Baby Bottle Bootcamp 101

Hello and happy Monday friends! Today I wanted to share with you one of my most stressful experiences as a mother to date in an effort to spare you that same stress. I present to you Baby Bottle Bootcamp 101.

Let me start off by saying this: to all the mamas out there that have been able to give their child a bottle without a single issue, I bow to your greatness. And to all the mamas that are struggling to get their baby to take a bottle, especially breastfed babies: pay attention!

Olivia has never had any problem latching on/breastfeeding, and initially she took a bottle with no problem. She spent several days in the NICU when she was born and took expressed breastmilk then and even took a bottle nearly once a day for the first 2 months of her life (see the proof below!). The problem started when we stopped giving her a bottle for a few weeks. It just seemed silly for me to pump milk and pour it in a bottle for my husband to feed her when we could just cut out the middle man– the bottle –and I could just nurse her. BIG mistake.

That’s when she decided that she wasn’t going to take a bottle anymore. And of course she didn’t say, “Hey btw Mom and Dad, I’m not going to eat out of that funny looking thing anymore.” Nope. Instead, we found out when my mother was watching her for several screaming hours and she refused to take the bottle so I had to rush back there to feed her.

Okay, so no big deal, we’ll just keep trying to give her the bottle for the next couple days and it will be fine, right? Wrong!

Fast forward another two months and we had tried E V E R Y T H I N G. We tried numerous bottles, nipple flows, milk temperatures, warming the nipple, seating positions, facing/not facing, distractions, no distractions, medicine dropper, feeding through a small cup, me leaving the house, different people tried to feed her, and even tried to change it up with formula. At one point, I even tried feeding her a bottle WITH MY BOOBS OUT so she could smell me and maybe I could trick her. Still, nothing! Every attempt ended in a screaming, crying baby.

Meanwhile, I am freaking out because 1. I have to go back to work at some point and 2. Even before I go back to work, Hubbs and I are going away for 5 days. I began to think that I would have to cancel our trip. I mean, how can I leave my baby to starve?!

It wasn’t until we were in Mexico two weeks ago that the house caretaker, a local woman, stopped by and heard our screaming attempts to feed Olivia with a bottle. She said that her twin babies, born two days after Livy, had had the same problem and she recommended this specific type of bottle. ***Cue my major eye roll here.*** Yeah, okay lady. I highly doubt this bottle of yours is going to work, but whatevs.

Reluctantly, we went to the store that night and bought the bottle. I warmed up some milk and handed it off to Eric with a sarcastic ‘good luck’ while I waited downstairs for the crying to ensue. Unbelievably, Eric yelled down not even 5 minutes later to warm up some more milk. Whaaaaaat? No way!

I am happy to report that it has been a couple weeks now and she has been consistently taking the bottle! Whoo hoo! What is the name of this magical bottle, you ask? The maker is called Pigeon and they’re an Australian company. I had a bit of a hard time finding where you can purchase them online, but you can try here, here, and here. You’re looking for the wide neck, plastic bottle. There are various types of nipples depending on the flow you want. Olivia is using the 3+ month nipple but I also bought a 6+ for when she gets older and wants/needs a faster flow.

Before you run off and buy this life changing bottle, I do want to let you know that there is no one answer for all babies. What works for Livy may not work for your little one, so I encourage you to try various methods. The key is persistence.

Happy Bottle Feeding!

XO,

L