June was taking a bottle with ease up until a few weeks before I went back to work. Since I went back to work, this has been a major stress for us (I would say a very high stressor for the person that was breastfeeding). So she would, under protest, refuse to eat anything all day at daycare. Yes, this was 8+ hours. Every day. She quickly realized that in order to stock up our dear Junebug would eat all night. It wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t ideal, especially for mama. I have my first overnight away from The Bug on Feb 15th and with the deadline fast approaching we knew something had to happen.
Our amazing friend, Callie, had the same thing happen with her little girl and I called her for advice. They eventually had to have a stand off. Her daughter held out for quite some time and finally broke after an 17-hour run. I didn’t think I had it in me to do a stand-off, but thankfully my feeding-specialist friend (who is awesome!) and Callie gave me some much-heeded advice and wonderful encouragement. Little did Geoff and I know what we were in for. My mantras from the friends and our peditrician were:
- A healthy baby will never starve themselves
- There is no physical reason she’s not taking it. It is behavioral and she knows it.
- She has all the control now, and you need to get it back
- Bottom line, she has taken the bottle and shown her colors. She can take it. She is simply *choosing* not to.
It turns out we have the baby equivalent of Gandhi. June went 18 hours before giving to drinking from the bottle. I wouldn’t recommend this standoff technique to anyone, nor is it an easy solution, but after 18 hours we finally emerged victorious. So we thought.
She ate more a few hours later, and then slept. Geoff and I were both optimistic that Saturday would be a new day. She would be bottle feeding and nothing to worry about. Wrong. She tried again and held out for another 12 hours! When we were about 30 minutes from our deadline (meaning we had to give her something as recommended by pediatricians), she broke and chugged 4 ounces, then an hour later drank more, then another hour later even more. Since then she has been on the bottle-taking highway. There were a lot of tears – by mama and June – but we made it. I got an email from daycare today that she drank 5oz this morning and Junebug was a happy camper. I printed the email and have it posted to my monitor.
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”
-Gandhi
I think we have a very assertive and powerful little woman on our hands…or at least that’s what mama hopes.
June and Mabel 
Wow! If she's that tough at six months, imagine her strength when she's a teen! Hope I'm around to offer prayers for all the stages you're going to experience, endure, and enjoy together.
Love, Aunt E.
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That's exactly what we were saying! I love the “experience, endure, and enjoy” – that's perfect!!
XO,
Beth
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Wow, sounds like she has some of her Cousin/Auntie Carise in her! Watch out world:) Love and miss you, Bee
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