When your breastfed baby won't take a bottle, information technology can be stressful and even a niggling scary. Babies are not e'er onboard when transitioning from chest to bottle. Whether you're going back to piece of work or desire others to aid feed your baby, you might outset to wonder: "What if my infant never takes a bottle?"

Don't panic. Ordinarily when your baby won't have a bottle, they're just struggling with the learning curve. They're new to the globe so they have a lot to learn. Sometimes in that location may be some motor skill or medical condition making information technology more hard. Merely no matter the reason, we're here to help.

Keep reading to learn the most common reasons why your baby may be refusing a bottle, tips for helping them get used to a bottle, and what may be going on if canteen feeding doesn't start to meliorate.

Not all bottle refusal looks the same. There tin be a range of signs that your child is struggling to take a bottle, including:

  • Turning away from the bottle
  • Gagging or fussing as the bottle's nipple nears their oral cavity
  • Being unable to latch/shrink the bottle'due south nipple and express milk
  • Chewing on the bottle's nipple
  • Sputtering or cough while feeding
  • Not being able to completely eat their sip of milk, so that some drips from their mouth

Why practice many babies have problems when switching to a bottle afterwards breastfeeding?

There's no i-size-fits-all answer to this question. In most cases, bottle feeding problems aren't due to abnormal oral motor office, nor are they usually due to an underlying medical issue.

Actually, one of the most common reasons breastfed babies won't take a bottle right abroad stems from not being introduced to ane early enough in their growth. In fact, the number one mistake families make is offering a bottle too late.

Why timing is so important when introducing a bottle to a breastfed baby

Babies are born with an automatic sucking reflex. Only at 2 to 3 months old that reflex becomes voluntary. In effect, that gives babies the power to refuse a feeding if they're not comfortable with information technology.

If a infant hits this phase in their growth and has only fed from their mother's chest, they may have developed a "preference" for that method of milk delivery. Babies plant a suck-swallow-breathe pattern that works for them and lets them handle their mother's milk flow.

When given a bottle, non simply is the milk period unlike, a infant has to adapt to a dissimilar nipple shape and texture. They also need to slightly adjust their posture from what they're used to. For someone so new to the globe, making these kinds of changes can be hard and overwhelming, leading to fussing, tears and why your breastfed babe won't take a bottle.

When to introduce a bottle to a breastfed baby

There's an ideal window of time for introducing a canteen to a breastfed baby. You want to avoid doing it too late, but you lot besides don't want to exercise it also early. It'due south of import to make sure your baby gets the hang of breastfeeding and is getting plenty milk before introducing a bottle.

We commonly recommend waiting virtually ii to 4 weeks after your baby is born before trying to bottle feed. Unless they were built-in early, most babies are ready by so.

How to get a breastfed infant to take a bottle: 5 helpful tips

1. Switch back and forth between breastfeeding and bottle feeding

You give your babe the all-time chance at developing their feeding skills if you regularly switch betwixt canteen and chest in the midst of feedings.

ii. Try giving the bottle when your babe is waking up

No affair the fourth dimension of day, babies are more likely to take a bottle when they're just waking up. The instinct to eat takes over when babies are still a niggling sleepy. Don't let your babe go overly hungry before feeding. That tin result in fussiness and crying (a late feeding cue), and get in harder to initiate feeding either past canteen or breast.

3. Create a relaxing environment each time you offering the canteen

Play soft, calming music – like classical or folk. Sit down down someplace where you can gently rock back and forth. And swaddle your baby with their hands about their confront. Having a quiet, dark room with few distractions can help, too.

Doing these things will relax your infant – in part because they will also relax you. Children sense and feed off the energy of the adults effectually them. And it'due south no different when you and your infant are adjusting to bottle feeding. If y'all can be at ease with the varied routine a bottle brings, your baby will be more content, too.

4. Have a family fellow member other than mom offer the bottle whenever possible

Each person will concur your baby a piffling bit differently for feedings. When your little 1 tin can get used to these differences early, information technology helps them acquire how to accommodate their posture so it's less likely to be an consequence when their sucking reflex becomes voluntary.

5. Attempt giving your baby a different type of canteen or nipple

Sometimes, the solution to bottle feeding problems is equally simple as finding the right bottle or nipple. While in that location are nipple levels associated with age, every baby has their own feeding style, which may non match their historic period or size. There are many different nipple and bottle types out there – trying to figure out the all-time selection can exist an overwhelming process. Finding the right fit is something that your baby'due south doctor or a lactation specialist can help you with.

6. Experiment with babe's bottle-feeding position

Your baby may too prefer to eat while in a sure position, which typically differs from breastfeeding positions. Try different angles and placements to meet if at that place is one they favor. For case:

  • Cradling them in your arm at a 45-degree angle while keeping their head and neck aligned.
  • Sitting upright so that their dorsum is against your breadbasket.
  • While sitting or lying downwardly, 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 feet on your stomach.

A father bottle feeds a baby in his lap.

No matter what position y'all use, retrieve to angle the bottle so that milk only comes out when your baby sucks, and never prop the bottle in their oral fissure. Likewise call up to never lay your baby completely apartment while feeding.

What to do when an older infant is refusing to accept a bottle

The breast to bottle transition is certainly easier if you lot introduce a bottle at the right historic period. Merely even if your babe is already 2 to iii months sometime, information technology's still possible. In add-on to the tips above, you tin can assist your baby exercise with a pacifier.

A pacifier can help babies grade and strengthen their sucking ability. Consistently offer a pacifier to help soothe your baby when they're fussy, if yous're non already. This helps your infant learn to organize their rima oris movement, which will calm them. In one case that becomes routine, begin offering your infant a pacifier for 20 to thirty seconds when you go to brand a bottle. Doing so will help them more calmly prepare for bottle feeding.

Gently pull on the pacifier as your babe sucks it. Make sure to practice this at least 3 to 5 times a twenty-four hour period, including when your baby is using the pacifier to prep for a bottle feeding. These slight tugs volition help your baby acquire how to resist releasing the seal they've formed on the pacifier'south nipple. And that tin strengthen their latch on a bottle'south nipple, as well.

When the above tips don't work, there may be some other reason your baby is refusing a canteen

If you've been trying calm strategies for a few days and your infant doesn't seem to be getting more comfortable taking a canteen, telephone call your infant's doctor. They can help determine whether a medical consequence may exist present or connect you 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 tummy acid flow from the tummy back into the esophagus (the tube the carries food from the mouth into the breadbasket).

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 dorsum when feeding
  • Crying, fussing and getting scarlet or watery optics while feeding
  • Coughing regularly during feedings or right afterward them
  • Refusing to drink or accepting merely 1 ounce of milk or less
  • Falling asleep while feeding
  • Having poor sucking and breathing coordination
  • Taking a long time to eat or potable

It'south important to know these deportment can occur and not be related to reflux. It's common for babies to take a fussy time of day or exist more than tired some days than others. If symptoms are ongoing, a baby can be evaluated and treated for reflux.

Facial or oral structural differences tin brand latching difficult

If reflux doesn't appear to be the trouble, your baby'southward medico may refer y'all to a rehab specialist like me.

I've been helping moms and families who struggle with the transition to bottles for near a decade. It'due south part of my work as a speech therapist at Park Nicollet. You might think, "My infant'south problem is with eating – non talking. What does speech therapy have to do with that?" The reply could be, a lot!

The shape or structure of a baby'due south cheeks, mouth, tongue or jaw tin impact their feedings. That's considering these body parts affect how they're able to latch both to the bottle, also as to the breast. For example:

  • Thin cheeks with little to no fat pads make it difficult for a baby to hold their tongue in identify to feed
  • A tongue-tie(where the tissue that attaches the tongue to the lesser of the mouth is too curt) tin can limit a baby'south power to move their tongue from side to side in their rima oris or by their lower lip to feed
  • A tongue-tie that'southward been clipped requires a baby to relearn how and where to move their tongue to feed, and create new muscle retentiveness
  • A "vaulted" palate (where the roof of the mouth is higher and narrower than the typical flat U-shape) causes additional space in a infant's mouth that tin make it harder for their lips to course a tight seal

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

Information technology's possible that a babe only doesn't have the forcefulness to get what they demand during a feeding. This could be the instance even if they have very normal oral motor deportment.

If your baby is refusing to take a bottle, we're just a phone telephone call away

Always feel empowered to call your baby'southward doctor or brand an engagement with them. They tin can connect you with different types of breastfeeding back up, including drop-in breastfeeding support groups and lactation consultants who help with both bottle and breastfeeding issues. They can as well refer yous to a pediatric rehabilitation specialist.

Our incredible nursing staff is also here for you. HealthPartners patients can call 800-551-0859. Park Nicollet patients tin phone call their clinic directly during regular business hours, or 952-993-4665 if it'southward after hours. For questions and advice on new baby care, you can also call our 24/7 BabyLine at 612-333-2229.

Find a doctor who can help

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

While you lot may exist wondering how to get them to accept a bottle today, you'll become information technology figured out. And then the question will be: How tin I get my child to eat their vegetables?