[babyblue]

My son is now 4 months old. I breastfed him exclusively until around 6 weeks when I introduced a bottle a day. After I returned to work when he was 3 months, I breastfed morning and night and whenever he woke up during the night. I'm now bottlefeeding him for every feed, but he only drinks when my helper feeds him. Whenever my husband and I try to feed him, he will scream and cry and won't drink more than 50ml. He also cries and refuses the bottle when he is tired but hungry. Is anyone's babies like this? My elder son was an easy feeder. He drank whatever, whenever and whereever. Can anyone share experience and do you think bottle feeding will become easier for us once he gets used to the bottle for every feed? He is also waking up 1-3 times a night when he used to sleep well at night. We suspect he may be teething as we feel some front top teeth coming.

[barbwong_130]

Some tips that can be used if baby is reluctant to take the bottle:

Try offering the bottle before the baby is likely to be too hungry,

Instead of pushing the bottle nipple into the baby’s mouth, try laying it near his mouth and allowing him to pull it in himself,

Try running warm water over the bottle nipple to bring it up to body temperature,

Try different types of bottle nipples to find a shape, a substance (rubber or silicone), and a hole size the baby will accept,

Try different feeding positions. Some babies like to sit propped against the adult’s raised legs; others prefer not to look at the adult and will take a bottle better if they are held facing out, with their back against the adult’s chest,

Try to feed the baby while moving rhythmically – rocking, walking or swaying from side to side – because this may be calming to him,

Insert the bottle nipple into the baby’s mouth when he’s sleeping,

Keep trying, but remember that the baby can be fed the milk with a cup or spoon if the baby continues to refuse the bottle.


Babies sleep in much shorter cycles than adults do. The pattern of deep sleep, light sleep, REM sleep and potential wake up point is about two hours in an adult but between 20 minutes and half an hour in a baby. This means that the baby has a lot more stages in his sleep when he may wake up than an adult has.

If everything is fine with the baby at the potential wake up point he will often just blink his eyes and return to sleep. If, however, not all is fine at that point he is likely to wake up. There can be lots of reasons why he might not be fine, too cold, too hot, hungry, thirsty, pain from illness or teeth, stressed from too much activity during the day, etc.

So yes, teething is definitely a reason why he may be waking up more than her was before.

Best wishes,
Barb