Formula Fed Baby - advice needed re breathing.....

[Dozymare]

My DD is nearly 3 weeks old, and due to medical conditions on my behalf, I had to stop BF at 10 days old. Having BF elder DC's, I am not au fait with bottle feeding, but have a query that is very, very worrying to DH and I.

She is thriving and putting on weight, but at times on the bottle, she stops breathing for around 20 secs and we have to pat her on the back or blow on her face to make her take a breath. I know newborns do have irregular breathing patterns, but I don't recall either DS doing this.

Last night, she did this 3x on the trot which was so worrying for us. This morning, she was absolutely fine.

So, my questions are;

1. Is this "normal" for bottle fed babies
2. If so, should we do anything to intervene (ie blow on her face, wind her)
3. Could it be the bottle?
4. If so, should we experiment with others (she doesn't really get that windy, and is very good at bringing it up when winded)
5. If not normal, who should we raise this with? GP/Midwife?Health visitor

thanks in advance

Bumping for you.

1. It's not normal to stop breathing while feeding. Does she turn blue around the lips? Is she pausing while drinking the milk? Some babies suck, suck, suck then pause so perhaps that could look like not breathing.

2. I would wind her and change position, tickle her toes etc not blow in her face.

3/4) Perhaps the bottle is too slow hence the reason she's sucking harder and resting longer. Perhaps try another bottle, or change teat size.

5. I would also discuss with GP (or midwife if still under her care) perhaps make sure they see her drinking bottle.

thanks for replying - am off to baby clinic tomorrow (after caling HV today) and she has asked to watch her having a feed. My worry is, she doesn;'t do it at every feed and therfore won't "do" it tomorrow.......

Thanks for replying. I am sure it is nothing and despite having had 2 other Dc's I am being paranoid!

Perhaps you could film her doing it?

As nannynz says its not normal for them to stop breathing. Are you sure thats what she's doing, sometimes it can seem like they're aren't breathing when they're actually resting. Everythings exhausting when you're 3 weeks old!

Personally I would ask to see the doctor about this rather than the HV.

she is not turning blue around the lips so perhaps it is her pausing for breath? we will film her doing it if she doesn't do it tomorrow for the HV. Yes, will make an appointment with the Dr if not resolved. SHe hasn't done it today though. DH thinks it is her sucking in air and a lot of milk (she does seem to be greedy) so maybe we should give her lots of breaks??? Does this sound possible???

how often are you winding her?

I doubt she's sucking air in, babies have a clever way of closing off their noses while they're feeding so they don't do just that. Keep the bottle tilted right up so she's not getting the foam.

Perhaps try different teat shapes and maybe make sure you wind her, or at least let her take a quick break, every few minutes. We found that in the first few weeks a bottle feed could take as long as a breast feed.

How did the appointment go?

I would recomend changing teat size or shape, is she is gulping then it does seem like they're sucking in air.

Hi Nanny - this is exactly what we are going to do on the recommendation of the HV. Got an appointment with Dr tomorrow to check heart and lungs, but fed her in front of HV who thought she was guzzling dfar to quickly - she finished 5oz in about 10 mins so has a good suck butnot so good swallow - we will also try slow teat and giving her breaks between each 10 gulps......HV didn't htink it was anything serious as she didn't go blue but prefers to ewrr on the side of caution...

will keep you posted.....thanks for all help

Good luck with trying out the new teats and the Doctors appointment - hope all goes well. I find Avent bottles are quite hard for babies to get a proper latch on Mam bottles work well and also a thin necked bottle.