hi
this is gonna be a long post, so sorry!
so my daughter is 6 months old and only bf. she has 'slept through' the night only 5 times max otherwise she was waking about 3am for a feed but now she is waking 2/3 times for a feed wich as u all wld no is killing me!! we have been trying the bottle with formula for the past 2 months and only once has she took it and drank 100mls (max) she SCREAMS as soon as she sees the bottle coming and feels it on her lips, she pushes it away and will NOT open her mouth. we tried diff formulas but that didint help. (i havent tried expressing simply because i didnt want to) i got to the point where i was giving up with the bottle and introduced a sipper cup with water, i let her play with it and suss it out herself, the same thing happens, she pushes it away and screams. Also i have been slowly introducing solids, some apple, pear, custard and farex which she tastes then sometimes swallows, then SCREAMS, screws up her face, gags, pushes the food away refuses to open her mouth gets so worked up she will refuse anything coming near her mouth, even her dummy.
she is feeding every 2 hrs now nite and day, last nite she did not sleep at all, as soon as i wld leave the room she wld scream, i havent tried controlled crying because i dont no how to do this when im not 100% sure she is not hungry??!!! i ended up putting her in bed with us so we cld get some sleep, i no this is prob the worst thing to do but i was just sooo tired and not in the right frame of mind to anything different.
Any suggestions on getting her to eat something wld be sooo appreciated!
Heres some things we have tried:
spoon feeding
finger feeding
letter her suss out spoon first
putting food on dummy
the good old "here comes the aeroplane" trick
Thanks in advance, sorry bout the huge post! just had to get all the details in! lol.
xoxox

Re solids, I know my son kicked up a fuss when I tryed to introduce him at 6 months, I left it another month and a half and tryed him again at 7 1/2 months, and he was fine then. My nephew was the same with the bottle, my SIL pretty much forced it into his mouth to drink, but I really do not agree with doing that. Perhaps a trip to the dr or health nurse to make sure there is not something wrong that could maybe be causing pain when she eats, or just persevere. Maybe try breast feeding her then after she has finished, give her the bottle with a little formula or expressed milk in it to just play around with. She will eventually work out what to do with it, maybe try a different type of bottle as well? Or give her an empty bottle to play with and roll on the floor so it makes it something that is not so scary? Maybe put some pasta in it to make it into a toy (just keep the lid on though) gasp)

Hope it gets better soon *hugs*

She's just 6mths. No need to rush solids, leave it a few weeks or more. I know plunket will be putting pressure on you, but really there are heaps of babies out there who didn't start solids at 6mths.
Their iron stores START to deplete at 6mths, it's not a switch. One day healthy baby, next day anemic baby. Besides, there is still some iron in breast milk.
As for the milk feeding issues, sorry don't think I can be much help there. I guess just keep demand feeding and lots of cuddles.