Our baby boy has been having episodes of some strange behavior while feeding and we?d like to see if anyone else has experienced this or if you have any insight into why he is behaving this way. Our boy is 3-1/2 months old and we are bottle-feeding him exclusively. For about the past 3-4 weeks almost every day when we feed him in the evening he will display all of his signs of being hungry but at the same time he will fight us on being fed. This comes in varying degrees but on average when we have him in our lap or arms ready to feed, he will cry, close his mouth, try to push the bottle away, and do everything he possibly can to not be fed. If we stop trying and let him sit, he will make his hungry signs again (mouth movements, chewing on his hand, eventually start crying) within minutes. Here is the strange part: when we try to feed him, if we keep the nipple in his mouth, he will fight it but within 5-10 seconds (some times less, some times longer), his mood will change immediately and he starts really going for his food. Depending on how hard he initially fights, he will continue to fight throughout his feeding, switching between fighting mood and eating mood. In a funny sort of way, it is almost like a Dr Jeckel & Mr Hyde syndrome.
Our best guess, and we are new at this as suggested by our nickname, is that he has figured out that eating makes him fall asleep and he is fighting because he does not want to go to sleep. At some point his hunger takes over so his mood switches and he starts eating.
Any ideas on what is causing this? Thank you.