Having to do every feed at home even at 6 months

[SomethingIncrediblyWitty]

Dd hasn't let me hold her for a feed since she was 1 month old, so every feed (7am, 11am, 2.30pm, 5.30pm, 11pm) has to be at home...very annoying when i see other people out in shops feeding their baby (older or younger). Why can't mine be like that? She's such a strange little thing!

Colditz - i really should get rid of this foot-in-mouth disease anyway...being short tempered and tactless doesn't tend to win friends and influence people. Unless you want to influence people to go away from you anyway!

The probelm is with reflux is that little and often feeding is sometimes the only answer. Their stomachs can only really take so much.

Seems like she has got pain associations with being fed anywhere but the floor.

Hey, you do not in any way win the crown of short tempered and tactless,

That crown is all mine.

^

Lol (we should be able to use one where aren't actually Laughing Out Loud, but more Chortling Out Loud... )
Anyway, the little and often thing might account for her starting weaning but still needing five full feeds a day - all of them involving milk, none just solids and juice/water. But hvs never suggested any reason for the feeding l and o, just said do it, as if it's the easiest thing in the world.
We have to walk everywhere, so if we only had gaps of 1.5 hrs (takes half an hour to feed), we couldn't get anywhere before having to come back again!!!
Gotta go now, feed soon! My turn to do it, bye!

My bf ds was like this. So the only place we could feed was in Mothercare. For some reason, he'd feed sitting up if he was in the rocking chair. One day he went 6 hrs without milk (at a couple of mths old) He would not feed in the cradle position. Before people take the piss, I had breastfeeding experts attempting to latch him on at a support group - he wouldn't do it even for them.

just a quick post to second every thing Kamikayzed said! my dd is also a silent reflux baby, it wasn't diagnosed for ages only feeds lying almost flat feeds wew hour long screaming battles, didn't want to do it out and about......

she is on ranitidine which really helps. and now she is finally holding her bottle she can control the feeds and apart from tipping it over her head once in a while everything is far less stressful (she's 10 months now) she will let me hold her while she feeds but only if I let her find her comfy position. she will feed lying down in poushchair but not in car seat as it isn't flat enough.

btw I know a few people who have had success with infant gaviscon so its worth a try. good luck!

Have just been on a website describing symptoms of silent reflux. she has every asterisked (the symptoms that are always present as opposed to maybe) symptom on the list!! I can't beleive all the so-called health professionals missed this!

*poor sleep habits with frequent waking
*arching neck or back during or after eating
*refusing food or accepting only a few bites despite being hungry
*poorweight gain/weight loss/failure to thrive
*she had frequent hiccups even before she was born, and still gets them quite often
plus, she used to make herself sick with her fingers all the time.

Honestly, i am quite surprised...

Mmm - the best one was when she threw up all over dh and our bed in the middle of the night!

Speaking of being sick...night before last just as i was trying to calm her down for bed, she puked down my cleavage - disgusting enough, but i put her down on the bed while i cleaned it off and put some pjs on, and the little imp just laid there laughing her head off at me! She knew! I'm damn sure of it!
Then when i sat next to her to sing a lullaby to calm her down again after this huge laughing episode...she started pinging my lip and giggling like mad. She has never pinged my lip before, ever
What a cheeky little madam she is!

Hi, sorry SIW, i didn't mean to be rude, the whole situation just seemed a bit strange, but i guess I'm managing a 2yr old and a 12mth old at the mo, and they are more apt at winding me round their little fingers - thought that 6mths was maybe too early for this.
FWIW I gave my dd Gaviscon for a while too to help with reflux (not silent) and it did help us.

It's ok BC...am now just irate at hvs for ignoring me. If i hear the sentence 'she's lovely just go away and enjoy your baby' one more time without getting dd sorted i'm gonna tell her to shove her rubbish advice up her a**e!!

Btw can anyone clarify...dd has to be laid down almost flat for a feed - but any info i can find says that reflux babies need to be fed as upright as possible???!! Is there something i'm missing?

SIW, this is the first time I've read about someone else's LO doing this - but my dd2, now 7 months old, has been exactly the same. She has silent reflux, which I had a horrible time getting help for until she was diagnosed with a floppy larynx (which will put itself right by 18 months at the latest, almost certainly) whilst in hospital with suspected RSV.

I could tell you a whole long story about the GPs fobbing me off, in spite of her breathing being made a lot worse by the inflammation the reflux caused - but thats not the point of your OP.

Basically, I discovered she could only drink comfortably lying down almost or entirely flat, when she was about 6 weeks old and the reflux started to get really bad - otherwise, she would arch, twist, yelp, etc.

Now, at 7 months and on Ranitidine and Domperidone for the reflux, she can drink in my arms or even sitting up in her high chair - but she still prefers to lie down, head to one side. She first managed feeds in my (or dh's) arms at dreamfeed time, ie really relaxed.

I have no idea why that is - maybe its the shape of her larynx that makes feeding lying down easier, in dd's case - but can say without any doubt at all that you're not alone. Maybe its the stress of reflux pain that makes them want space, not to be held whilst feeding?? I've no idea, jsut guessing. Whtever the casue, hopefully it will get easier as your LO gets older, meantime I found I could feed dd in the buggy (almost flat) or, in a restaurant, lie her on a bench type seat, etc.

Now i can't wait til Monday to see gp. Might reconsider kicking butt as i will still have to go to clinic to get dd weighed...will try to be diplomatic.
Oh dear. I don't do diplomatic very well! Off to bed now, probably case closed. Thanks for all your help. Nice to know there're people who know what i'm going through (altho not nice for you )
Nite!

I'm glad I read this thread, understand feeling relieved not to be alone - Kamikayzed, thanks for the insights too. Makes sense.

I actually feel all teary for dd, reading about your LOs...hate what she's had to go through just to get food inside her, PITA as it can be.

Good luck with the medics, SIW, and stuff diplomatic - squeaky wheels etc

Good point re doctors and chubby babes, K, mine never fell off her growth curve or looked anything other than well fed. But there is a lot of ignorance amongst GPs about silent reflux, and a sort of 'stiff upper lippishness' which implied we should just muddle through and put up with her pain/our stress.

In my case, I'm because my GP, who was rushing to get her desk cleared pre-holiday (fair enough), managed to make me feel like a neurotic Mum who wanted to drug her child, and I actually believed her - being 6 weeks postpartum and one week away from a horrific week in HDU with a seriously ill bronchiolitic four week old. Then two exhausting and upsetting weeks later, dd caught a cold and was admitted to C&W in case it was bronch again, and the ENT bloke happened to be on the ward and checked her for Laryngomalacia...then immediately put her on the meds I'd been begging the GP for two weeks earlier.

Have to admit, some of my is to do with having been vulnerable and exhausted and then feeling let down personally...am sure my expectations were unrealistically high at that time, given the state of me. And yes, the doctors are definitely human and allowed to be. I just wish they'd admit they got it wrong, and were maybe a tad stressed by their own concerns

tbh I don't think my ds had reflux. He's a very temperamental baby. I do think some personality types will behave in this manner

I have to admit, i did at some point think (hypochondriacally) that dd was hyperactive...she is so bouncy and full of mischief! Also because of the frequent waking - but that's another thing that happens with reflux isn't it? and she sleeps quite well at night (just find her in some funny positions in the morning!).

She has had acid belches a few times today i have noticed, but i thought this was normal. Shows it's been 9 years since last ones dunnit?!

And i have calmed down a bit, but still annoyed because i did mention feeding problems loads of times, and repeatedly to some people. And she's dropped one or two centiles since birth, definately not chubby.

You are describing my dd1. Arse arse arse.

She is three now btw. Arse. Fecking health professionals. I was insane through sleep deprivation and all they suggested was early weaning, controlled crying and restricting her feeds. Bastard.

sorry but I cannot believe I am only fidning out about this now. I just described the symptoms to my DH without saying why and he said" Sounds just like Dd1, what is it?"

AND I have just remembered my MIl has told me that my DH used to bring up every feed so she had to feed him on a towel covering her clothes.
Bollocks. Over a year of hell which could have been avoided.

mu mum still goes on about what a sicky baby I was, projectile vomiting, constantly crying, hahaha, - erm, maybe you should have gone to the doctors??? oh no need for that

I saw a baby being fed on a changing station in boots baby room if that helps, i thought you could sit on the floor in the library or in the park, im surprised you dont find enough space i other peoples houses so i dont think i'm picturing how you feed her quite right.