Will he starve to death?

[mythreesons]

I had to go to a meeting yesterday afternoon. It was a situation in which I couldn't take the baby and I had no choice but leave him at home with his father. This meant he would be offered bm in a bottle.

Things did not go well at all. My husband called me saying that he had tried for 2 hrs to get the baby to eat and he refused the bottle. When I got home, the baby had worn himself out screaming was beyond pitiful. I picked him up and he latched right on and ate as if he was starving to death.

Any advice? I am going to try a cup here soon. He will be 6 months in one more week. I have to go back to work in 2.5 months. I don't want to go cold turkey on him so I am trying now by letting my husband feed him.

I was using Dr brown's bottles. Is there another brand that he might take instead?

Thanks in advance.

[mimmomama]

the adiri bottle is supposed to be a miracle. the nipple is actually shaped like a human nipple/breast and i've heard that babies will latch on as they do onto the real thing. you can find them at whole foods or online at http://adiri.com/
hope this helps!

[alejorge]

there is another bottle called the breast flow bottle made by the brand The First Years.....i heard a lot of breast feeding moms love this bottle. i saw it and thought it was the coolest bottle ever. you can find it at babies r us and also sometimes target maybe even the baby depot

[intokermit]

I love the Breastflow bottles. My ds has actually learned to nurse correctly from them. We couldn't BF the first 2 months, and when we finally got to BF, that bottle was the only thing that helped him learn to suck!

[Stephanie]

It is really a trial and error thing. He may be old enough to just have some solids while you are at work and get all his nursings in when you are together.

We had luck with the cheap, basic bottles. No one could hold dd, she would sit in a bouncy while she ate and the breastmilk had to be very warm.


But, no, he will not starve. He will catch up when mama is around. :)

[Nipple_nectar]

He won't starve, nursin momma! It is quite common for breastfed babies to refuse an artificial nipple/bottle. I think you will have better luck with a sippy cup.

Some babies never do either and that is okay too. It is called reverse cycling (http://www.mother-2-mother.com/reversecycling.htm) and lots of babies prefer to just wait until momma returns.

Good luck!

[madelsmama]

Both my babies have rejected bottles for the most part until they reached 8-9 months of age. We own the Adiri bottle, the breastflow, Second Nature, Avent, and others. The best luck we had was with the Playtex latex nipple that goes with the NaturaLatch system.

The good news is, she'll take ANY bottle/sippy/straw cup now, which probably began at around 8-9 months.

[mythreesons]

I bought one of the new playtex drop in system bottle with the natural latch nipples. Maybe he will like that one. I will look in the adiri bottle if I need to. I also bought him a cup today as well.

On the suggestion of solids. He's old enough but refuses those too. So I am pumping in prep for work and trying to get him to atleast take one bottle from his father or sitter.

[ima062002]

Gosh, momma, don't use that kind of subject line, you gave my heart a jolt :).

There are lots of things you can try besides a bottle - see here for more info: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/alternative-feeding.html

My dh fed my ds and dd with an SNS that I had, which meant that he had expressed milk in a bottle and a tube tied to his finger and babes were sucking on a finger instead of an artificial nipple.

Since your son is older, he might take to a sippy cup instead of a bottle.

He might also reverse cycle and get most of his fill in the evenings, nights and mornings when you are around. It would be tough for you since that would include night wakings and I would suggest cosleeping if that happens.

You could also make a few momsicles (bm popsicles) and see if he was inclided to have some icecream with dad :) next time you need to leave.

[mythreesons]

I am sorry for the title. Thats just my main concern. I also don't want him to run off his sitter because he won't quit crying. I am just worried about the whole situation.

[ima062002]

Oh I understand, hence the smiley...

First of all, you still have 2.5 mo to go and your baby will be a different animal when you get there :). I would try a few sippy cups and not worry - he WILL make sure that he'll get his fill. A healthy baby won't contribute to his own demise. So he'll either find a way to drink his expressed milk, or he will go slow and make up for it when you are around.

There will be a transition period where things are out of whack, but hopefully your sitter has been with babies before and is confident in finding a way to lovingly deal with your baby while you are away. Humans are highly adaptable, and that includes babies :).

[pumpkinhead7]

Neither of my babies would reliably take a bottle until they were 7 or 8 months old. The Playtex Natural-Latch and Avent nipples were the ones that they eventually prefered but the first one that they both took was the Playtex latex orthodontic nipple. I have no idea why, but it was the first one they both took.