10 week old baby suddenly refusing to take bottles

[KC2510]

This is my first post on Mumsnet, although having read the site and picked up many useful tips and help during my pregnancy.

My DD is 10 weeks old and up until 10 days ago was fed on SMA gold, we changed to C&G comfort milk on the advice of our HV as she was becoming agitated after feeds and quite upset, HV thought she might have a slight lactose problem. First week on this milk was good, however for the last 5 days she has been refusing the bottle and we are struggling to feed her. She is given Infacol as she as problems with wind and colic, when we give this to her pre her feed she starts to get upset and will refuse her bottle. Generally giving her a dummy will calm her then she takes her bottle couple of mins later, however when you stop to wind her she refuses to take the bottle again. We are feeding every 3 hrs but im concerned that she is not taking enough milk. She arches her back, screams and gets very upset which is obviously making feed times quite upsetting for us and her.
She is sick a bit after each feed,which HV told me was to be expected and all babies do this, however she also spits up a watery substance at various times after feed - this can start to be milky coloured if not long after a feed turning to colourless if 2-3 hrs after feeding.
Not sure what to do, concerned she is in pain and dont like to hear her being upset.

We tried C&G comfort milk for ds. He didn't mind it but it didn't stop the tummy troubles I'm afraid. It tastes vile though, if you happen to taste it, it tastes of purfume and is very bitter. There was a similar thread about comfort milk about a week ago. Someone elses baby had gone off the milk since changing to comfort milk. It does taste horrid and could be why she is rejecting it too. We wnt back to normal milk and just used Dentinox colic drops and lots of Gripe Water.

Hi KC2510 - this sounds a lot like our DS2 now 19 weeks. We also swapped him to Cow and Gatwe Comfort and he has a lot of problems with wind and colic - we also use infacol before every feed. But, I would say if she took the milk for the first 5 days then it isn't the taste that's bothering her as she would have refused it outright. Could it be something else like a cold coming on or teething? Also, are you using a single hole teat on the bottle - I have just realised this recently as we use avent bottles which have 1, 2, or 3 holes to make the flow faster but with the comfort milk being a thicker feed you need to use a bigger single hole teat so the milk comes out more quickly, we have just swapped to boots own. We also see a chiropractor who has helped enormously with his colic/constipation/wind problems. Hope some of this helps

thanks for all your advice.

Not sure whether or not to take her off it completely - since going on it she has definately calmed down through the day, going for naps (which she never did before ) and sleeping for at least 9 hrs each night (although she did generally do 6 + before). However the nappy's whilst on this milk are horrific - not only smell but consistency!

Firststeps - did you find the cow and gate comfort helped? We thought about trying a chiropractor as ive read alot on it, however i couldnt find one who dealt with babies in the northamptonshire are.

Agree that if she didnt like the taste she wouldnt have taken it from the start, but dont understand why she suddenly doesnt like the taking her bottle! We used Tommee Tippee bottles and i did change the teat to a 2 (for 3 -6 mnths babies) when we started to use the milk, when you hold the bottle upside down it does appear to be coming through - however not sure whether or not i need to try the next number up - which is a faster flow......

She does dribble constantly and keeps putting her fists to her mouth so not sure if she is teething or not, ive checked but cant feel anything coming through, however i know the symptoms can sometimes start before anything appears.

Hi again KC - yes the Cow and Gate helped within 24 hours of putting him on it, but agree about the smell and consistency of the nappies! Is she waking more in the night for feeds since refusing her bottles, if not then maybe she has had a growth spurt recently and her appetite is settling back down? Also, does she pull away from the bottle to be winded or do you stop her feed? If you stop the feed to wind her then maybe try letting her take the lead with winding, I used to find DS2 got really upset if I stopped his feed to wind him, but I was terrified to carry on in case I couldn't get the wind up , now he usually pushes the bottle out of his mouth or pulls away when he needs to be winded.

One other thing - we usually feed DS2 on a roughish 4 hour cycle (7am, 11am 2.30pm and 6.15pm during the day and he usually has one feed between 2am and 4am during the night) and we find he was happier to feed and was more likely to take a full feed than if we fed him any more regularly than this. Maybe your lo is redy to start spacing her feeds out a little bit more?

I would definitely recommend a chiropractor -the one we see does specialise in babies but this was pure luck. She has definitely helped DS2 with his digestive issues!!! and also showed us some really good winding techniques which do work. She also seems to think DS2 has a possible hiatus hernia which would make him more prone to wind and colic and that the thicker formula would help with this.

One final thing I forgot to mention is you must make the bottles up 15 minutes after the kettle has boiled - not 30 minutes like most other formulas - this is because the hotter water breaks down the starch in the milk which makes it easier to digest. Sorry if you are doing this already but I wasn't {blush] again!!!

Sorry this is such an essay - but we have really struggled at times with DS2's wind and colic, - all of his clothes have bobbles in a circle shape on the back from winding him so much - I swear I could get wind out of anything now!!! and I hope some of these things help you.