3.5 month old feeding nightmares!

[soxy]

our 3.5 mnth old girl has since roughly the new year been a bit of a nightmare at feeding time. It involves her having a few sucks of the bottle followed by screaming and then it takes a lot of tatics to get her to drink a full bottle (she stops screaming when we take the bottle out).

Wondered if it is related to teething etc but would appreciate any advice on how we can solve this problem. She is on the right size teats and obviously ruled out other things like wind/nappy change so we are at a dead end on where to go next!

Thanks!

Have you thought about reflux? My neice had v similar symptoms around the same age, would take a few sucks and then scream and arch her back as if she was drinking acid rather than milk! GP eventually worked out what it was and prescribed baby gaviscon which worked really well. Might be worth popping to see your dr to discuss it. Also worth knowing that most babies with reflux don't actually vomit with it and therefore don't lose weight so don't get fobbed off if Dr says that - my SIL was told same things by her HV who didn't know as much as she should have done about reflux. Does that make sense? Sorry, have just read it through and don't know if it's very clear.

when you say she's on the right size teats, I would ignore the age guidleines on them. Some babies are faster feeders than others. My DD was on the fastest flow teats which are described as for 6m+ at three months and behaved just as you described with her bottle just before we made each jump up to faster teats. It's worth giving the faster teats a go now as she'll need them at some point so you won;t have wasted any money.

Mind you she also acts like that when her gums are bothering her. In which case anbesol or a dose of calpol seems to do the trick.

Yes, she might be frustrated at lack of flow - worth trying her on next size up. It's one of the most logical explanations, if ultimately she does end up drinking the whole bottle (so is obviously hungry). The only other thing could be something giving her pain in her mouth - unlikely to be thrush, if she is bottle fed, but worth having a look inside her mouth just to check. Does she suck happily on any other objects, like a rattle - maybe she's a bit small to be doing this yet? Just trying to establish if it's having something in her mouth that is bothering her, or whether she's frustrated by flow too slow if she is a fast feeder.