When your breastfed baby won't accept a bottle, information technology can exist stressful and even a niggling scary. Babies are not always onboard when transitioning from breast to canteen. Whether you lot're going dorsum to work or want others to help feed your baby, you might starting time to wonder: "What if my baby never takes a bottle?"

Don't panic. Usually when your infant won't have a canteen, they're but struggling with the learning curve. They're new to the globe so they have a lot to larn. Sometimes there may be some motor skill or medical condition making it more than difficult. Only no thing the reason, we're here to help.

Keep reading to larn the most common reasons why your baby may exist refusing a bottle, tips for helping them go used to a canteen, and what may be going on if canteen feeding doesn't kickoff to ameliorate.

Not all canteen refusal looks the same. At that place tin can be a range of signs that your child is struggling to take a canteen, including:

  • Turning away from the bottle
  • Gagging or fussing as the canteen's nipple nears their mouth
  • Beingness unable to latch/compress the canteen's nipple and limited milk
  • Chewing on the bottle's nipple
  • Sputtering or coughing while feeding
  • Not beingness able to completely swallow their sip of milk, so that some drips from their mouth

Why do many babies have bug when switching to a bottle later on breastfeeding?

There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. In near cases, bottle feeding problems aren't due to abnormal oral motor function, nor are they normally due to an underlying medical upshot.

Actually, one of the most common reasons breastfed babies won't accept a bottle right away stems from not beingness introduced to one early plenty in their growth. In fact, the number one error families make is offering a bottle too late.

Why timing is and so of import when introducing a bottle to a breastfed baby

Babies are born with an automatic sucking reflex. Simply at 2 to 3 months old that reflex becomes voluntary. In result, that gives babies the ability to pass up a feeding if they're non comfortable with it.

If a baby hits this phase in their growth and has only fed from their mother's breast, they may have adult a "preference" for that method of milk commitment. Babies establish a suck-eat-breathe pattern that works for them and lets them handle their mother's milk menstruum.

When given a canteen, non only is the milk flow unlike, a baby has to adapt to a different nipple shape and texture. They also need to slightly adapt their posture from what they're used to. For someone and then new to the world, making these kinds of changes can be hard and overwhelming, leading to fussing, tears and why your breastfed baby won't take a bottle.

When to introduce a bottle to a breastfed baby

At that place's an ideal window of fourth dimension for introducing a bottle to a breastfed baby. You want to avoid doing information technology too late, but you as well don't want to do it besides early. It'southward important to make sure your baby gets the hang of breastfeeding and is getting enough milk before introducing a bottle.

Nosotros usually recommend waiting near ii to 4 weeks after your baby is built-in before trying to bottle feed. Unless they were born early on, well-nigh babies are ready past then.

How to get a breastfed infant to have a bottle: v helpful tips

one. Switch back and forth betwixt breastfeeding and canteen feeding

You requite your baby the all-time chance at developing their feeding skills if you regularly switch between bottle and breast in the midst of feedings.

2. Try giving the canteen when your baby is waking up

No matter the time of twenty-four hours, babies are more than likely to take a bottle when they're only waking upwards. The instinct to consume takes over when babies are still a trivial sleepy. Don't let your baby get overly hungry before feeding. That tin can issue in fussiness and crying (a tardily feeding cue), and arrive harder to initiate feeding either past bottle or breast.

3. Create a relaxing environment each time you offer the bottle

Play soft, calming music – similar classical or folk. Sit downwards someplace where you can gently stone back and forth. And swaddle your babe with their easily near their confront. Having a quiet, dark room with few distractions tin can help, too.

Doing these things will relax your infant – in office because they will likewise relax yous. Children sense and feed off the energy of the adults around them. And it's no dissimilar when you and your baby are adjusting to canteen feeding. If you tin can be at ease with the varied routine a bottle brings, your baby will be more content, too.

four. Have a family unit member other than mom offer the bottle whenever possible

Each person will hold your baby a trivial bit differently for feedings. When your little one tin get used to these differences early, it helps them acquire how to adapt their posture so it'southward less likely to be an issue when their sucking reflex becomes voluntary.

5. Endeavour giving your baby a unlike type of bottle or nipple

Sometimes, the solution to bottle feeding issues is as simple as finding the correct canteen or nipple. While there are nipple levels associated with age, every baby has their own feeding manner, which may not friction match their age or size. There are many different nipple and bottle types out there – trying to figure out the all-time pick can be an overwhelming process. Finding the right fit is something that your baby'due south medico or a lactation specialist can help you with.

6. Experiment with babe'southward bottle-feeding position

Your babe may besides adopt to eat while in a certain position, which typically differs from breastfeeding positions. Try different angles and placements to see if at that place is 1 they favor. For example:

  • Cradling them in your arm at a 45-caste angle while keeping their head and cervix aligned.
  • Sitting upright so that their back is against your stomach.
  • While sitting or lying down, bend your legs and position your baby so they face you with their head resting against your knees, their back against your thighs and their anxiety on your stomach.

A father bottle feeds a baby in his lap.

No affair what position you apply, remember to bending the bottle so that milk only comes out when your infant sucks, and never prop the canteen in their mouth. Also remember to never lay your infant completely flat while feeding.

What to do when an older baby is refusing to take a bottle

The chest to bottle transition is certainly easier if you innovate a canteen at the correct age. But even if your baby is already 2 to 3 months erstwhile, it's still possible. In addition to the tips above, you tin can help your infant practice with a pacifier.

A pacifier can help babies form and strengthen their sucking ability. Consistently offering a pacifier to help soothe your baby when they're fussy, if y'all're not already. This helps your baby learn to organize their rima oris movement, which volition at-home them. Once that becomes routine, begin offer your babe a pacifier for 20 to 30 seconds when y'all become to make a canteen. Doing and then will help them more than calmly prepare for bottle feeding.

Gently pull on the pacifier as your infant sucks information technology. Make sure to do this at to the lowest degree 3 to v times a mean solar day, including when your infant is using the pacifier to prep for a canteen feeding. These slight tugs volition help your baby larn how to resist releasing the seal they've formed on the pacifier's nipple. And that tin strengthen their latch on a bottle's nipple, too.

When the above tips don't piece of work, there may be another reason your baby is refusing a canteen

If you've been trying at-home strategies for a few days and your baby doesn't seem to be getting more comfortable taking a bottle, telephone call your baby's doc. They can help determine whether a medical consequence may exist present or connect you lot with a specialist if needed. Other reasons why your baby is refusing a bottle can include:

Reflux issues can cause pain with eating

Babies can get heartburn, too! When a baby has reflux, food and stomach acid flow from the tummy back into the esophagus (the tube the carries food from the rima oris into the stomach).

Reflux causes babies to experience discomfort or pain when eating, which understandably affects feeding. Symptoms that may point to reflux issues include:

  • Arching or stiffening their back when feeding
  • Crying, fussing and getting carmine or watery eyes while feeding
  • Cough regularly during feedings or right after them
  • Refusing to drink or accepting just 1 ounce of milk or less
  • Falling comatose while feeding
  • Having poor sucking and breathing coordination
  • Taking a long time to eat or drink

It's important to know these deportment tin can occur and not be related to reflux. It's common for babies to have a fussy fourth dimension of twenty-four hours or be more than tired some days than others. If symptoms are ongoing, a baby tin exist evaluated and treated for reflux.

Facial or oral structural differences can make latching difficult

If reflux doesn't appear to be the problem, your infant'due south doctor may refer you to a rehab specialist like me.

I've been helping moms and families who struggle with the transition to bottles for about a decade. It'south part of my work as a speech therapist at Park Nicollet. Y'all might call back, "My baby'due south problem is with eating – not talking. What does speech communication therapy have to do with that?" The answer could be, a lot!

The shape or structure of a baby'south cheeks, oral fissure, tongue or jaw can bear upon their feedings. That'south because these body parts affect how they're able to latch both to the bottle, as well as to the chest. For example:

  • Sparse cheeks with niggling to no fatty pads make it hard for a babe to concord their tongue in identify to feed
  • A natural language-tie(where the tissue that attaches the natural language to the bottom of the oral fissure is as well brusque) can limit a baby's ability to motion their natural language from side to side in their mouth or past their lower lip to feed
  • A tongue-tie that'southward been clipped requires a baby to relearn how and where to movement their natural language to feed, and create new musculus memory
  • A "vaulted" palate (where the roof of the mouth is higher and narrower than the typical flat U-shape) causes boosted space in a baby'south mouth that can arrive harder for their lips to class a tight seal

Weak oral muscle tone or lack of oral stimulation can make information technology hard to get enough milk during feeding

It's possible that a baby simply doesn't have the strength to go what they need during a feeding. This could be the instance even if they have very normal oral motor deportment.

If your babe is refusing to take a canteen, we're only a phone telephone call abroad

Always feel empowered to call your baby's md or make an date with them. They can connect you with dissimilar types of breastfeeding support, including drib-in breastfeeding support groups and lactation consultants who help with both canteen and breastfeeding issues. They can also refer you to a pediatric rehabilitation specialist.

Our incredible nursing staff is too hither for you. HealthPartners patients can phone call 800-551-0859. Park Nicollet patients can call their clinic directly during regular business organization hours, or 952-993-4665 if information technology's later on hours. For questions and advice on new baby intendance, yous can as well call our 24/7 BabyLine at 612-333-2229.

Find a md who can aid

Are you still looking for the right doctor for your new baby? We have hundreds of doctors and clinicians across the Twin Cities, primal Minnesota and western Wisconsin, that can help you with all your questions.

While you may be wondering how to get them to take a bottle today, you lot'll go it figured out. Then the question will be: How tin I become my child to eat their vegetables?