baby won't eat - help

[Ellesee]

My baby is six weeks old and until one week ago was doing great drinking her milk. We were on 4oz of formula given every 4 hours, and that seemed to suit her really well. Now, she is refusing the bottle and finishing between 1 - 3 oz. For most of the week I tried to keep to the same routine - a feed every four hours, but of course she's getting hungry earlier and not sleeping, so now she is overtired, her routine is all over the place so we both don't know where we are and she still isn't feeding right.

Basically she'll eat in one go until she fusses, which used to signify a burp break. Once that's done (sometimes a burp, sometimes none) she hates to return to the bottle - she'll kick out the teat, cry if I hold it, spit out milk and stop sucking. It takes over an hour to even take a few oz where it used to take 20 mins max. We've tried changing the teat to stage 2, which means she drinks faster but no more than before and we've tried feeding on demand, which now means i never know if she's hungry or tired. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm so scared she's starving and am especially paranoid because I had problems breastfeeding and already feel like i've failed her in that way. I just don't understand this sudden change - help!

i would let her feed as and when she wants.. which is more of a faff with formula,but if she spits the teat out, then don;t try to get her to take more or finish a bottle.. some babies prefer to snack.. DD was like that, whereas DS would chug down an entire feed, almost every time!

wehn she spits the teat out, burp her, then leave that feed.

i found my babies had a different cry when they were tired as to when they were hungry, and also, when they were hungry they used to root and shake their heads from side to side and suck vigorously on my finger.so i knew it was milk time!

routine at this age, IME and IMO is a non starter, babies have frequent growth spurts and i would not expect a 6 week old to go 4 hours between feeds for any length of time

she might need to feed every 2 hours for a while....

feed, burp, cuddles, sleep is pretty much all a new baby needs!

she will not starve herself! she will eat as much as she needs and wants when she is offered the bottle when she wants it.....

at this age i would feed on demand my ds appetite came and went still so young

just feed as and when if ounces go down make 3 ounce bottles and if drains it you can take an ounce from another bottle

i used to make 2 extra bottles up so i could just take extra ounces if needed when draining you cna make the feed back up to 4 again it is common for babies to do this so dont worry but dont make the baby wait as demand feed at this age is ok

have you checked her tongue at all just remembered my ds was like this when he had throush of the mouth is tongue has white furry look that doesnt come off whne you wipe with finger possible thrush of mouth

my ds was about this age also when he got that and found feeding habits and not wanting teat as it was hurting him

sorry about spelling just painted nails having trouble typing

four hours is a long time to go between feeds, deffo. don't worry, elleese, and don't feel like a failure, there are a lot of us who didn't conquer our struggle to bf. but the best thing to do is keep a bfing head on, make sure the baby has access to a bottle whenever she wants it, even if it's only for a snack. the modern advice with ffing is to expect to throw a lot of milk away because demand feeding is the key thing. good luck.

2 1/2 to 3 hours is a pattern more suited to a 6 week old plus you are at a classic growth spurt age which could make your lo's feeding even more erratic. Given your lo's age she will probably get tired between 1-2 hours since she last slept so if your lo seems to be getting fussy and it is an hour or so since she slept then get her down for a nap.

Thanks for all your help! Will try and go with demand for a bit then try a shorter routine. How long does a growth spurt last - shouldn't she be drinking more not less milk in a spurt?

i think the point is that he may be too tired to drinj because his routine is so spaced out? ditch the routine altogether, tbh, just have milk on standby and offer it to him very frequently. you have to prioritise him drinking milk over any routine at this stage.

all the advice so far is really good and I don't want to alarm you but just watch out for signs of silent reflux. My dd started refusing to feed after her first burp. we later realized that a little milk was coming back up and because its mixed with stomach acid it was burning her windpipe. It wasn't until she stopped feeding completely (about 12 weeks old I think) that we saw a doc who diagnosed silent (i.e. no puke) reflux. Little and often feeding works for reflux too so its good adivce regardless.

it sounds to me like you need a faster teat I assume you are on a slow teat if so then switch to medium. I remember ds1 fussing at feeds at 6 weeks and it was because he couldn't get the milk out fast enough so gave up. As soon as I switched to the nest teat speed up he was fab.

OOps scrap that advice have just read the rest of your post and see you've done that!

My ds is also six weeks old and hasn't been feeding well since we came home from hospital (when he was a week old). He should have been taking 4oz but has been doing 2 or 3, and even that was taking him an hour or more.

Then I noticed he would often drain a "steriform" bottle, with its vv soft teat. We're using Dr Brown botles, so I bought a set of no.3 (very fast) teats, which almost spray the milk out when you hold them upside down.

Now he is drinking 4oz plus each time. He needs lots of breaks though, as the milk pours out so quickly it can get too much. However he's burping well now, and wasn't before.

I will test him for mouth thrush -- I'd noticed he had a white tongue, but of course the milk leaves them with a residue. (Doesn't it?) That was a good tip.

Hope you work it out. You've really described my last six weeks, with any routine going out of the window. I now sterilise 8 bottles a day (I've developed ezema on my hands from all the washing up!)and make sure to look for tears when he cries -- tears at the corner of his eyes mean he's definitely hungry, not tired.

Oh, one thought: do you give your ds warm milk? I read in one book that a baby might stop drinking milk during a feed if it goes cold. So either get her used to room-temp milk, or plonk the bottle in a mug of hot water while you burp her, to keep it warm.

have you tried changing the make of bottles you use? when i had to change onto bottles from breast (i was ill) we used avent as everyone else i knew used them. DS would take an ounce or so and give up. after a couple of weeks of 1-2oz feeds we tried the tommee tippee ones with no success and then tried mam which really suited him and we havent had any problems since.

hth