Baby taking an hour to finish bottle, help needed!

[Bumpforme2014]

Hello,

My daughter is almost 11 weeks old and has always been a slow eater (formula fed from 2 weeks). She just been weighed though is only 10.2lb so in lower percentile and GP said if she doesn't put weight on in a week I must bring her back.

She only takes between 100-150ml during day feeds every 3/4 hours and at night I have to wake her and only manage to get 50-100ml into her before she falls asleep again. Feeding takes 45 min to an hour each time because she constantly pushes bottle out and stops so we have to force the rest I to her. She wriggles and strains through the feed sometimes as wel and seems quite tense and not enjoying the milk?

We use Dr brown bottles and size 2 teats so I don't think its teat size, she doesn't appear to have a tongue tie either but will get that checked. She takes the first 30/50ml quickly and then just stops, she seems to go into a gaze or daydream and just hold teat in her mouth of just suck teat not taking milk. She does get a lot of wind but we get it up....I don't understand why she isn't more hungry. I was trying not to worry about it as everyone comments on how chubby she is but the GP has stressed me out now coz she obviously needs more but won't take it.

Has anyone got any advice ? Really starting to stress me and don't want her to pick up on my frustrations.

[tiktok]

What does HV say?

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

The amount she is taking seems fine to me, my LO is only a couple of weeks behind and taking a little less, and I imagine at 11 weeks will be on 120/150ml feeds every three hours.

WRT night feeds I wouldnt wake her to feed her - wait for her to wake you and she will more than likely take more. How often are you waking her at night?

When dd was 12 weeks she was having a 150ml feed at 7pm, would wake at 11pm for a smaller feed then sleep til 7am.

[tethersend]

DD2 did this, she was also FF from birth. She was diagnosed with CMP allergy and switched to prescription formula which helped a bit, but still took over an hour to finish a bottle.

She was 'checked' by the GP for tongue tie three times, each time they pronounced that she couldn't have it as she could stick her tongue out past her lips. One even said that only breastfed babies had tongue tie

Thanks to advice on here, I contacted milk matters, and saw someone privately who took one look at Her tongue and diagnosed tongue tie. She had it snipped at 8 months, and almost instantly downed a bottle in 10 minutes.

I would get her checked for TT by a professional in the field, even if just to rule it out. Don't wait until she's 8 months old like I did!

DD2 would fall asleep at the bottle from exhaustion trying to suck, and also took in a huge amount of wind as her latch was so poor.

I feel for you, it's horrible

[Bumpforme2014]

haven't seen HV yet, will discuss with them on weds I have a feeling they won't be as worried as GP as probably see many more babies.

Wow 'thinkivebeenhacked' I think my one would sleep through as well if I let her, she wakes herself up during night straining farts out so I usually just get her up (3/4am then again 6/7am). So not too often but it's ridiculous really as she usually just dream feeds first 50ml then I have to try to wake her to take bit more, I worry she will choke as well because she is just swallowing as Instinct rather than being hungry I can tell.

She takes 120- 150ml usually at 8pm then 100ml at 11pm and I just worry she isn't getting enough then if left at night. GP has now said I should wake her at night since she isn't gaining enough. So difficult to know what to do, everyone always says she looks so big because she is chubby!

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

But if she is chubby then she is eating plenty is she peeing and pooing regularly?

Also, are you and her dad smaller or bigger? That will affect whether she is naturally small a bit.

Theres no way id be waking my three.month old at night if they were sleeping through!

[tethersend]

It sounds silly, but did you check that her weight was recorded correctly?

[Bumpforme2014]

I did wonder if she weighed her wrong as hubby popped her on our scales the other day and it said 12lb but she had clothes and nappy on? Also just assumed home scales are not designed for babies weight?

Interesting about baby being exhausted from sucking and falling asleep, she gets very sleepy during most feeds and her seal around the teat is rarely tight so takes a lot of air in. I can occasionally hear squeaks around teat so assumed that meant her seal is tight and sucking good? She a very sucky baby always sticking her tongue out and drooling over anything she can suck on?

Lots of pee and poo yes and I was the same weight as her at 10 weeks (mum has my baby book still) so I shiukdnt be too worried but I am :-(.

[tiktok]

I think it would be a great idea to see the HV.

Nothing you have said here sounds especially worrying, except the way you feel you have to get more milk into her by hook or by crook. Most healthy babies can be relied on to take the amount they need without all this coaxing, so it would be useful to see what the HV thinks.

You'll be able to get an accurate weight on the clinic scales - she should be weighed with nothing on at all, not even a nappy - and the HV can see where she is on the charts, and assess if she has slowed down enough to worry about it.

[EhricLovesTheBhrothers]

Don't force feed her. Just don't.

[squizita]

Has she slipped down percentiles or is she just small? I had the reverse ... HV monitors small babies closely, GP (correctly) says someone has to be short end in a line up of 100!
You don't feed them up if they're small, only if they aren't gaining.

[BettyJudy]

Hi ladies, reading these posts with interest as my little 10 week old doing the exact same thing. She has slipped two 'bands' of percentiles and am really worried. Have just made an apt on tuesday with the milk matters consultant, so thanks V much for that tip

[BettyJudy]

bump we have had a breakthrough with our identical problem today - she downs twice the amount of readpy made formula in half the time! Think she was struggling with the gainy powdered stuff we make up. Have you tried her on the ready made stuff?

[Kim82]

My dd was exactly the same and has been diagnosed with cows milk protein intolerance so is now on prescription milk and has finally started putting on weight (she's 12lb at almost 5 months). It might be worth mentioning cmpi to your gp but they tend to be very dismissive so you're probably better off asking for a referral to a paediatrician.

[BettyJudy]

kim thats interesting, i will keep an eye out for that too. Were there any other symptoms?

[Kim82]

Yes my dd had other symptoms, she had very dark green explosive nappies, mucousy poos (sorry!), one of her eyes was always streaming, she had extremely dry skin, was sick all of the time, even 3 hours after feeds, the sick varied between clumpy milk and just clear liquid (very gross!) and she also suffered very badly with acid reflux which she is on medication for and can be caused by cmpi. If you google cmpi it'll provide you with details of all the symptoms.

I will warn you though that we really had to fight for the diagnosis, people kept sending us away saying she was just a sicky baby or she had colic. We had numerous gp and A&E visits (after screaming for 15 hours without stopping!) before they took us seriously.

[Kim82]

Oh, dd also suffered with terrible wind no matter how much she burped and she point blank refused to feed at times, she gradually started taking less and less and we were struggling to get 10oz of milk a day into her by the time she was diagnosed, the poor thing.

[Bumpforme2014]

Thanks guys our issue turned out to be tongue tie ! Also think GP scales were wrong as a week later she had gained 2 pounds? Don't think so!

[Bumpforme2014]

Interestingly the ready made stuff is quicker but it's too expensive to justify switching to that all the time. Not that much quicker either just a little.

[BettyJudy]

Brilliant news bump so glad you have found the reason. How did you find out?? I wonder whether baby betty has tt, but she sticks her tongue out so not sure...