Bottle feeding and wriggling baby

[Tallmum]

My ten week old baby just wont keep still when feeding. Moves her head from side to side as soon as we start, throws herself backwards. Its taking over an hour to feed her around 100ml as she stops and starts but is bringing up good burps so I can;t understand what else I can do??

[Elmosgirl]

What teat size are you using, is she getting too much / not enough milk.

[nickytwotimes]

Is she definitely hungry, not just tired? I only ask because I gave ds a feed whenever he cried and it took a wee while to work out that he was actually needing a wee sleep.

[lulumama]

if she stops then don;t keep trying to feed her, she might want a break to look around and burp and then have more milk. if she is hungry, she will drink.

[Tallmum]

She has actually had bad cough recently and has lost weight so I feel that she definitely needs to feed, its almost like she just likes playing with the teats - I have tried swapping from Dr Browns bottles to Avent and it has not made any different. Using size 2 teats.

[lulumama]

if she is playing , she is not hungry. she will have milk when she is ready. try to look at her milk intake over a few days, even over a week, and hopefully you iwll see it averages out to a decent amoutn

variflow teats might help

[MummyPixie]

Hi Tallmum. I've been having the same problem with my 13 week old son for the last 2 weeks. So frustrating as you know they are hungry. He;ll have a few oz then wont take the bottle but will try to frustratedly eat his hands! He's doing the same thing, throwing his head back and wriggling around. I've also tried Dr Brown's bottles over Avent. The HV advised me yesterday to try hungry baby milk but no change as yet. How are you getting on? Any change with your little one?

[mummyamanda2011xxx]

hey am new too this my little girl is 10 weeks and she used to be really good at taking her bottles she was up to 6oz but now ave had to put her bk down to 5 and she is only taking about 3 out off the bottle and i feel she is wanting fed sooner than 4 hours has anyone got any advice this is my first baby x

[wigglesrock]

mummyamanda dd3 is 4 months old and sometimes she just isn't hungry, she is on 7oz and last week seemed a bit fussy with her bottle, but this week she's been eating like a little monster I don't keep to a 4 hour routine. She's my third formula fed baby and I have always fed on demand. DD1 in particular used to have a lot more bottles in the late afternoon than at any other time.

[RitaMorgan]

Babies are designed to feed little and often - if she wants 3oz every 2 hours instead of 6oz every 4 hours I would do as wigglesrock suggests and be lead by her. I bet you have something to eat or drink more often than every 4 hours, so it's not suprising a little baby wants to as well :)

[narmada]

Is your baby arching her back? Does she spit up a lot?

What you describe could be completely normal and what everyone else has said (e.g., not hungry) but if she is consistently failing to gain weight or losing weight I would suspect a feeding issue, such as reflux or cow's milk protein intolerance (not lactose intolerance, both of which an enlightened GP should be able to help you with. Babies with reflux in particular tend to arch their backs when feeding in a manner that's a bit surprising for a small baby.