Breastfeeding and Transitioning Back to Work

By: Beth from Newark, DE

Three weeks ago, at 3 months old, my daughter started daycare. Two weeks prior to starting, my husband and I began offering her a bottle and we quickly realized we were in for a struggle. She'd mostly play with the nipple of the bottles, let the milk dribble in her mouth and then she'd spit it out.

For the last five weeks she has been stubbornly refusing the bottle. She was only taking maybe 1-2 ounces during her 7+ hours at daycare. It was heartbreaking and made me feel so guilty. Every teacher at her school, with confidence that they'd have the magic touch, attempted to give her a bottle. We tried every bottle on the shelf. I had multiple meltdowns out of exhaustion and feeling defeated. I even took her to the doctor thinking something might be wrong, that perhaps her anatomy was not allowing her to take a bottle. She did have a lip and tongue tie when she was born so I thought maybe that was part of the problem.

After reading multiple blogs and posts about others struggling with similar situations — and ignoring the advice that some babies never take a bottle because that's not an answer for our situation — I ordered the mimijumi Not so Hungry bottle and replacement FR-2 nipple. It arrived last night (02/27/2017). I sent it to daycare with the FR-2 nipple and all of the teachers were raving about it when I picked her up! The administrator texted me that she had taken 3oz during her morning bottle, and to my surprise she continued taking more and more throughout the day. She ended up taking 7.5oz in total!!!

Because of this bottle I can go to work and not overly stressed about my girl. I still worry about her of course but this has allowed me a bit of ease in an already stressful situation. I am so relieved and thankful for this bottle. Thank you, thank you, thank you!