hi

I have been exclusively breastfeeding my baby for 4 months now...i want him to start taking top milk from bottle now since i want to start weaning and join work again.

but he refuses to drink anything by bottle...whether its gripe water or lactogen or cow milk. I want to get him used to bottle as early as possible. he sometimes goes without any feed for 7-8 hours if i dont breast feed him and offer bottle only.

Is there some way I can get him to have the bottle?
Poonam replied. Hi
You may ask your husband or somebody else in house to give him bottle as babies are familiar with mother´s smell and if mother tries to give them bottle , they recognize and prefer breast feed for her.Ask them to keep on trying , baby will start taking. One more thing I used to do was that, I started giving breast milk, then at once, I drew breast and put bottle in his mouth. And it worked. All the best.
Vidya replied. Hi Amita,

I faced the same situation with my daughter when she was 5 months of age. She used to go hungry for hours till I came back from work. We tried everything - giving milk from a spoon, changing formula - but nothing worked. Then one day, we tried giving her the bottle while she was falling asleep. And miraculously, she started drinking. At first she drank slowly - it took 30 mts for her to drink 3 ounces of milk. Now she is 8 months old - she still drinks formula only when she is falling asleep, but she is much faster and doesnt fuss about it at all. I feed her in the mornings and evenings and she takes enough bottlemilk during the day. Of course, if this also doesnt work, you may want to check with your doctor and start on solids/cereals.

Hope that helps.