Hunger Strike

No, Kaden isn't on a hunger strike, he's completely content with his eating situation. Unfortunately we are not happy with his abject denial of plastic versus organic-based milk dispensation.

After some reading and talking with friends, apparently babies often fall out of the bottle habit. Many parents simply go a week or so without giving a bottle and the baby falls out of habit, a fair amount seem to actually never quite make it back on the bottle. But we're determined.. so with a little research courtesy of La Leche, there seem to be a few basic approaches.

I'll skip all the dramatic naration and present Cliff Notes Bottle-Feeding Boot Camp :

• Starve him out: "No baby will willfully starve herself. Once she realizes there are no other options, she'll take the bottle"
• but, he's may turn out to be more stubborn than you and turn into a night feaster: "At night Simone would nurse a lot more than usual to make up for her not eating during the day-be prepared for that possibility."
  
  
• Meet your babies refined tastes: "Try different nipples. We went through six kinds before one worked for us. It was a rubber, orthodontic nipple that she finally accepted."
• but, that just depends on how discerning your nipple connosoir really is, "...tried every type of nipple possible, all to no avail."
  
  
• Sneakyness, including little tube or dropper feedings, and getting him while he's still asleep. "My husband ended up having to put her in a sling and inserting his pinky finger in her mouth for her to suck on while using a medicine dropper to put milk in her mouth with the other hand."
• but, this generally only seemed to work marginally, "Krista never conceded to take more than eight ounces during the day."
  
  
• Skip bottle, insert toddler-hood. "We ended up using a sippy cup with a soft rubber spout designed for babies three months and older."
  

So, after reading up it sounds like Start-Up Mom's breasts will be going on strike this afternoon. The theory being, if the child gets hungry enough, he'd eat from the end of a rusty pipe. Dr. Sears, who we've generally found to be right if a little rigid, disagrees with this tactic on the notion that just like adults, babies are better at adjusting to new things when they aren't hungry and cranky.

I'll update later as we give it a whirl.