6 Week Old not taking bottle

[Lilkat]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, maybe someone could move it if not?

My lo is 6 weeks tomorrow, on Saturday she was sleeping a lot more, I was waking her at 3 hours - her usual interval between feeds - and she would barely take 2oz. I thought maybe it was a growth spurt, so let her sleep and fed her when she woke up. She took her usual 4/5oz.

But on Sunday she only took 3oz bottles (one 4oz) and overnight she took 1.5/2oz. This coincides with me starting her on colief. I just tried offering her a bottle without colief to see would she take it but she still just took 3oz.

Is this normal? Although she slept more on Saturday she didn't seem to sleep much more yesterday so I'm not sure if it's a growth spurt. She's alert between feeds and having normal number of wet nappies so far, I'm just concerned about her losing weight as she lost so much after she was born and took quite a while to start gaining.

[Lilkat]

Bump

[Yazeee]

How much does she take in 24 hours. Basically she needs to take 150ml per kg of her body weight. Babies go off their milk at times but it only lasts 2 or 3 days max. If it continues I would ask the health visitor. Does your baby have acid reflux? Apparently babies can refuse feeds if they make the connection between a feed and reflux.. what formula are you using ? Changing the formula could also help.

[Lilkat]

@yazee thanks for replying. I'm going to track how much she takes over the next 24hrs.

I have wondered about silent reflux, she's always vomited a little, but today dh said she had little mouthfuls of yellow vomit which sounds like bile.

She's on cow and gate, I'm going to get a couple of bottles of ready made formula, to see if that makes a difference. I'm so torn between wanting to fix it right now and knowing I need to give one thing a chance to work before I try something else.

I do have infant gaviscon (dh accidentally got hungry baby formula and her wee system couldn't handle it, resolved immediately when we changed to normal formula). But because I'm not sure she has silent reflux I don't want to give her it and then she ends up constipated. I might try her with it on her next few feeds to see if it helps.

[Yazeee]

My baby was initially on aptamil and she was constantly in pain because she couldn't poop for 4 days. HV said it was colic but it wasn't. It was the formula! I switched to cow and gate and that made her reflux really bad.. I could really hear the milk coming up and then going back down. She used to choke on her reflux which was sooo terrifying. I then switched to hipp organic ready made bottles and honestly she was a changed baby in two days. She still had some reflux but no way near as bad and she started pooping every day.. It was not colic, it was the formula. Every baby is different and what works for my baby might not work for yours but I would deffintely recommend formulas that are gentle on the stomach and easy for the baby to digest. Also I still hold my baby upright for at least 15 mins after a feed and I make sure she burps. I used to hold her upright for half an hour when she was younger. It definitely does help with reflux.

[Lilkat]

Thanks for your advice. I'm feeling a bit down in myself and seeing her go from finally eating well to this is probably stressing me out more than it should.

She's been fine with cow and gate, and I just tried her on sma ready made, but she did the same thing. She happily takes 2oz, then fusses over the next 1oz and after that refuses to take anything.

Her burps sound quite wet and she's had more yellow looking spit up so silent reflux is seeming like more of a possibility. I'm going to try and give it until tomorrow before I try the gaviscon as I don't want to change too many things at once. Just feel so sorry for her and concerned that her appetite seems to have gone

[Yazeee]

I know how it feels :( Try not to stress and give her some time. If she doesn't improve get her checked by a doctor. Good luck.

[Lilkat]

Thank you. I ended up putting gaviscon in her last feed as she spent 3 hours crying. Every time she drifted off she seemed to wake herself up, she looked exhausted and kept arching her back and crying as she burped. Hopefully I'm doing the right thing for her, if she's still as upset tomorrow I'll get on to the gp.