4 month old with milk aversion

[Babydreaming]

Hello!

My 4 month old baby has had some health problems:

1. Recurrent UTis due to an underlying kidney problem
2. Possible cows milk protein allergy (now on amino acid based milk)

He has never been a great feeder, was born on 25th centile and now on 2nd and dropping. He seems to hate milk.

I offer him milk every 3 hourly and he takes about 50ml per feed and then loses interest completely. I try and persist but then he gets annoyed and will start squirming around and pushing the milk bottle away. If I continue to persist he will scream until I stop.

We are under dietician (who suspects CMPA - but the new milk hasn't made a difference!) and paediatricians (don't know cause but just keep treating UTIs).

Any ideas?! I've tried all bottle types and different size and types of Years an nothing makes a difference! He's been admitted to hospital twice for poor feeding and dehydration.

That sounds so hard, for both of you. When are you due to see the dietician and Paeds again?

@Babydreaming you might get more replies if you ask MNHQ to move your post to the section. Hopefully, someone who has experienced a feeding allergy will be around

You definitely need to return to Peds. My daughter reacted like this with reflux.

Definitely return to peds. My son was in hospital for kidney infection for a week, had problems with reflux and was never a fat baby. Developed protein milk allergy and had to have the amino acid based formula (which is apparently disgusting! I certainly thought so!). Later on he also developed a nut allergy.
On the plus side weaning was an absolute dream! He was so pleased to have tasty foods as the milk is so bland he ate everything in sight and finally became a chubster 😀 He did wean quite early, I can't remember exactly now but about 5 months? This was under guidance from ped and dietitian. We found he could tolerate goat milk when older but there's also very good fortified soya milk especially for kids. Talk to your consultant but I'm sure you'll find the same once he gets on to actual food there will be no stopping him

Yes you can start weaning at 27 weeks under guidance but I would try and establish the source of the issue so that any allergens can be avoided

17 not 27!!

So I am in contact with paediatricians and dietician regularly. I saw both today. They think he had cows milk allergy and severe reflux which has now led to a feeding aversion - he associates the bottle with pain so refuses it. There's not much I can do unfortunately as trying to force it will make things worse! They have recommended we start weaning but I'm worried he still won't get enough fluids! I'll just keep offering every 3h and if he doesn't want it then try food instead!

Psi cat I really hope our story turns out like yours!!

Don't forget you can put liquids in the food so really mushy and help keep him hydrated. We also tried lots different bottles - Not huge change with that but did make a little difference. He became really good at sipping from a cup quite young and quickly moved on to normal cups and glasses (plastic) - was a bit of a pain as spillages but did mean we never had the arguments my friends did with their LOs over losing the bottle as they grew up!
My ped said he found it quite common for milk aversive babies to really enjoy weaning so hopefully he'll follow the same pattern. Keep us posted!

Is there a way of teaching them to use a sippy cup? The dietician recommended trying it but at 4 months I don't think he'll be able to manage it!!

We just got one of the little tommee tippee ones with two handles and let him play with it. Then put a teeny bit of water in and gently showed him how to tip up to his mouth. Yes gets a bit messy :-)
We found better success without a lid (although messier) and when he was confident introduced the lid. Also found some cups worked better than others. There was one got from mamas ana papas that was v flash and ergonomically designed but he never took to it, good old TT always did the job!