A lot of attention is often paid to babies who do not want to drink from the breast, but there can also be problems the other way around. Once babies get used to drinking from the breast, they no longer want to drink from a bottle. This is common and is therefore often a problem for mothers who have to return to work. Don’t worry too much about a bottle refuser, in many cases things will get better with the help of a number of ‘tricks’.
Why does my baby refuse the bottle?
Newly born babies have a strong need to suck. Nature has given them this and that is a good thing. If babies didn’t have this, they could starve. Babies often start to suck on anything that comes into their mouth. Babies’ need to suck decreases as they grow older. After 8 weeks the need to suck has already decreased and after 6 months it has largely disappeared. This does not mean that babies no longer want to suck, sucking has often become a habit rather than a need. For women who are breastfeeding, this means that they should do so as soon as possible after birth. Not only to initiate milk formation, but also because the need to suck is greatest in the beginning. The baby will instinctively suck on the nipple. If the nipple is offered for the first time after a few weeks, the baby will in almost all cases not accept it. Logical, you would think. The same applies to a teat on a bottle. The baby is used to a nipple and will therefore not easily accept a strange teat. Even if the baby was drinking from a bottle before, he (or she) may suddenly refuse the bottle after 8 or 12 weeks. The need to suck has decreased somewhat and the baby wants to suck only on mom’s familiar nipple.
Can you prevent bottle refusers?
Unfortunately, preventing a bottle refuser is not possible. There are tips that will reduce the chance that your baby will become a bottle refuser:
- Do not start too late when giving expressed milk from a bottle. It is often advised to only start after five or six weeks. Yet it is often claimed that this advice is outdated. In any case, if you wait too long there is a greater chance that your baby will no longer want the bottle. It is best to start giving a bottle when your baby can drink well from the breast.
- Give your baby a bottle regularly, preferably once every day. Your baby will also get used to a bottle and will be less likely to refuse the bottle later in life.
How do I get my baby back to the bottle?
If your baby refuses the bottle, there are a number of tricks you can use to get the baby to drink from a bottle again. This won’t happen overnight. It is especially advisable to try each method for at least a few days. Ultimately, persistence wins. Below are some tips:
- Try a pacifier that looks a lot like a nipple. There are special teats on the market for this. Some babies drink better from one bottle than from another.
- Try different poses. Sometimes it helps if you hold your baby the same way you would when you latch him on. Sometimes this doesn’t help and your baby prefers to drink when he doesn’t see you, so with his face away from you. Try different positions and see what works best.
- Use freshly expressed breast milk at the right temperature. The milk from the refrigerator or freezer may taste different and when it is warmed up, the temperature may differ from the temperature your baby is normally used to from the breast.
- It can also help to offer the expressed milk a little colder or a little warmer.
- Do not give the bottle if the baby is too hungry, as your baby will be restless and will not be able to exercise properly. It is also best not to give the bottle after a feeding, as the baby will no longer be hungry. It is better to give the bottle between feedings.
- Heat the teat of the bottle. Your baby is used to a warm nipple. It can also help to dip the teat in the milk so that your baby tastes the milk right away.
- Do not put the bottle in your mouth all at once. First stroke your baby’s lips with the pacifier to stimulate the sucking reflex. When your baby opens his mouth, make sure you put the pacifier completely in his mouth. There is a spot at the back of the palate that stimulates sucking.
- Give the bottle when your baby is just waking up and still half asleep. There is now more chance that your baby will start sucking on his own.
- Let someone else give the bottle. Your baby may sometimes refuse the bottle from the mother, but will accept it from someone else.
- Distract your baby and then put the bottle in his mouth. He may now start sucking on his own because he is distracted.
- Rinse the bottles thoroughly after washing so that all soap odors are gone.
- Try a teat with a larger hole to make it easier for the milk to pass through.
- Sometimes it can help to put pantyhose over the pacifier so that the pacifier feels more like skin.
- As a final tip, don’t force it. Your baby will then think that drinking from a bottle is a punishment and that will be counterproductive.
Help, the tips don’t work!
If none of the above tips work, and your baby continues to refuse the bottle, then you have a real bottle refuser. Babies who do not drink much from the bottle during the day usually compensate for this in the evening by drinking extra fluid so that they still get enough nutrition. There are also alternatives to the bottle that you can try:
- Try giving the milk from a cup, glass, sippy cup, straw or spoon.
- Give older babies breast milk in the form of porridge. Porridge made from rice flour with breast milk can be given from four months.
- Choose a babysitter or daycare center close to work, so that you can go back and forth to feed your baby yourself. Employers must allow this.
