Dr. Alan Greene on Bottle Refusal

Question

My daughter is 5 months old and has been breastfed and bottlefed with expressed milk. Suddenly she no longer wants to take the bottle. She was taking it fine until recently, but now when I leave her with someone she won't eat. What can I do?

Answer

It can be quite frustrating when little ones refuse a bottle. There are many different shapes and flows of bottle nipples. Sometimes when kids reach around 5 or 6 months, they are strong enough, and used to nursing efficiently enough, that they will start to refuse the nipples that they used to take. Refusing the nipple itself so common at that age that nipples often come for different ages -- one set for infants, and another set for kids over 6 months or so. Sometimes it's hard to guess when to make the change, though.

Once you've decided which nipple works the best for her, you want to have someone else offer the bottle to her. Have them start about half an hour after you leave. They shouldn't try to coax her, but just offer the bottle and stop if she is not interested. They could offer it again every 30 minutes until she eats.

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