Our four month old grandson, who is breast fed, was refusing to drink expressed milk from a bottle when his mom was at work. This was a really serious problem as anyone who has been in this situation knows. He was not a happy baby and his care giver was so stressed out and discouraged that she quit.
So it was up to grandma and grandpa to see what they could do. As preparation for the campaign I read every tip I could find on the internet. I felt so optimistic that we could just follow all the tips until one worked.
Day one: my husband and I were ready with his mother’s milk thawed and nicely warmed up, including the nipple. I had a sippy cup and a shot glass ready for alternative methods. There were a variety of bottle nipples and bottle shapes. For distraction we had an iPad with Classical Baby clips from YouTube ready to go. By hour 5 we had only gotten about an ounce and a half in him and the little guy was not happy with us. Every time I approached with a bottle or other container he would burst into tears.
While he was sleeping I searched for more distraction videos and came upon a video of an adorable baby drinking a bottle and thought, “why not!” I also found videos of other babies drinking from bottles as well as kittens (adorable) and pandas (even more adorable) and a very thirsty baby monkey, and even a baby goat. I added them to my Favorites in my YouTube account so they would be easily accessed. I figured they would at least work as distraction while I tried to sneak a few drops of milk in his mouth. I showed the monkey video first and little grandson watched attentively and then I showed the little boy, just his age, happily glugging down the milk. Grandson seemed interested! This time when I introduced the bottle he kind of lunged for it and managed to gulp as much as he had all day up to that point (an ounce and a half). He must have been so thirsty! His technique wasn’t good so he got air bubbles but we felt we were getting somewhere.
Day Two: when we settled down with distractions going and warm bottle he drank it right down. He got air bubbles and cried afterward but we were so excited about the progress. He drank about four 2-3 ounce bottles during the day but continued to have trouble afterwards. I don’t think he had figured out that he needed to seal his mouth around the nipple. Still, it was so wonderful to know he was getting the idea. We showed him the video of the little boy several more times. He didn’t seem very interested in the other videos except for Classical Baby, of course for pure distraction rather than instruction.
On Day Three he took the first bottle we offered and drank it down with no crying afterward and continued to do so several more times during the day. He was intentional about it which was really good! We realized we could have given him more at each session because in the afternoon he woke up and cried and wouldn’t try the bottle at first which was discouraging. We thought he might be overly hungry so we got a change of scene by taking him outside in the stroller. Once he was calmed down he downed another 3 oz. bottle while in the stroller. I noticed he was doing a better job of not getting air while drinking.
We are home now and he has continued his successful bottle drinking with his new au pair which is the best news of all! So my conclusion is that something about watching that happy baby drinking his bottle made the right connection in our grandson’s brain and he figured out that drinking from a bottle, although not as good as Mom, is a pretty acceptable way to satisfy hunger. Peer pressure might also be an explanation! Would you believe, he is even holding the bottle himself on day six. I am putting links below for anybody who wants to try and see if this works for them. I think our grandson preferred to watch the boy and I wonder if a girl baby would relate more to girl baby videos so I included some of each. Good luck!!!
Baby goat
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