Baby Grey HATES the bottle. We've tried ones the NICU gave us, Medela bottles, Playtex Original Nurser, and the Adiri. He gags on the first 3 named and I thought he would love the Adiri since it has a much shorter nipple and looks/feels more like a boob, but he doesn't like it, either. We also bought a Born-Free set, but I just returned it because it has the same type of nipple as the first three I mentioned.

I can get Baby Grey to drink about 1 ounce over the course of an hour, but that's it so far.

I'm unhappy that Playtex changed the nipple on the the original nurser. It was the same for years and my Girlie Grey loved it and had no problem transitioning to the bottle on it.

Any suggestions as to what we should do? I have to go back to work in about a month and he needs to start drinking my breastmilk from a bottle. I'm not terribly worried about it yet, but I don't want to get to the point where I'm frantic for him to take it and end up having to force him to drink out of starvation.

My daughter never took a bottle until I was gone. Way gone. And she only took it from other people, not me. I was a mess leaving her b/c she wouldn't take one, but when it was her only oprtion, she took it. Babies don't want to starve. I hated when people said that, but it turned out to be true.

My best friend's son never took a bottle, they gave him breastmilk in tiny sips from an open cup when she worked. He was fine too.

You are good not to be worried. It'll be ok in the end.

Lady Grey - you are having a rough time! Between this and the aupair issues - I'm so sorry.

Does he take a pacifier at all? Or is this the first non-mom nipple he's experienced?

It isn't at all strange that it is an adjustment for him. Although it is hard not to stress out, think of it like offering a new food to a bigger baby for the first time. Any new oral experience is going to trouble him at first. It's good that you are starting now and not the day you are going back to work. But try to relax and just attempt it every other feeding or so until he gets used to the feel, he will adjust and it will be OK, but he's just confused and never had this experience before. He'll figure it out.

Thanks, Sadie and HM. He does not take a pacifier, though the NICU gave him one. He took a bottle fine when in the NICU and he had no trouble switching between it and the breast, but the second day home from the hospital he started not being able to latch on to me (he was getting a bottle nipple with his medications in them still). So, after about 4-5 days of frustration, I stopped giving him the bottle nipple with his meds and instead just started squirting them into his mouth with the oral syringes we had (which causes other problems that I won't go into here). We also axed the pacifier then.

So, I'm thinking maybe we waited too long to reintroduce the bottle to him. I mean, I know he'll eventually take it. I just feel so over-protective of him because he has this horrible reflux which gives him a strong gag reflex and I'm a little anxious to transition him smoothly.

But, you're right, one day at a time... I guess all we can do is to just keep trying. But still, other suggestions are welcome!

Like hotmama said, Smudge never took a bottle from me, but had no issue doing so from his dada, or the daycare employees. Is it the same rejection for Baby Grey regardless of who's offering the milk?

Miles really wouldn't take a bottle from me, either, only from my husband.

Did you try the NUK nipples? My kids, who were both breastfed, both liked those. The Slo-Flo ones seemed best with them.

Sorry for the problem, I am sure it will resolve!

I should say that the NUK nipple fits the GERBER bottles.

Someone else suggested the NUK nipple, too. But, I don't want to buy a Gerber bottle (they all have BPA--this is somewhat limiting what I try, too. I can't believe this. I feel like I've become a bottle snob. How dumb.). I almost bought a package of nipple, anyway, to see if they fit the Medela bottle... Maybe I'll try.

Earl Grey, MIL-Grey, and I have each tried giving him the bottle. Surprisingly, he takes it from me better than anyone else, though "better" is used lightly here.

It won't fit on a Medela bottle, but they make glass bottles that they will fit on.

My kids both had BPA bottles, because this whole BPA freak out happened well after their infancy. I'm sure I'd have chosen nonBPA plastic and/or glass bottles had the info been out five years ago.

I think Even-flo's glass bottles will take a Gerber NUK nipple.

Yeah, me too. Actually, it turns out that Girlie Grey used bottles that were BPA free, but not because we concsiously sought them, just purely luck. Of course, I drank out of a Nalgene bottle during my entire pregnancy.

Adiri just sent me a link to this very helpful looking website:
http://www.pumpstation.com/pumpstation/dept.asp?s_id=0&dept_id=3279

Very nice of them!

Both my kids refused the bottle when they were babies. It didn't matter who was offering it. Unfortunately I've got nothing to offer but empathy.

Interestingly, one woman whose baby boy I sat would not take a bottle of pumped breastmilk from me...only formula. In fact, he did this with ANY caregiver, not just me.

The second baby I sat had no problem taking pumped milk in a bottle.

But, there you go. All babies are different, but none of them will *willfully* starve themselves.

If it really gets to be a problem, I second the cup idea - and/or a little spoon. I know it's not exactly the same, but we suggested spoons to women in Africa whose babies had trouble drinking water when they were dehydrated and it seemed to work fine.

Good luck!

We had this problem with our number 2 child. With my wife on the verge of going to work, she would NOT take a bottle. She also didn't do pacifiers. She had a very sensitive mouth I guess.

We taught her to sip from an open cup when she was about 4 months old. That was a frustrating (and messy experience). It sort of worked.

When my wife took the bar exam (a two-day test), I had to drive my daughter to her to nurse during the lunch break because her refusal to take a bottle.

I gave up trying bottles for two weeks. (Did the open cup and nursing.) Then about five days before my wife was to start work (she was 5 months old) I tried the bottle. She took it like it was old hat!

In the end, it took trying and retrying (with multiple nipples). I think having the bottle attempt when her mom wasn't anywhere nearby (and gone indeed for at least an hour) helped tremendously.

Now she's 15 months old and won't give up the damn bottles for sippy cups.

we've had that issue too- the only time the little man will take the bottle is from his dad in the middle of the night. we think he's too sleepy to notice the difference. our doula suggested trying to introduce the bottle when he's not super fussy also, to try and keep it a positive experience. we've had limited success, but it's worth trying.

and for what it's worth, we have all kinds of bpa-free bottles and glass bottles and the only one he'll drink from is the crappy plastic one we got for free when we registered at baby's r us. we decided to take what we could get. do with that what you will. and good luck!

Although it sounds counter-intutive, I second trying the formula. We tried every nipple, every bottle on the market with pumped milk... my daughter dehydrated (which the public health nurse/lactation consultant ASSURED me was impossible, that no baby was that stubborn). Nurses tried, dad tried, friends tried, I tried.

Formula, no problem. Other than how much it offended me that I wasn't good enough to pump successfully (lots of milk, kid just wouldn't drink it).

Then again, something very very odd happened to my breast milk (didn't matter how well I washed/rinsed/sterilized everything) when it exited my body. Within 20 minutes (wether I refrigerated, froze immediately or not), it was rancid. Not seperated, not something funky I was eating, it was RANCID. No wonder my daughter refused to have anything to do with it! I have since wondered if I have some funky enzyme that screwed it up but who knows.

Wow, Wookie, that is really weird! Sorry. That sounds frustrating. I'm not ready to go to formula to beat this problem, especially since he's a refluxer and may be extra-sensitive to milk or soy...

I'll keep trying with the bottles and if that fails, maybe I'll try a sippy cup.

Big O had the same issues. Until she was 6 months old, she took the bottle only 4 times. That was after trying 6 different bottles, when she finally accepted the Avent bottles. Also, she would not take a bottle from me, and in fact would not even bottle-feed if I was anywhere in the room. Eventually she drank more and more, but she really preferred the breast if it was within eyesight.

The Playtex bottles you tried, were they the brown rubber nipples or the clear silicone? The brown nipples have a funny shape, not very natural. Ebay uses the silicone ones with success. I like that I get a sterile bottle with each fresh liner. And they're recyclable.

Originally we used The First Years "Breastflow" bottles because they had the closest shape to me, and have a very short nipple. They're a pain to clean with all their parts, but it's worth a shot to buy one and try.

Medela makes an orthodontic nipple that is far superior to the Nuk nipple. They also go on their standard bottles or any other standard bottle. This is what we got him onto, then moved onto Medela's standard regular nipple.

You have to google "Medela orthodontic." They're not easy to find.

Lady Grey, if you get desperate enough to try forumula, try the Alimentum... it's the non-dairy non-soy, non-allergenic gold standard. It's expensive as hell, but all my daughter could have until she was 9 months or so (I went back to work at 3 months).

It took me a long time to get over the not using breastmilk thing (6 weeks of torturous feeding attempts)... but honestly, it was MY problem, if that makes sense. My daughter did amazingly well on the formula and still nursed all evening and night. Any way you can feed your kid is ALL GOOD!

Luckily, you still have a month. Our Dude did well at first, then we became complacent and didn't try again for weeks. The last weeks of maternity leave were spent much like yours now! I'm with trying cups (small medicine cups), a clean pinky finger w/ nail trimmed nearly to the quick dipped in EBM and the soul-sucking continuing to try the bottle once a day. Try dipping the outisde of the bottle nipple in EBM as well.