nipple confusion -- urgent!

[Sara]

This is from the mom of one of Ollie's playmates:

> Hello everyone,
> I'm seeking a bit of advice again...
> My son Logan, 13 weeks, is refusing to take the bottle.* For three straight
> days, I've tried giving him a bottle, (sadly, starving him) for up to 5 1/2
> hours and have made very very little progress.** The crazy thing is that he
> actually used to have all his meals thru a bottle when I had latch-on
> problems and now my problem is reversed.* Does anyone have any helpful hints
> for me?** I have to go back to work next month and am very scared he'll*never
> do it or that I'll dehydrate him in the process of trying.
> Desperate,
> Jenn C.

She has a lactation consultant she can talk to, but the more help the
better. (I'm going to send her a Google Groups URL when all the
helpful replies start coming in.)

--
Sara, accompanied by the baby barnacle

[Phoebe & Allyson]

Sara wrote:

>>My son Logan, 13 weeks, is refusing to take the bottle.

He's old enough to drink from a valveless sippy, or even an open cup,
isn't he? I wouldn't worry about starvation unless DCPs are utterly
unwilling to feed from anything but a bottle - and even then, he might
take a bottle just fine from them.

Phoebe :)

[Mary W.]

Sara wrote:

> This is from the mom of one of Ollie's playmates:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> > I'm seeking a bit of advice again...
> > My son Logan, 13 weeks, is refusing to take the bottle. For three straight
> > days, I've tried giving him a bottle, (sadly, starving him) for up to 5 1/2
> > hours and have made very very little progress. The crazy thing is that he
> > actually used to have all his meals thru a bottle when I had latch-on
> > problems and now my problem is reversed. Does anyone have any helpful hints
> > for me? I have to go back to work next month and am very scared he'll never
> > do it or that I'll dehydrate him in the process of trying.
> > Desperate,
> > Jenn C.
>
> She has a lactation consultant she can talk to, but the more help the
> better. (I'm going to send her a Google Groups URL when all the
> helpful replies start coming in.)
>

Sara, you can probably google things like " baby won't take a bottle"
"bottle rejection" etc and get lots of suggestions.

Some quick ones: Mom shouldn't be trying to give the baby a bottle-
why drink from the bottle if mom is there? In fact, she may just have
to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
only took the playtex nurser and just barely. There are tons of different
shaped bottles/ nipples out there. She should try different
temperatures - warmer than you would think. DD would only take
the bottle if she was distracted and wasn't held - so our nanny would
prop her up in her carseat, put on the baby mozart video and sneak
the bottle in when DD was watching the video. Some babies
like to be held in the nursing position, some do better if they are
facing outward. I think someone here could only get their baby to
take a bottle if she covered her eyes with a cloth diaper.

The baby will probably do OK with the caregiver, although
the caregiver may need alot of patience. If mom can nurse
at lunch, baby would probably be OK the rest of the day.
Even at her peak bottle consumption, I think my daughter
only took 8-10 ounces. And I was gone all day. This
did mean she reverse cycle nursed
(she nursed all night long!) which was hard, but it was really
OK. Things got easier when she started solids and was less
dependent on the bottle.

Best of luck to your friend.

Mary

[Shannon]

Try:

1. Different temperatures
2. Different nipple shapes on the bottle
3. Different people feeding (most breastfed babies will not take a bottle
from Mom)
3. Different feeding positions - my DS wouldn't take a bottle nestled in the
nursing position but would happily if he were sitting in a baby bucket.

Can you practice at the DC place? Like, leave him there for an hour or two
just to see how he does? Sometimes, they are just so practiced, that the
babies respond to them better than family members (for bottle feeding,
anyway).

-Shannon

"Sara" > wrote in message
...
> This is from the mom of one of Ollie's playmates:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> > I'm seeking a bit of advice again...
> > My son Logan, 13 weeks, is refusing to take the bottle. For three
straight
> > days, I've tried giving him a bottle, (sadly, starving him) for up to 5
1/2
> > hours and have made very very little progress. The crazy thing is that
he
> > actually used to have all his meals thru a bottle when I had latch-on
> > problems and now my problem is reversed. Does anyone have any helpful
hints
> > for me? I have to go back to work next month and am very scared he'll
never
> > do it or that I'll dehydrate him in the process of trying.
> > Desperate,
> > Jenn C.
>
> She has a lactation consultant she can talk to, but the more help the
> better. (I'm going to send her a Google Groups URL when all the
> helpful replies start coming in.)
>
> --
> Sara, accompanied by the baby barnacle

[Nikki]

Shannon wrote:
> Try:
>
> 1. Different temperatures
> 2. Different nipple shapes on the bottle
> 3. Different people feeding (most breastfed babies will not take a
> bottle from Mom)
> 3. Different feeding positions - my DS wouldn't take a bottle nestled
> in the nursing position but would happily if he were sitting in a
> baby bucket.

and...

different nipple flows
different places (like outside or something unexpected)
fresh milk
cups (without the valve)
straws

In the end my first never did take a bottle and he still got plenty of milk.
He did reverse cycle and nursed all night long.

--
Nikki
Mama to Hunter (4) and Luke (2)

[nina]

"Nikki" > wrote in message
...
> Shannon wrote:
> > Try:
> >
> > 1. Different temperatures
> > 2. Different nipple shapes on the bottle
> > 3. Different people feeding (most breastfed babies will not take a
> > bottle from Mom)
> > 3. Different feeding positions - my DS wouldn't take a bottle nestled
> > in the nursing position but would happily if he were sitting in a
> > baby bucket.
>
> and...
>
> different nipple flows
> different places (like outside or something unexpected)
> fresh milk
> cups (without the valve)
> straws
>
>
Medicine syringe

[Irene]

"Mary W." > wrote in message >...
> > to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
> only took the playtex nurser and just barely.

It seems like an awful lot of the babies who don't like bottles ended
up on the Playtex nurser system, so I'd definitely give that a try.
(Of course, I may just think that because ds ended up on them, too!)

I have to admit, I ended up letting the dcp do most of the work on
this one - I figured she was the one who had the most motivation to
make it work, and it was driving dh bonkers.

Irene

[nina]

"Irene" > wrote in message
om...
> "Mary W." > wrote in message
>...
> > > to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
> > only took the playtex nurser and just barely.
>
> It seems like an awful lot of the babies who don't like bottles ended
> up on the Playtex nurser system, so I'd definitely give that a try.
> (Of course, I may just think that because ds ended up on them, too!)
>

I've tried lots of bottles and nipples, the only one my daughter can manage
is
the Playtex natural action nipple.It also helps in that you can press the
bag and increase the
liquid flow, that made it easier for my daughter to figure out what the
bottle was for.

[Mary W.]

Irene wrote:

> "Mary W." > wrote in message >...
> > > to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
> > only took the playtex nurser and just barely.
>
> It seems like an awful lot of the babies who don't like bottles ended
> up on the Playtex nurser system, so I'd definitely give that a try.
> (Of course, I may just think that because ds ended up on them, too!)

I always recommend it to people who are having trouble and it
often works!

> I have to admit, I ended up letting the dcp do most of the work on
> this one - I figured she was the one who had the most motivation to
> make it work, and it was driving dh bonkers.

I did too. Our nanny was very persistent.

Mary

[toypup]

"Mary W." > wrote in message
...
>
>
> Irene wrote:
>
> > "Mary W." > wrote in message
>...
> > > > to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
> > > only took the playtex nurser and just barely.
> >
> > It seems like an awful lot of the babies who don't like bottles ended
> > up on the Playtex nurser system, so I'd definitely give that a try.
> > (Of course, I may just think that because ds ended up on them, too!)
>
> I always recommend it to people who are having trouble and it
> often works!

That's not the one with the flat, nubby nipple, is it? Or are you talking
about the rubber nipple one with the wide mouth base? We have the one with
the wide mouth base. I like the softness of the rubber, I'm not sure if DD
does. DH has only been able to get DD to take maybe an ounce or two at a
feed so far.

[Mary W.]

toypup wrote:

> "Mary W." > wrote in message
> ...
> >
> >
> > Irene wrote:
> >
> > > "Mary W." > wrote in message
> >...
> > > > > to leave the house for awhile. She should try different nipples. DD
> > > > only took the playtex nurser and just barely.
> > >
> > > It seems like an awful lot of the babies who don't like bottles ended
> > > up on the Playtex nurser system, so I'd definitely give that a try.
> > > (Of course, I may just think that because ds ended up on them, too!)
> >
> > I always recommend it to people who are having trouble and it
> > often works!
>
> That's not the one with the flat, nubby nipple, is it? Or are you talking
> about the rubber nipple one with the wide mouth base? We have the one with
> the wide mouth base. I like the softness of the rubber, I'm not sure if DD
> does. DH has only been able to get DD to take maybe an ounce or two at a
> feed so far.

Its the one that was available at the grocery store :) From this site:
http://www.playtexbaby.com/bottlesandpacifiers/products/nipples.asp

The nipple on the bottom is the most like the one we used, I think.
They seemed to have changed since we used a bottle (2 years ago).
We did use a slow flow nipple.

And for what its worth, DD often would take only 2-3 ounces per
feed. Her biggest feed ever was 5 ounces from a bottle. She
wouldn't take anything from the Avent nipple or the Gerber
nipple we tried. A couple of ounces here and there seemed to
keep her content until I could get home and she could nurse.

Mary

[Akuvikate]

Sara > wrote in message >...
> This is from the mom of one of Ollie's playmates:
>
> > Hello everyone,
> > I'm seeking a bit of advice again...
> > My son Logan, 13 weeks, is refusing to take the bottle.* For three straight
> > days, I've tried giving him a bottle, (sadly, starving him) for up to 5 1/2
> > hours and have made very very little progress.** The crazy thing is that he
> > actually used to have all his meals thru a bottle when I had latch-on
> > problems and now my problem is reversed.* Does anyone have any helpful hints
> > for me?** I have to go back to work next month and am very scared he'll*never
> > do it or that I'll dehydrate him in the process of trying.
> > Desperate,
> > Jenn C.
>
> She has a lactation consultant she can talk to, but the more help the
> better. (I'm going to send her a Google Groups URL when all the
> helpful replies start coming in.)

Unlikely to be the issue, but she should also smell or taste her milk
(assuming she's using pumped milk). We had bottle trouble for a while
that was solved by two steps. One, switching to the playtex nurser
with the stubby nipple that others have recommended. Two was scalding
my milk right after pumping because my lipase levels cause the stuff
to get *nasty* after it had been stored for more than a day.

Kate
and the Bug, 10 months