I have been breast feeding my daughter for six months now. I want to switch her over to formula, but the one she drank before, Nestle Goodstart, I can't even get her to drink an ounce of it. I tried giving her the bottle once a day, then twice a day, but we still end up nursing because she won't drink the formula.
What is the best formula to try to switch her onto? I know of Enfamil and Similac...are they worth a dime...taste-wise?

If any of you have delt with this, what should I try doing?

If at all possible pump some breast milk and mix them together. First start out with 3/4 breast milk and 1/4 formula
for a few days, then go to 1/2 breast milk, and so on. It is also easier on their little stomaches that way. I don't think any of them taste much different than the others, but sometimes something new is not welcome to them(lol). Good luck!

I switched my son at six months. I agree with the other poster and do it by mixing it. She will eventually get used to the taste of the formula. Breast milk is very sweet and that's what the baby likes so no matter what formula you give her she isn't going to like it...it's like giving you broccoli and you wanted chocolate. No go! haha Goodstart is a great formula and I used it for my son and my twins. Good luck, just be patient....she's not a stupid baby, they are really smart. She will eat if she's hungry.

I use carnation goodstart because my son was really gassy on infamil. All of those formulas are all the same in taste and they all taste nasty. I have heard the hypoallergenic formulas are even far worse tasting. Breast milk is sweet and tastes good so it may take a bit of convincing. Do what others have mentioned and mix it with breastmilk. She will eventually take the formula and forget she ever disliked it.

*just realized I spelled formula wrong*

Well I just did some test runs...i pumped some milk and mixed it with a little formula. Overall it tasted like breastmilk.....but she still wouldnt drink it....she hates the bottle, period. I tried a smaller/standard bottle nipple rather than the wide nurser nipple, and that didnt work either. I fed her some sweet potatoes, and she actually ate it this time, but she didnt nurse for about eight hours. So maybe she wants to go straight to solids? I know she will eat when she's hungry...but it seems like she's just holding out until she gets what she REALLY wants, and I was concerned because I have a six hour class on Saturdays, and I'm away from her for about seven...making eight hours between feedings.

All I can do is try, and try again...and that's what I'm gonna do. Thanks for your help ladies.

When you try to bottle feed her, try having someone else do it. Because when you do it she know's that is not how she eats! Good luck!

Well when I am in class, my cousin or my mom tries to feed her, and she just plays with the nipple of the bottle. I'm gettin the impression that she wants to nurse for her entire twelve months, lol. But I really don't know what to do. Should I just go cold turkey with breastfeeding her, and try to get my mom to do it? (although that wont work when my mom is working sleeping, or busy) Should I strictly refuse to breastfeed her, and make her starve until she takes the bottle? (yeah right :rolleyes: )

I'm lost. :confused:

I would not try to starve her lol or absolutely refuse to breast feed. Maybe you could try to only breast feed her when it is you by yourself and then have only your mom or cousin give her the bottle. Maybe that would work, kinda slowly get her used to the bottle? Boy can the babies be stubborn, huh? You would never think that something that small, could be so determined lol. Good luck, let us know if you get it figured out befor she turns 20!

even tho, she is young.. we night try a sippy cup, ive known kids who hated the bottle, their mom/dad, tried a sippy cup, and they drank..

maybe try a new nipple maybe a soft rubber one

I have nursed three children. My oldest son was a lot like your baby sounds, he was DISGUSTED at the idea of having a rubber nipple in his mouth. So I could not get him to take a bottle at all. My question is...is the only reason you are weaning her is cuz of your eight hour seperation? Or do you want to wean her for other reasons too? If your seperation is the only reason you are weaning her, and you really do not want to, you can do what I had to do with my oldest and that I am currently doing with my baby (who is also disgusted that I would place anything made of latex in his mouth). They have these things that attatch to a bottle, that look like a sippy cup spout. He will drink juice out of one of them. Or you could try to put her on a regular sippy cup. I have been in school since my baby who is 10 months old, was 6 months old also, and I have an inability to pump, and he is allergic to even soy formula, so I have no choice but to continue nursing him. I usually nurse him right before I go to class, then I would take a little jar of baby food with him to the babysitter, just incase he got hungry, and I started him on white grape juice made by gerber. It worked pretty well, although, as soon as I walked through the door, he wanted to be fed. Now that he eats more solids, he can last longer between feedings, and the juice helps pacify him until I can get home to nurse him.
Just a suggestion for if you don't want to wean her.
If however you do want to wean her for other reasons, you may have to just stop all at once, and wait until she is hungry enough to take a bottle, experiment with different nipples, playtex nursers, (the natural latch ones are more like you, as well as the Advental ( I think thats what they are called) and even nuk nipples. Good luck and I wish you all the best.

Well since my daughter tried to steal my 10mo cousin's sippy cup while her mom was babysitting a few weeks ago, I bought my daughter a sippy cup for herself. I put water in it because I know she likes drinking that as well, and she was very surprised when she found out how to get the water out, LOL. But now that she knows that, she doesn't worry about it, but would rather just chew on the spout since it seems to be such great relief for her other teeth coming in. :rolleyes:
When I bought her bottles, I had a variety pack of Playtes nursers...laytex and silicone nipples. Now she actually had no problem drinking from a bottle when I first started school, so this bottle rejection thing is all new. I tried a standard bottle nipple, which she didn't like either, but I have not tried the orthopedic nipple. My mom thinks that the nurser nipples have too long of an extension at the narrow top, so she thinks I should try to find a shorter one.
The only other thing I can get her to drink out of is a bottle or a glass....she always makes a dive or dash for me or my mom if we are drinking like a bottle of water, or a glass of something, and she tries her little best to keep the whole thing, LOL.
The reason I am/was trying to wean her was not because of the class thing, but I also would like to get a job soon. Right now I'm living off of my parents, and even though they don't mind, I'd like to get a job to support my own end of the family. Not only that, but just having money to do things. I haven't really bought anything for myself since my daughter was born, and I haven't been out without her besides going to school. I also want her to spend time with her father once we get our legal situations under control, and when we do, she'll be spending not only hours, but days at a time with him as well. It's not that I'm completely ready to give up breastfeeding, but it would make things a bit easier on me if she could take some of those feedings from a pumped bottle instead of me finding a chair and a stool to prop my foot on.

Hey Platinum! It's Trio. :) I use AVENT bottles. They are supposed to be a very close likeness to the mother's nipple...don't know, though because that's all I've ever used and Clay doesn't know anything else except that and the nipple itself, but I really like them. I didn't have a problem switching as I did it gradually by doing both for a couple of months and he was actually happier with the bottle anyway.

I also suggest Nestle Good Start. I started with Enfamil and Clay was terrible gassy - switched to Good Start and we've been much happier. I would take the other ladies' advise where you just keep trying half 'n' half or the sippy cup. She'll come around eventually. Either way, I think she still needs all her milk/formula so I'd be afraid of starving her into it or going straight to only solids. Good luck!

Its so nice to hear from you Trio!
And also thanks to the rest of you ladies. I registered for my classes for next semester, and I will not be away from her as long as I have been this semester. I think that we are just going to go straight to solids and juices since she's starting to like eating.

Maybe she'll take a bottle later. :confused:

DS was always a difficult feeder and I never BF. We switched to different bottles, tried sippy cups... MIL even swore by a shot glass. Apparently DH decided when he was quite young to not drink out of bottle, so they used a shot glass. We also started solids at a young age 'cuz he seemed to like meat and mac & cheese quite a bit.

Well, I'm still continuing the journey, lol. I gave my daughter pears and pinallpes the other day and she loved them! She was leaning into the spoon with her mouth wide open, and she ate every drop. I just started her on her own Gerber juice from her sippy cup. At first, she just wanted to chew on the spout like she normally does, but I took the lid off, dipped it in the juice, and put it back on. When she went for it again, her face was like "WOW, is that coming from inside???" So she started drinking...so lovely.

My only question now is how much baby food should I let her eat? Should I try to substitute it for a breastfeeding?, or should I still breastfeed her after feeding her a solid and juice?

Hi,
Oddly enough I just went through something that might give some insight. I had to take my boy of the breast asap without weaning him at all. Literaly overnight do to a medical situation. At first he didn't want to drink from the bottle either. But as the hours went by he began to drink a little more, and a little more. Aparently, if he doesn't get the breast milk, he will eventualy have to drink something else. so he will gradualy take to the formula. Just persist if weaning him is truly what you need to do. If you can wait to wean him however, it would be sooo much better for him if you did it at 12 mos.
:angel:

I would try initially just finding a nipple she will take. THen use only breast milk in the bottle. You can freeze the breast milk and then whoever is going to feed her either you or yor mom ect. can warm the breast milk in the microwave.

After she is settled with a bottle/nipple, then slowly mix the breast milk with a formula.