My story of bottle refusal - Noorani

After giving birth last year in July 2024 to my second baby in ten years, I was certain that breast was best and that’s what I was going to do. It wasn’t always easy but my LLLLeader encouraged and supported me to keep on going.

My maternity leave ended and it was time to head back to work. I was adamant that breastfeeding was what I wanted to continue doing. I had tried for five daunting weeks to get my baby to take a bottle; trying all the tricks in the book and purchasing endless different bottles, hoping that “this teat or bottle would work.” It all failed. I lost hope.

How was I going to go to work and continue breastfeeding? It felt impossible.

After consulting with my local Leader about my dilemma, she suggested that my little one's caregiver (my mom) feed her breast milk with a spoon. The Leader explained that breastfed babies need small amounts fed to them often, and not to wait till my baby was too hungry. I left my daughter with my mom for the day wondering if it would work. She started with a syringe which was a huge struggle but my baby preferred drinking from a spoon instead. My mother fed 30ml every hour as suggested, that was only two tablespoons and it took about five minutes. After a while I called my mom and lo and behold it had worked! According to my mom it was as easy as that!

We stuck with that for a while and gradually over the next few months she took to drinking about 30ml from a bottle every hour. All our efforts had paid off. When I returned home after a day away at work, my baby would just go back to breastfeeding.

She is now one year and three months old and has recently taken to drinking straight from a cup! I will forever be grateful to my local La Leche League Leader for her kindness, advice and support throughout my breastfeeding journey. Thank you!

The local La Leche League WhatsApp group was very informative, it helped a lot to read people’s stories and I learnt so much just by reading people’s responses. It was also a great source of comfort knowing I had a community to connect with if I ever needed help.