"2nd babies won't take bottles" -- crazy?

[C99]

nak...

my ped has now told me twice that I have to intro a bottle this week and do a bottle once/day or rose won't ever take them. she said that 2nd babies figure out real quick that mama = nursing and being held. I plan to sling rose, just like I slung nate, so I don't see that being an issue. And I don't really have a reason that *I* ever need to give her a bottle, so her logic makes no sense to me. I asked her about it again yesterday and she said to research it...so I'm curious if any one of you has ever heard or read this, or found it to be true in your own lives. I am unlikely to follow her advice on this for my own reasons, but I am still curious if there is any truth to her theory.

[new_mommy25]

Well I have no experience with second babies but I can say that my first never took a bottle. There was just no reason too. We tried half-heartedly a couple times and it was a no go.

[Wife_and_mommy]

Huh? I don't think it has anything to do with her being a second baby at all. If you want her to take bottles then you probably should intro them while she's pretty young and keep it up so she won't refuse them later. Would you want to have a bottle(ebm or formula) when you could have your mom if you're not accustomed? My dd didn't. She was very temperamental when it came to the bottle and therefore only had about 4-5 her first year.

A friend of mine's third baby refused to take a bottle at all but it was because it was offered rarely. I don't blame her one bit! ;)

Your ped was trying to give unrequested parenting advice if you ask me. If you don't need/want Rose to take bottles then I wouldn't worry about it.

E
dd 4/5/04

[mudder17]

I've never heard of it, but I don't hae any experience with second babies either. I do know that I introduced Kaya to the bottle at 4 weeks and she took it initially, but by 8 weeks had started to reject it. Even though we tried very hard with tons of "tricks" and different bottles, she never went back to it. So I don't know what that means.


Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya, www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ies/candle.gif

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...n_gold_12m.gif , 14 months & counting
Kaya's cousin, due October 9th!!!

[tarahsolazy]

Well, sounds anectdotal to me! I just did a quick Medline search, for infant feeding behavior + breastfeeding (+ second child) (+ birth order) and I came up with some nice studies about how nursing duration changes with second and third kids, but nothing on bottles. Perhaps second time moms don't really encourage their tiny ones to take bottles, being more at ease with nursing the second time around? Its well-documented that there is some window around 4-6 weeks for bottle acceptance, and that practice is neccessary to keep the baby bottle tolerant. I don't see why any BF babe needs to take a bottle, if their mama doesn't think its important, and if she's able to be home. (Obviously, it was sort of important that my kid take a bottle, since I WOH, but otherwise, I'd never have introduced one)

[Karenn]

Claire takes a bottle, but she didn't start taking it until a month ago and it was a lot harder to get her to take one than it was with Colin. However, I think the ONLY reason that it was harder was because we weren't as diligent in the beginning (4-6 weeks.) Plus, my DH was busy with Colin, so it was a lot harder to find a good time for him to give her the bottle.

[lisams]

That was us too. I've never heard the 2nd baby thing, and I don't get how it would make a difference what the birth order is?!!

Lisa

[Wife_and_mommy]

>I came up with some nice studies
>about how nursing duration changes with second and third kids,
>but nothing on bottles. >


Tarah,
Would you mind sharing some of the info you came upon? Would love to hear.

Thanks,


E

mom to dd 4/5/2004

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif[/img][/url]
Yeah! We made it a year!

[tarahsolazy]

Well, there were a few European studies that show that nursing duration with the first baby impacts nursing duration with subsequent babies. If the first was nursed for 0-6mo, the second tended to be nursed longer. If the first was nursed >8mo, nursing duration didn't change, or slightly decreased. There was a trend toward shorter nursing times with later babies, especially third babes, compared to earlier ones. This was in Acta Pediatrica, in about 2000, if I remember right, and the study was done in 1997.

[muskiesusan]

>However, I think the ONLY reason that it
>was harder was because we weren't as diligent in the beginning
>(4-6 weeks.) Plus, my DH was busy with Colin, so it was a lot
>harder to find a good time for him to give her the bottle.

This is what I understand from a few of my friends who have two kids.

I couldn't get either of my kids to take a bottle. We have had a difficult time with both nursing, so I think once they figured out what would work, they didn't want to learn any other way!

Susan
Mom to Nick 10/01
& Alex 04/04
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...ies/candle.gif