Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

My daughter has been given at least one bottle a day of pumped breast milk every day since she was 3 weeks old. She is now 4 1/2 months old, and we are starting daycare tomorrow. For the past few days she has been very fussy when we give her the bottle. We have been adding bottles to her daytime routine for the past week or so to get her ready for day care. We've also been starting to transition her to formula during the day, so I am sure that is part of it. Once she starts to eat she is fine, but I am worried that the daycare workers will not have the same patience that we have to wait her out... she can take 15-20 minutes just to get started on the bottle sometimes.

I am so worried that she is not going to eat there... please help!

Re: Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

When you gave her bottles before was it BM or formula?

Re: Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

We have given her BM since she was three weeks old and just in the past week we started mixing it with formula...

Anyone else go through this? Did anyone else's baby not eat when they started daycare?

Message edited 9/3/2007 1:22:45 PM.

Re: Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

Both of my children got used to the formula/BM mix before switching to formula completely.

How did you switch her over? Did you slowly increase the amount of formula? We did this over the course of a week.

I don't think you have to worry about the daycare workers not having the patience. They know part of the care is feeding a 3 month old. I would write down her feeding issues so they're aware if she's refusing a bottle, she still may be hungry. I can assure you this isn't the first baby they'll see with eating issues. Every daycare has seen the gamut of them.

Re: Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

Does she seem uncomfortable? From what it sounds like she just has trouble getting started. I am sure the teachers at the daycare have dealt with this before. It seems like it happens at some point with a lot of babies. I know I had trouble for a while getting my son to take his bottles. Maybe they will wait a few minutes and try again until she takes the bottle. Just express your concerns to them about the situation... I'm sure when you do they will make sure to give her the time she needs to start up and get going on her bottle.

Re: Please Help --Baby is refusing bottle! Advice needed

Is the milk coming out fast enough. I know when the milk doesn't come out fast enough my DD gets frustrated and doesn't want it. She wiggles all over the place. What size nipple are you using?