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I have a 9-month-old child. I breastfed him from the very first moment, since we have a 24 weeks maternity leave in my country.
The thing is he hates the feeding bottles. I can't leave him with anybody for longer than a couple of hours. He eats a little (except with the daycare staff). I've tried soooo many feeding bottles, the only things he does with them is biting them. We tried bottles with multiple kinds of formula, water, natural juice and expressed breast milk.
What can I do?
Try giving him a sippy cup or a cup with a straw during meal times.
If you really want to continue with bottles, then have someone else give him the bottle - and make sure you are no where to be seen when it's given to him.
If you are using formula during the bottle feeding, then try switching out the formula.
My wife and I are fighting this fight right now, because our exclusively-breastfed-until-now 2-month-old daughter is struggling to gain weight. The standard advice is to try different nipples, different formulas, and have Mom be out of the room or even out of the house. Clearly that works for some people, but it has not worked for us.
What is slowly starting to work is: to do some breastfeeding, then switch to the bottle, then switch back to the other breast, then finish the bottle.
We are also finding that there is a very fine line between the positions in which she will take the bottle and where she'll just get angry. Being at all tired can also spell doom for the bottle. She wants it slightly warmer than room temperature (do not microwave to warm it). And she requires a lot of calm, with relaxed encouragement and gentle cheek stroking.
Perhaps if you got him the BanZ bottle holder. This is a silicone bottle holder with holes to train him to hold his own bottle. They come in bright colours too. It may feel more natural as he'd be in control feeding himself. It has a smaller and larger hole to fit most bottles.
