3 month old refusing food - help!

[MrsBumblebee]

DS (14 weeks, c.13 pounds) is currently on five feeds a day. Up until the last few days, he was happily drinking 6-7 oz of milk per feed (sometimes a bit less at his late night feed). For the last few days, though, he's pushed his bottle away after 3 or 4 oz, and screams if I try to give him any more. I've tried waiting up to an hour to give him the rest of his bottle, but he's just not interested. I've also tried putting him on a faster flow teat, in case he was getting frustrated, but it hasn't made any difference. He doesn't seem to be getting hungry significantly sooner than when he was eating 6-7 oz - he still eats about every four hours. I know all babies are different, and need different amounts of milk at different times, but by my calculation he's only getting about 15-20 oz of milk per day at the moment, which really doesn't seem enough. Should I worry? Or should I just let him do what he wants?

[ellensmelons]

Have you tried winding him after he refuses? He may be going through another growth spurt - my hv said during spurts they drink little and often.

[MrsBumblebee]

That's interesting ellensmelons - I hadn't heard that about little and often. I do try winding him, but unfortunately it doesn't work. I think it's partly because he's suddenly becoming more conscious - it's as if he no longer just automatically sucks when you put a bottle in his mouth, but eats according to his appetite. Trouble is, I think he's eating just enough to stop feeling hungry, but not enough to get him through to his next feed.

[ellensmelons]

How's your lo? Any improvement? I think growth spurts only last a couple of days, si if it is that then you should see a difference by now. Does he have a dummy? dd is very sucky, and probably drinks too much then spends the next 3-4 hours possetting. Could be a bit of indigestion?

[MrsBumblebee]

He's very slightly better, thanks for asking, but only slightly. And he is now getting hungry earlier if he doesn't eat much at his feed. It's hard to know what to do - we were on such a good 4 hour routine that I don't really want to go back to feeding him more often. But equally I don't want to starve him, obviously. You asked about possetting - what I find is that if I try and bully him into eating a bit more, he's more likely to throw up. So I might just have to give in and accept that he's going to start needing food more often. I've got the HV coming on Tuesday, so I'll get him weighed then and see how he's doing before I make a decision.

[ELB1]

Hi Mrs Bumblebee. I was wondering how things are going with your LO as my DD has been doing exactly the same for a couple of weeks now. weight gain has slowed a bit, but she is still gaining, so that's not a worry - but feeding her is so stressful and such hard work when up to recently she guzzled the lot really easily.