WON'T TAKE THE BOTTLE and need a dream feed!

[amydkl]

She was taking EBM from one - four months then stopped. I don't know why.
Now she's 5.5 months (took a break from trying the bottle while we were traveling) and I can't seem to get her back on the bottle. I've read the posts in the forums. We tried playfully giving it to her, me leaving the house for hours, etc. The problem is she won't take a dream feed and therefore won't sleep through the night. (I always did DF with a bottle, she's not too good at taking the breast in a dream feed).
So now everything seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket.
Does anyone have any SPECIFIC BOTTLES OR SIPPY CUPS that might work?
Should I freeze her out of breastfeeding? She seems like she'll just cry and cry and wait for me to come back.
Thanks

[jessmum46]

Hugs, sounds like this is causing you rather a lot of stress right now.  My suggestion, though you may not be keen, is just to go with it.  Don't bother with the dream feed - it's not compulsory and I never did it for either of my children.  I just fed at night when they woke hungry and by 7-8 months both did 11-12h nights without feeds once properly established on solids.  You're really not that far off from there, and whilst STTN has become our expectation in some respects, it actually comes when LOs are ready and I don't see the point in stressing you all out to the extent of considering giving up breastfeeding if only for the sake of another couple of months of getting out of bed to feed.   In the grand scheme of things it isn't that long   I hope that's useful as an alternative to consider, even if it doesn't quite give you a magic answer x

[weaver]

Oh dear, big deep breaths hun.  You do sound very stressed indeed.  Definitely do not stop feeding her   By all means try to encourage her to take the bottle but don't insist too hard, you don't want to put her off.  For now, just go with the flow, you might find she improves her DF with BFing, and if she doesn't, something else will work out.  Lots of babies don't DF at all, some parents prefer it that way and some babies just don't 'get it'. 

If it's any consolation to you, I did DF with a bottle of EBM for my LO1 until he was about 5 mo and then decided it was too much hassle. Best decision I ever made, no more pumping! And we went on to BF the DF for a few months after that. LO2 flat out refused to ever take a bottle and DF too.  I would focus on the DF not the bottle, if I were you, and also try to accept that you can't *make* her do anything (not one thing, it's a good lesson to learn early on ).  If she won't DF, then she won't. 

Big hugs, don't stress, it'll be fine.