My LO refusing feeds even though he's hungry!please help!

[inspireme]

My DS is 18 wks and has been refusing his feeds for a week or so now,and only taking them after a bit of a fight, he's not a big eater, seems to like little and often, (fed constantly when I was bf-ing) still only takes about 20-24 oz over a day, 3 bottles of 6oz and 2 of 3oz. Hes a big baby looks more like 6-7 months old. Was 15lb 12oz at last weigh in about 4 wks ago.

He used to feed every 3 hrs on the button, he would take 3oz then the other 3 an hour later. But lately after he's shows signs of hunger when I put him into the feeding position he goes into a real rage where he straightens his back and tries to push the bottle out with his hands, this usually lasted a minute then he would stop and take it like nothing had happened. The only time he doesn't fight is first feed in morn.

Since y'day he's fighting more and went nearly 6hrs yesterday morn. I spoke to a neighbour who's a retired midwife and Hv, as I couldn't get in contact with mine (and tbh I don't really rate her) she said it was wind pains, so I took him to doctor and she said it was reflux,as he's been bring up little bits of milk alot.doctor gave me infant gaviscon and I've been using it since then but if anything he's worse now.

He has just took a bottle after 4 and a quarter hours as he was prob starving. He's really good otherwise, sleeping loads during the day and sleeping 11 hrs at night and generally very smiley and happy.

The fighting seems to stop as soon as I sit him up or walk around which seems to fit better with the wind pains I think. He's really good at getting wind up after feeds btw.

Can anyone shed some light???

Posted this in feeding section also, but find you don't get alot of replies when it's about bottle feeding.

It does sound a lot like silent reflux.
This is when the milk comes back up from his stomach, but necessarily out of his mouth.
The acid from the stomach comes up the throat and makes it sore with an acid burn. This gives him a sore throat and it hurts when he drinks and swallows, making him fight the bottle, even when he's hungry.

It's not surprising that he likes being vertical rather than horizontal. This helps to prevent the acid coming up.

Gaviscon is the most common treatment for this. It reduces the acidity of the stomach and therefore helps to prevent the burning. However, it will still take a little while for his throat to recover from the burning he has already had.

My DS was Bf rather than bottle, but he too had reflux.
In my case, he was not prescribed gaviscon.
I found that he had a dairy intolerance. I stopped eating and drinking all milk and dairy products. This cured him completely.
It is possible that your DS is reacting to the dairy in his formular.
It might not cure him, but you might consider trying him on a non-dairy formular and see if it helps.

Would it be possible to hold your DS in a more upright position to feed? You've said he prefers being upright so this might be more comfortable for him when feeding.

My DD had silent reflux (all same symptoms as your DS) and was also prescribed infant gaviscon but it didnt work.

The GP then prescribed cow and gate instant carobel which thickens the formula and helps it to stay down. This worked well for my DD and I gradually reduced and reduced it until at about 6mo she didn't need it any more.

I would ask your GP about this. Or otherwise I have loads of the stuff left and would be happy to post some to you for the delivery cost.

Another thing to consider might be teething, although reflux sounds likely.

Sounds exactly like my LO who had reflux. We used to give her a bottle of water first then do a swap to milk as she seemed happier to take the water.

We used SMA stay-down for a while (she vomited LOTS) and then used Gaviscon. When that stopped working we pushed for a paeds appointment who prescribed ranitidine and domperidone. Now at 9MO she is totally off the meds and doing really well.

You might find you have to keep pushing your GP as the ones I saw seemed to have the attitude that babies throw up some times and that's that.

Have been on the infant gaviscon since Friday afternoon, and the fights dont seem just as bad today so maybe it's doing something!

He's def teething Jamie and think thats not helping either although it's not the only cause I don't think.

Ruth I have a dairy intolerance myself so hope my DS doesn't have it too although I'm sure there's a high chance of it too.

i posted the same thing when mine was 11 weeks he all of a sudden started refusing feeds.
unfortunatly he is now 17 weeks and its still happening. i has the HV out and she told me he had developed a phobia of the bottle i have no idea how but thatsn what she said. iam not so sure myself.
the other thing she told me was to try to make him go 4hrs between feeds to make him that little bit more hungry and i can say it has helped a tiny bit!!!! he will sleep 10-12hrs over night wake up and take 7oz then it starts to go down hill only taking 3-4oz for the day feeds but will then take 8oz before bed time at 8.30pm.
My LO is also sick after most feeds only a little bit and i have mentioned it to hv and doc but it was dismissed as 'normal'
i have debated weaning early but the hv said not to incase he then starts to refuse all milk feeds.
but like you its gets very wearing when they start screaming and like mine end up going blue coz he was histerical its not nice.
sorry not much advice there but just letting you know there is other people out ther with the same problem.

Candy have considered taking him to docs, they may prescribe infant gaviscon if they think it's silent reflux, as my LO is definately a lot better since we started it.

Wouldnt do any harm to get a second opinion.

i have tried, have seen 2 docs and 2 hv and they all tell me its normal. so dont really know what to do anymore.

Candy
Your description really doesn't sound normal.
I have never heard of a baby developing bottle phobia, and although all babies are sick a little, it's not normal for them to throw up after every feed.
Feeding should be comforting for them, not make them hysterical.
It really sounds like you need some gaviscon.

no i really dont think its normal either. me and him are in tears every time i feed him. i get upset coz i feel so sorry for him and i cant do anything to help. i am seeing a new hv on monday but after today (a very bad day feeding) i am gonna phone her tomorrow and get her out sooner. i am just pulling my hair out with it all. :(

Oh poor love. You really do need to push your GP for a paediatric assessment.

If it helps, I got to the point where I was going to sit in the waiting room until DD needed feeding, feed her then hand her to GP to be sick so he could see it wasn't normal. I think telling him that he treated DD for reflux or me for PND made him realise how much of an impact it was having.