HOW TO HELP YOUR BABY TAKING THE BOTTLE

We have a beautiful blog post written by a professional midwife about things you can try if your baby struggles to take the bottle.

 

You can read the post here. 

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This is the summary of what you can try before giving up:

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·        Do not introduce the bottle when they are VERY hungry and irritable. They just want to feed as soon as possible from the breast. 

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·        Be patient and let the baby spend some time with the bottle, don't take it away immediately when they become fussy. They will feel the milk coming out from it at one point and they might start feeding.

 

·        Allow the baby to find a way to latch on to the bottle rather than you pushing or forcing it in their mouth. You have to bear in mind that the bottle is new for your baby so it might take some time and some attempts before they get the hang of it. 

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·        Try to insert a CLEAN finger into your baby's mouth and let them suck on it and then try to switch to the bottle. If the sucking motion is already in place, they might just carry on the bottle. 

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·        Try to give the bottle in a different position to how you breastfeed them. For instance, try to feed them when they are sitting upright on a car seat or on your lap but with their back against your chest. Moving the baby around, like walking them around the room or bringing them outside (or to a completely different setting to where you normally breastfeed them) might also help. 

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·        You might try a completely different approach and position them in the same way when they are breastfeeding. You could tuck the bottle in your ARMPIT and position them exactly like when they are breastfeeding. 

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·        Let somebody else bottle-feed your baby and try not to be around. If they know you around they expect to be breastfed while they might accept the bottle if they understand is coming from a different person. 

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·        Try to wrap a piece of your clothing around the bottle so the baby can smell mom. 

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·        Try milk at different temperatures. Some babies might like it warm, others at room temperature or even cold. 

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·        If you are giving expressed milk to your baby always check that it tastes ok. Sometimes expressed milk can have a change in taste and this might upset the baby. We wrote another blog post about that, you can read it here

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You can also contact us to have some advice. We will be happy to help!