baby finds it hard to latch on bottle..

[lilmamma]

my daughters baby is 6 days old,I have had 4 children myself but never had this problem.he puts the teat in his mouth and then shakes his head side to side,as if he cant latch on.

he has colic and has medicine for this,so am not sure if this comes on during the night,and he seems fine during the day,he has been brilliant today,and drank well,after a bit of messing round,but now he is crying and doing the head shaking thing,and its so tiring thoughout the night.

iam back in work next week,so wont be able to keep popping in,to give her some rest,any help would be great thankyou.

[japhrimel]

Could be the flow is too fast for him when he's tired. I assume she's using slow newborn teats? A Medela Calma teat might help. Or he's being held in such a way to make it harder for him, e.g. lying down. Is she exclusively FF?

[lilmamma]

not sure what type the teats are,she has advent and tommy tippee ones.will it say on the teat,if they are fast or slow.

[thisisyesterday]

maybe he just doesn't want it. is she feeding him on demand or trying to stick to a routine?
is he upset and "asking" for milk and not taking it or is it perhaps the case that he just isn't ready for his bottle right then?

[TheSugarPlumFairy]

with little ones i think it is best to stick to one brand of teat so baby gets used to it, at least in the early days.

I agree though that it sounds like he just isnt hungry when the milk is offered. Is he doing it mid feed or just when the bottle is first offered.

If it is mid feed (i.e where you stop for a winding break and then he wont start up again) i would say that he probably has trapped wind.

[TheSugarPlumFairy]

oh and the teats will be marked to show if they are slow, medium or fast flow.

Advent and TT newborn teats are labelled with a 1 embossed on the plastic. TT then go to 2 for medium flow and 3 for fast flow. Avent have 2 for medium, 3 for medium fast and 4 for fast flow.

[lilmamma]

thanks i will have a look at the teats.he is being fed mainly every 4 hours but does go up to 5,but the midwife said not to let him go longer than 4.

its usually during the night,when he wakes for a feed and then starts all the messing around,he is well winded and on infacol,as he has a bit of colic.

just looked the tt are no1,and the advent have 1 and 2 on them,so would it be better to use the no1 for now,or a faster one ?

[TheSugarPlumFairy]

i would stick to the 1's.

[sleepysox]

I have two other suggestions:

It could be that he is putting his tongue underneath the teat instead of on top. In the day he might be fine, but when he gets tired/ too hungry at night, he isn't relaxed and so finds it hard to latch on.

Some babies find it hard to latch onto rounded teats, and need them to have a flatter side to help them latch. I found Avent, Tommee Tippe and Dr Brown's were all too rounded for my son. But Mam anti collic worked fine.

According to the midwives, both of the above problems are not uncommon in newborns.

Hope this is helpful in some way, sorry if it just adds to the confusion.