Lately Will has refused the bottle. Upon the doctor's and lactation consultant (what kind of job is that, anyway? what kind of degree do you get to become a lactation consultant?), we introduced him to bottles containing breastmilk at two weeks of age. He had no problems - he took them without complaining - eagerly, even - and didn't seem to care if I was in the room or not. I could even give him the bottle myself with no issues. So, he got a bottle every day.
However, those happy days appears to have departed. As near as I can tell, there's nothing wrong with the bottle, but he treats it like it's radioactive or afire. We possibly made a mistake in neglecting the bottle for about a seven days about a week ago, so perhaps he figured we were done with bottlefeeding. I don't know what's going on in his little brain!
When we try to give him a bottle now, I go upstairs, we make sure he's calm, clean and happy, and then we slowly introduce a warm, latex-nippled breastmilk bottle to him. Almost immediately, frantic, furious screaming ensues. He literally pushes the bottle away from his face with his hands. We try it a couple of times, calming him in between efforts, but no dice. He won't have it. All he wants is me. And by me, I mean my breast.
I've been reading up on the subject and apparently it's not uncommon, but it's so frustrating because we've just now started to plan evenings and outings with him being babysat. I'm scared to try and leave him because I fear he'll refuse to eat and I still have that totally irrational fear that if he doesn't eat every two to three hours, he'll waste away into nothingness.
Help!
1 comment:
While he won't waste away from refusing a bottle while you guys are out for some much needed adult time, a babysitter may not enjoy his screaming for mama's boobs. Maybe you can hand out earplugs with your emergency contact info...just in case.
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