Our 8 month old baby girl has been exclusively breastfed until she started solids 2 months ago.
Now she is happily eating pureés etc, to which we sometimes add water or juice, but she refuses all other liquids other than by nursing.
Just wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience in the past?
Things we have tried:
- Expressed breastmilk
- 4 varieties of formula
- Water
- Juice
- Bottles of different sizes/shapes
- 4 different shapes of nipple, with 3 different flow rates
- Sippy cups with soft spouts
- Sippy cups with hard spouts
- Room temperature, slightly warmed, body temperature, and cold from the fridge drinks.
- Drinks offered by Mom, Dad, Aunts, Grandparents, etc.
No combination of the above has worked.
Our baby has no medical issues that we know of. Her mouth is perfectly normal, she is teething but the bottle refusal thing started before the teething.
This is a concern for us because, now that nursing has been reduced, we're not sure that she's getting enough liquids. Plus, baby can't be apart from her mother for more than a few hours for fear of dehydration. This spells trouble as mom is due back to work soon.
Note: When she was 3 months old, our baby was apart from her mother for 24 hours (mom had surgery). During that time she flatly refused all attempts to bottle feed her, effectively going on hunger strike. I feel that this experience might have stuck with her.