Are you returning to work soon and looking for a bottle your baby will take? Have you tried other bottles and just not having a breakthrough? Based on personal experience and also that of others parents this situation is more common than you would imagine. Apparently, babies have worked out that if they only breastfeed then mum can’t go anywhere. So they formed a pack to take nothing but the breast. Ok, that is a little far-fetched but that is the theory I came up with.
Because my theory bore fruit out of sheer frustration after having a daughter who completely rejected the bottle it needs more in depth analysis. One source has some very practical reasons why this may happen.
Why do babies refuse the bottle?
Long and short it can basically be chalked up to four main reasons:
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Wrong bottle teat —babies can be very particular about the teat they feed on. If the teat requires them to change the way they feed on the breast it can be too much work so they refuse to use it, which is understandable.
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Wrong flow from the bottle —if the flow from the bottle is too fast or slow it creates frustration, thus it is good to match the pace that works for your baby. Minbie bottles help with this offering a range from extra slow to advance making it easier to find the best match.
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What is in the bottle —express breastmilk is always a great start it is more familiar and also has many benefits. If formula is what works with your circumstance get a medical recommendation and also watch the reaction of your baby to get a judge of the brand that is more palatable.
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Who is offering the feed —because mum has the good stuff most babies will not take a bottle from mum, and honestly you cannot blame them. A tip here is to have someone else offer the Minbie when you are just starting.
We love to hear what other mums have to say about their bottle journey. Here is a clip from Haley a mum who had the hardest time getting her son Harry to use a bottle, read on:
“My name is Haley and this is Harry he is just two months old. When I first had Harry I knew that I wanted to pretty much breastfeed him exclusively but I also knew that come 4 four months I would have to return to work so I would need to have him on a bottle as well.”
Haley was preparing to return to work so she needed the bottle to work: “So from the very beginning, I started trying to get him onto the bottle with some express breastmilk but Harry had other plans and he would not take to any of the bottles we tried. I tried probably 6 or 7 different bottles on the market and every single one of them he wouldn’t latch to. He would just let the milk drain out of his mouth so nothing would really work for us. At that point luckily my mum found Minbie online and she thought that I would just order just one bottle and some teats and give it a go and pretty much straight away he latched onto the Minbie bottle as it was just like a breast pretty much.” You may be able to relate to Haley’s situation of trying multiple bottles and not having your baby take to any of them. I don’t know about you but when my breast milk was wasted it was more heartbreaking than formula even though formula cost money. There was just no comparison watching all that effort go to waste.
“So one of our favourite things about the Minbie bottle is obviously the shape of the teat because it is very similar to that of the breast it ensured that he would latch on very quickly so now we are at two months and we are able to feed him a bottle a day using the Minbie bottle and he has taken to it like a pro.” How cool is that, Harry finding is perfect match…the teat that brought the game to his feed turning him into a real pro feeder.
Do you want your baby to be a pro feeder? You too can have the same success with your very own Minbie. We can help you find your match, hit us up on chat and let us guide you through.