Hi all. I joined this site because I wanted to ask about something I read in “The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems”. I'm posting this in both the bottle-feeding and breast-feeding forums, as I wasn't sure which would be more relevant.
In the section about persuading a reluctant baby to take a bottle, Tracey tells the story of a woman whose 7-month-old had been refusing bottle while she was at work, and who eventually got him to take them by just not breastfeeding him, even after she came home, so that in the end he gave up and took a bottle later that evening. The bit I wanted to ask about was that Tracey then advised the woman not to breastfeed him for two days, in order to avoid him refusing bottles again once he'd had a breastfeed. She told the woman that if she gave him nothing but bottles for two days, after that he would go back and forth between breast and bottle without problems. However, she doesn't say whether this actually happened or how things turned out for this woman.
So – have any of you tried this with a reluctant bottle-feeder? I don't mean just refusing to breastfeed them until they've taken a bottle, but refusing to breastfeed at all for a day or two until they were really used to taking bottles, then going back to breastfeeding with bottles some of the time. I'm thinking about trying this with my daughter when I go back to work, as she's currently refusing to take bottles – I know this is going to make life really difficult when I do go back, and I would like to get the really hard part over as quickly as possible. I've heard that often babies will refuse bottles during the day for the first week or two after their mother goes back to work, and I'd like to avoid this. So, if refusing to breastfeed her for a day or two will get her to the point where she does go back and forth between breast and bottle more easily, it could be worth it. If anyone has tried this technique, I would really like to hear how you got on with it. Thanks.
