Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Friday Mom – Erin:
I had a brief period of panic earlier this week. In contrast to Rory, who took a bottle fairly easily from the time he was three days old, Charlotte hasn’t been the best at bottle feeding. She largely rejected it when we tried supplementing her with formula at her doctor’s suggestion at three days old. I thought nothing of it at the time.

Then, at her one month check-up, her doctor reminded me that he recommends introducing the bottle between four and six weeks of age to start getting them used to it. We tried on a handful of occasions, with little success. I was adamant about having daddy be the one to give the bottle, but for a range of reasons/excuses, we didn’t do very well at consistently offering her a bottle when he got home from work each evening.

I didn’t think this was much of an issue because there had been a handful of occasions where she had taken a bottle successfully, albeit with some struggle. I chalked her rejection up to not really being hungry and figured that, as with most things– this too shall pass.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I finally took some “me” time and got a haircut while I had family in town visiting for Easter. I left them with a bottle and gave them instructions to offer it if I wasn’t home in two hours. I arrived home two and a half hours later and was informed that Charlotte was refusing the bottle. We had her daddy try briefly to no avail.

I’m heading back to work in just under a month, so when I watched all of this transpire, I got VERY nervous. I offered her the breast and quickly began googling solutions. Honestly, I have no idea what moms did before the internet. I read multiple advice columns and sketched out a plan.

Since Monday, I have been systematically applying the range of tips I gleaned from my review of various articles. Recognizing that I was the only person available to try bottle feeding during her more “receptive” (i.e., earlier) times of day, I opted to attempt it myself. First, to counteract the fact that mommy was the one offering, I placed her in an entirely new position, propped up on my knees facing me, to give some variety and to avoid confusion. This also gave me a pretty clear view of how she latched (or failed to latch) to the bottle. I had her daddy try the same thing when feasible each evening.

Second, I ordered a variety of bottles in hopes that perhaps Charlotte might like a different type of bottle nipper better. From what I’d noticed, she seemed to gag on the long bottle nipples that we currently owned, so I scoured the internet for recommendations on shorter varieties. I learned (not surprisingly) that each baby’s preference can vary widely, so I selected a handful of options that might work with her relatively narrow latch.

Third, I offered a bottle before the breast for the first three feedings of each day, each day this week. As part of this progression, I also made certain to experiment with multiple angles for introducing the bottle to prevent gagging. I spent about fifteen minutes attempting to get Charlotte to latch. When I failed, I waited around ten additional minutes before offering the breast so that I didn’t train her to hold out.

Fourth, I experimented with the bottle temperature. By Wednesday, I realized that the milk wasn’t getting that warm after only one use of our bottle warmer. So I added two vials of water and found that the milk was much closer to body temperature at that point.

It’s still a work in progress, but yesterday morning we finally had some success: she drank two and a half ounces from the third of the six new bottles I purchased this week.  Later in the afternoon she made it to three and a half ounces.  I’ve not had a chance to continue the routine yet today, but I am hoping that she’ll continue to show steady improvement over the course of the next month.