Teething maybe and no appetite

[kittypower]

Ds is 6 months old and i think he is teething, he hasn't got any teeth yet but it looks like one is on it's way. He is totally refusing to feed, so far today he has taken 300 mls and point blank refuses to take anymore - is this normal during teething? It's really stressing me out as we are in NZ at the moment and it's so hot, I'm paranoid he is going to get dehydrated - what can I do?

Today he took a grand total of 320mls in the whole day, i battled with him all day to take that and am now exhasted totallt stressed out,

Hi, is your ds on solids yet? I wouldn't worry too much about dehydration but do try offering him cooled boiled water (or baby juice if that's what he's used to). If it is his teeth, it willaffect his appitite and may make it uncomfortable to have a bottle so maye try getting fluids into him by cup feeding him. Doesn't even have to be a baby cup with a spout as this may aggrivate his gums too, just a small beaker or a lid off one of his bottles that you can hold and let him drink from. My ds was fed like this in hospital as a newborn as it took time for breastmilk to come.

So long as you are getting wet nappies, he won't be dehydrated. I use a medicine syringe to give 2.5 ml milk/rehydrations solution every 20 mins when mine are sick, so if you are worried you could try that. Or freeze water/rehydration stuff and give him shards of crushed ice. Will help soothe sore gums too.

yes it sounds like teething. can you get some teething gel? i found infant paracetamol also helped. Also try and offer a distraction (singing silly songs, someone waving something around etc) when you go to put the bottle in as I found this took my ds mind of the pain and he could get a bit of fluids down. saw my GP about this problem and he said to come back if he took no fluids in 24hours. he also said that they will drink when desperate despite the pain. we went down the medicated route as i don't like to see ds in pain.