Hates bottles

[Anonymous]

My son is 8mths old and is to the point of almost refusing all bottles. He loves his solids but the bottles are basically non-existant. I can usually get one into him while he is asleep at night. I have also tried sippy cups and that was also a dismal failure. He has plenty of wet diapers but I don’t know how he can go on only 1-2 5 ounce bottles a day. Any thoughts on what to try or should I just let him go?

[Anonymous]

Hi Cory! Feeding therapy with a speech pathologist was the way to go with us. I didn’t want her to develop any of the feeding behaviors that I saw starting. They have a variety of methods they use for each baby that I was never aware of. At dd’s 9 month well check, doc. said she should still be on 20-25 oz of forumula still. Good thing he is eating solids so well, maybe you can add some forumula to them?

[Anonymous]

He usually gets at least 18 ounces of formula between his solids and his bottle but I just can’t believe that he isn’t thirsty. When I try to put the bottle in his mouth he pushes it away or lets me put it in and then smiles at me while the stuff runs down his face.

[Anonymous]

My DD only gets 17-19 ounces a day of formula (solids and bottles) and
her doctor actually doesn’t want her to get more than 20 at this point
(9.5 months).

Remember, there is a lot of water in jarred foods/purees so your son is
getting water that way. If he has wet diapers, cries tears and is
gaining weight, I wouldn’t worry about hydration. You can also keep
trying with different cups. Have you tried a straw cup? My DD just
figured it out and loves it. Will he drink water and/or diluted juice?
My DD drinks about 4 extra ounces a day between the two of those.

knb182006-5-30 11:6:46

[Anonymous]

I haven’t tried a straw as I didn’t know if he would be able to figure it out but maybe I should try that. I think that is probably the only thing that I haven’t tried.

[Anonymous]

Ryan sounds exactly like my son. Myles has never liked his bottle. As time has gone on he has gotten more and more resistant to the bottle. I have absolutely no idea why. He eats his solids like a champ, so he’s getting enough, but it bothers me that he doesn’t drink more from a bottle. I’ve just learned to accept it because I don’t think there is anything I can do about it, and his doctor is not concerned about it.

The only time he will drink a bottle is in late afternoon when I think he is more thirsty than hungry. He usually drinks 4 ounces, sometimes 5. And he drinks one bottle at night before bed, usually 4 ounces sometimes up to 6.

The rest of his feedings are spoon fed. I mix about 4 1/2 ounces of breast milk with 1/3 cup cereal and spoon feed him. So, he’s getting plenty of liquid. Like Karen said the baby foods have water in them, too.

I wouldn’t be too worried about how much he’s eating or drinking or if he’s growing normally, wettig diapers, pooping, etc. Myles gets approximately 17 – 19 ounes of breast milk or formula per day, 2/3 cup cereal, and 2 jars of baby food. That’s it!! Not as much as most babies, but he’s no light weight (20 lbs), so it’s enough for him.

Myles isn’t interested in sippy cups yet either, but I just keep offering and I’m sure one day he will get the idea and drink something.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Ryan currently gets about 3/4-1 cup of infant cereal and 5 jars of stage 2 food a day so he is definitely getting plenty of food, I think. I also mix about 4.5 ounces of formula with each of his 2 servings of cereal. I even tried one day withholding his solids to see if he would drink more of the bottle and it just made him mad and hungry and he still refused the bottle. Mommyof22006-5-30 13:8:9

[Anonymous]

Marisa finally figured out the First Years Take n Toss straw cups. But
we had to be really consistent and keep trying and offering them (at
first with water or juice) and showing her us drinking from them too.

[Anonymous]

We’ve been doing 12-15 ounces for the past few months- and little or no solids on top of it…so try not to worry.

[Anonymous]

Well, it seems most who answered this have 8 month old babies with relfux who hate bottles and Elijah hates them too!

He was born 9/05, his reflux is 99% controlled but he just wants to
chew on his bottle sometimes. He is teething and cutting them like
crazy so that could be it.

But he was never a bottle lover anyway. I had 6 sons who I BF and
formula fed and none of them ever refused a bottle, but none had reflux
either. He went through a stage of refusing the bottle or food 8 hours
at a time.

Because mom feeds him upstairs I don’t know how much he eats but I know he is a solid 22 lbs!

He is so strong, he “walked” today as I held both hands and he really wanted to do it.

He does not crawl but almost and can get around rolling and doing the
soldier crawl. I think he will one of the babies who never crawls but
takes off running!

oops…grammy’s baby bragging..

Your babies all sound like they are doing fine. Remember each child is
different. My frist son did everything extra early, my second late and
all the rest in between.

[Anonymous]

My son also started to refuse the bottle around 8-9 months old. He too was a “big boy” so I wasn’t worried about that, and he also had tons of wet diapers. He only drank 6oz a day maximum. I also starte becoming concerned and offered sippy cups, normal cups, cups with straws – nothing worked. Then I thought I’d try water, pedialyte, or juice, cows milk, soy milk – no luck there. Then at the grocery store, I was looking through the beverage aisle and came across a product called “Yo-J” (yogurt + Juice) that comes in half gallon containers. I gave that to my son and he CHUGGED 8oz as fast as he could!!! The pediatrician was a little concerned that it didn’t have vitamin D, but it was liquid!

Later it occurred to me that maybe he developed an intollerance to milk/formula (yogurt is much easier to digest than milk) and maybe that’s why he wasn’t drinking the milk. Then I noticed Milk with Acidophilus added at the grocery store (acidophilus is a good bacteria that is found in yogurt to help with digestion) and I offered that to my son and he drank it!! I wish I would have figured it out earlier, my son was almost a year-and-a-half when I started giving him the Acidophilus milk – and he still drinks it today!

I would go the route of asuming that the formula is the problem and not the bottle. Try different formulas or look into pro-biotics like “Acidophilus” because the reflux can really mess up the PH level in their tummies and makes it hard to digest food sometimes.

lansima2006-5-31 10:0:18

[Author]

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