Baby struggling to feed and screaming. Help!

[Munchkinmommy]

My baby is 11 weeks old. Up until the last few weeks she had fed well and hadn't really suffered from colic. About a month ago she did start to arch her back when feeding and the doc said she had reflux and she is on meds. But she still refuses her bottle, sometimes during the day but always in the evening before bed. She screams and wriggles when I give her the bottle and does the same when I don't. She is obviously hungry when I begin feeding. Sometimes I can only get 50ml inside her. Any ideas why she is doing this and what I can try? Thanks

Sounds like classic reflux my 23 month had it and now my 7 week old baby girl, fortunately her twin seems fine. The eldest wasnt diagnosed properly for 4 months i remember being in tears so many times when she wriggled in agony. We found it took about 2 weeks to stabilise once we got the right diagnosis, we tried variious non diary milks and losec as ranatidine (i know it is spelt wrong) syrup didnt work. She is now eating diary and has no problem drinking milk but it did take 20 months and unfortunately she did seem to catch every cold/ bug going.

Yep, the meds don't work for everyone. There is a separate topic on Feeding on MN which has very informative and helpful threads on reflux and colic.

My DD didn't have colic or reflux but she used to thrash and scream whenever she had even the tiniest bit of wind. She still arches her back when she has wind. It took infacol and a lot of patience but if I stopped the feed and winded her she would then latch back on fine and carry in feeding.

Oh and she was probably about nine weeks when it started.

Thanks ladies. She was diagnosed with reflux just over 3 weeks ago and she was given infant gaviscon. At that stage she had been really cranky in the day and couldn't get her to take naps and she was getting over tired. Within 24 hrs we noticed a real difference and she was good for about 10 days. Then this difficulty with her bed time feed began. Doc switched her to renitadine but doesn't appear to have made a difference. The paediatrician wasn't convinced it was reflux as she had fed well from birth, apparently reflux won't cause temporary poor feeding. Beginning to think it is a bit reflux and a bit of her being too tired. We are feeding her after her bath about 8pm. Trouble is if we feed her earlier she probably won't want to sleep straight away. Now we put her to bed at 9 and she goes to sleep. Do you think tiredness could be the issue as well?

Could it be the bottle/teat? What size teat are you using? We found that we had to use the size 1 for several months (even though it's recommended for up to a month or something). We found that if DS got too much milk at once, he'd scream.

I thought symptoms of reflux were pretty much apparent from birth, my dd's definately were, 8 weeks seems a little late for it to start. Could you try some lactose free milk? Is she sick a lot or just refusing to feed. There are many other symptoms of reflux i.e hiccups, a cough, if you look them up it may give you a better idea if this could be it.

Also check for thrush.