LO is 8 months old and has always refused a bottle. We recently started using straws for water.but she's not too crazy about it. My milk has dried up gradually over the last two months, I've tried everything - fenugreek, blessed thistle, more milk drops, tons of water and pumping. Nothing has really worked. She is getting over a fever and needs to be hydrated but will not drink more than a sip of BM, water, or pedialyte from a cup, straw or sippy. I also have formula ready but I doubt it'll go better than the other beverages. I just used a syringe and she was so mad. WTF do I do moms?!?!
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totally different situation for me (my LO's food refusal was due to an allergy), but when I was trying to get her on board with eating again the only way she would eat was wrapped up and rocked in a dim quiet room right before a nap. When she was reaaaalllly calm and just about asleep she would eat.
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How are her diapers? If you're worried about dehydration and she keeps refusing liquids, I would put a call into the dr. I feel like kids are resilient but do dehydrate quickly...
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@ScarletBegonia: they've been barely wet.
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When LO was sick and doing this, we gave her sugar water. Gerber actually makes premixed sugar water for dehydrated infants...I can't recall the name. But all we did was put a little sugar into a bottle of water and made sure she could taste it (otherwise she'd push it away not knowing what it was).
Breast milk already has a ton of sugar in it, and it wasn't like we were making sugar water a daily part of her diet or anything. We just wanted to make sure she was drinking enough that time, and the sugar water did the trick.
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I've given her 3 syringe full of BM and she started sucking a little at the end. Is it crazy to introduce a bottle at 8 months?! We nurse as part of our sleep routine so I feel like a sippy or straw isn't really the same comforting feeling.
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@MamaChin: how is your LO doing with solids? Purées will provide some fluids and you could offer oatmeal cereal mixed with formula and make it really thin to get more fluids in her.
I wouldn't stress about introducing a bottle at 8m, she still needs a significant amount of calories from milk/formula so if she will take a bottle, go for it! I know Tommee Tippees and Medela Calma bottles have been go-tos for a lot of babies switching back and forth between breast and bottle.
Good luck!
ETA - I think 8/9m is when we started with pouches, which might be intriguing enough to her to trick her into eating more.
We've also had a lot of luck with Nuk sippy cups.
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@MamaChin: if her diapers are getting dry I would try anything to hydrate her. Start with a bottle and see how that goes. My daughter started a nighttime bottle at 18 months when my milk was drying up and she still needed those last calories to get through the night. She weaned off it just fine later.
What about a mesh feeder or Popsicle
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Our ped has told me to get kids to drink ANY thing when dehydrated, even if it's juice. If ito really bad you might have to force it down your LO...you don't want to end up in hospital on if fluids.
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@matador84: @Applesandbananas: @T.H.O.U.: thanks ladies! She's doing ok on solids, she won't be spoon fed so it's all finger foods and sometimes pouches. I made her waffle extra crispy and soaked it in BM this morning, the crazy things we do for our babies!
I got 6 syringes of BM in her and nursed a few minutes before she went to sleep. I'm gonna pick up a couple of bottles tomm, it'll be hard but if she's hungry enough she'll eat I guess. I'm devastated to be weaning this soon but it is what it is. -
@MamaChin: if she continues with dry dipes I'd def talk to your doc. I'm sure the timeline is different since your baby is 8mo and mine was 2-3 mo when I was dealing with this, but I was told if I went 6 hours without a (real) wet diaper I needed to take her to urgent care for hydration. I'd imagine 8 mos have more wiggle room.. but wet dipes are important. Good luck! Babies man...
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@MamaChin: it doesn't mean you have to wean! My LO will switch between the two. Do you SAH? Maybe your DH will have more luck getting your LO to take a bottle.
Have you tried taking a straw, submerging it in a cup, with your finger over the top and then putting it in LO's mouth and letting the liquid pour out? My LO loves this game and will drink anything that way. Might be worth a try!
There are also supplementary nursing systems, which you tape a small tube to your breast so that when your LO nurses, she also gets milk/formula from the tube at the same time.
Will your LO drink from an open cup at all? Mine likes to try, so I put a few drops in a sippy without a lid and he drinks it, then I refill with a few more drops (as much as I'm willing to clean up is what I always joke when asked how much) and he will do that for an hour.
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@Applesandbananas: I'm not completely weaning, my new plan is to offer breast at every feeding but follow up with a bottle. I am stopping all supplements and pumping because they were stressing me out and not helping anyway. My supply is just what it is, I cannot spend 24/7 worried about my milk like I've been doing. I do SAH but daddy gets home at 8:10 so he literally gets a hug and kiss before she's whisked off to bed. He can try over the weekend after I break her in!
She drinks from a straw and open cup regularly, it's just now she's not feeling well so everything is being met with resistance and tears.
@Mae: her diapers aren't completely dry, and she cried tears. They're just not as wet as they should be. Her face is all puffy though, like mommy used to after a night of drinking and waking up dehydrated.
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