Help! Slow and difficult to feed.

[kay26]

My DD is 5 months old and has always been a slow eater - to put it midly. The problem is it seems to be getting worse and worse. Every time I try to give her her bottle (she's always been bottle fed) she takes an initial ounce or two (gulps it down) then point blank refuses (turns away, squirms, bats the bottle away, screams) to take any more. This happens even when I wait until she is fussing to be fed. I have to keep trying and trying for over an hour sometimes just to get her to take a decent feed. She does in the end get enough but I feel like I spend half my day trying to get her to feed.

Can't figure out whether this is
a) a habit so instead of spending too long, give it half an hour tops then leave her to be really hungry for the next feed or
b) whether she may be bored of milk - I'm going to start weaning her in a couple of weeks or
c) whether it could be her teeth as she constantly has her hands and anything else she can pick up in her mouth.

Has anyone gone through anything similar? Any experiences or advice will help me stop tearing my hair out!!!

[lilymolly]

how many oz? could it be the teat?Are you going 4 hours between feeds?

Chill out, dont worry, she will take it if she is hungry.
Easier said than done I know but some babies do not like milk, simple as that. Wait and see if anyone else can be more help

[lulumama]

ooooh...DD was like this, blimming nightmare to feed

little and often is the way to go, i found, no good trying to get her to feed when she was not hungry....as long as weeing and pooing, happy and alert, she is getting enough

weaning won;t help, IME, as then you have the faff of trying to get them to take solids,, she was rubbish at that too

stick with milk, she is not bored of it, she doesn't know anything else exists to eat....

teething is more of a possibility...

she sounds like a snacker, DD is still like this at 21 months, eats little and often, and drinks her milk or water, little and often..just the way she is

try to relax, and let her lead you with how much she wants to take x

[lulumama]

and agree with lilymolly.....teats can make a difference!

[lilymolly]

Agree with lula about weaning, that was a flaming nightmare from the beginning, my dd eats tiny amounts, little and often.
Imo keep weaning as late as possible

[lulumama]

the one thing that made a difference was babyled weaning where DD could feed herslef pieces of food....meant i could relax and let her get on with it

no baby or toddler has ever starved themselves!!

[kay26]

Thanks for the advice. The thing with DD is that she does end up taking a decent feed most of the time, just that I have to wait around 45mins between the first time she takes the bottle til she takes it again. Tried her with a tiny bit of baby rice today just to see what she'd do and she took it really easily. It didn't have any impact on her next feed either. Now wondering whether I should continue or wait until she's 6 months...

[lilymolly]

I would wait, its a nightmare if you have a fussy feeder. I wished I had waited longer with dd, as she never really took to eating until 1 year, but I do realise that they need to eat solids at 6 months to help with their mastication and speech development, so thats why it is recommended to start at 6 months, but just take it slow and dont get too stressed........

[jj131]

Kay my 4.5 month old does the exact same thing eats a few ounces and then hangs out for 45 minutes and then takes a few more. he's always done this (although has gradually increased the amounts that he eats). it doesn't really matter how hungry he is, either. he also turns away, squirms, bats the bottle and screams if he doesn't want any more. if i try to feed him when he's not really hungry he won't take more than an ounce, but when he is hungry he wants it NOW and screams till the bottle is in his mouth (and even then only takes a few ounces at first.) It does drive me nuts and it means that a huge part of my day is spent feeding him which honestly is a big pain. i'm really eager to try solids (and dream of the day he can feed himself) but am going to wait until 6 mos, I think.

i wish I had ideas for you -- am curious to hear how your dd does with the baby rice

[kay26]

Baby rice seems to be going down quite well. Spoke to my HV today and she said that officially she wasn't allowed to advise weaning before 6 months but unofficially she thought it was a good idea to get DD used to different foods in advance since she seems to be a slow eater. So far, no impact on her feeding although this is only day 2 and I've only given her a couple of tsps. Am just trying to chill out about it and rather than trying the bottle continually, am automatically waiting 10 mins or so between tries. Hopefully things will change in the next few months when she's more established on solids.