im totally clueless! Been through bottle strike with my first daughter so have been through this before but always found something would work to break the strike.

Fortunately my supply is okay but ideally would like to continue bottle and breastfeeding as im in a position of not being able to leave her with someone now. Do u have any ideas im at a loss!

I tried holding out on the breast in hope shes hungry enough for a bottle but it doesnt work. Thanks ill be interested i hearing your opinion on this one! Hey Rebecca, We know how frustrating this can be!

It seems like you are doing and trying some great things. Many women notice that their expressed breastmilk smells strong or tastes soapy.

One theory is that this is due to the lipase enzyme which naturally breaks down the fats in breastmilk. Another thought is that the altered smell and taste may be related to certain fats in your diet, particularly fish oil or other oil supplements. You may even try to stop eating fish for awhile or withhold fatty acid supplements to see if that helps. This breastmilk is perfectly safe for babies to drink, but some do not like the taste of it. Try feeding the baby with something other than a bottle.

You may try feeding the baby with a spoon, sippy cup or regular open cup perhaps a small medicine cup or shot glass.

Hold the baby in your lap in an upright, supported position. Let the baby set the pace. Be very careful to not dump the milk into the baby's mouth to avoid choking. Step 2: Once the baby accepts the nipple in her mouth, encourage her to suck on the nipple. Step 3: When the baby is comfortable with the first two steps, pour some drops of milk into the nipple without attaching the nipple to the bottle. At this age, babies have often become so good at breastfeeding and have developed such a strong suck that they become frustrated with the newborn nipples they used to take willingly.

Try switching to a nipple for babies 6 months and up. If, after trying everything, your baby still staunchly refuses to take a bottle from anyone, then don't try to force her. Take the bottle away and offer it again every half-hour until she eats. Babies can be stubborn and she may hold out for an hour or more, but once she gets hungry, she'll take her bottle. If this is hard to do, remind yourself that a healthy baby will not starve herself.

Home Babies Feeding What can I do when my baby refuses the bottle? What can I do when my baby refuses the bottle? July 02,