DD not drinking her bottles

[ray81]

My DD is 25 weeks and i started weaning at 22 weeks as she was realy watching us eat and was reaching for the food. She has been doing realy well and has a good apetite.
However in the last few days she will only drink 2oz of her bottles so is only have about 10oz a day, i am still offering her food and she is eating it and she is drinking water.

i'm worried she isnt getting enough milk, has anyone else had this problem and if so how did you get past it.

she is not getting enough milk. She needs at least 600ml (20oz) a day plus her solids.

It is normal when they start solids to cut back their milk intake. Some babies take this to extremes however and refuse milk all together.

When are you offering her solids and when are you offering her milk?

With my dd (same age) we have the following food routine;
7am - milk (usually takes 7oz)
8am - Breakfast (1 tbs baby porridge or baby muesli mixed with formula)
11.30am- 12.00 - lunch (solids)
12.00pm - milk (usually takes 4-5oz)
3.30 - milk (usuallu takes 7oz)
6.30 - dinner (solids)
7.30 - milk (usually takes 9oz)

Maybe you could offer the milk first before the solids for a while, while you get her milk intake up again.

also, i would check her mouth for thrush. It can make sucking on a bottle quite uncomfortable and might be the reason she is refusing her milk. Rinse her mouth out with water and then take a look. Look for a white residue over her tongue and the top of her mouth. It doesn't have to be crusty. Look also for white spots on the roof of her mouth. If it is thrush it can be easily treated with some dactarin oral gel. you will need to scrub all her bottles and feeding equipment and sterilise them to kill the spores each time they are used for a couple of day.

If it is not thrush and offering the milk first doesn't make a difference, i would try mixing as much formula into her solids as you can get away with. I know for instance that a scoop of formula mixed in with a serving of fruit purée makes it taste just like a fruit and custard pudding. Keep her water up as well if you can.

HTH.

Hi i knew she wasnt getting enough and am now starting to panic alittle.

Our usual routine is as follows.

7am Bottle will only take 5oz
9am Solids
10am bottle another 5oz
12 Lunch solids
2pm bottle 5oz
4.30-5 dinner solids
7pm bottle and bed 5oz
she still wakes in the night aswell but will take 2-3oz and then go back to sleep.

This morning she was wide awake at 4am so i got up with her, went back to bed at 5 and she had a bottle 5oz and wont drink anything since. I thought i would perhaps give the solids a break for a day or 2 and get her back onto her milk but she just doesnt seem to want it unless she is half a sleep.
I have checked her mouth and the roof is quite white, but no white on her tongue so will take her to the docs tomorrow just to be sure it isnt thrush.

She is a very good weight, she is 16lbs but am just so concerned over her not drinking her milk.

any more suggestions on getting her to drink would be very welcome

i would bet on thrush by the sound of it. Be aware that some doctors aren't great at diagnosing it. There are lots of threads about BF babies having terrible trouble because the GP didn't spot the thrush. If they do agree it is thrush they will probably give you a script for Nystatin suspension. It is absolutely rubbish. If you can, ask for Dactarin oral gel specifically. it is brilliant and will have it cleared up very quickly.

if it turns out it isn't though, i would cut the solids as you suggest and see if it encourages her.

Does she completely refuse to let the bottle into her mouth or is she just playing with the teat and not sucking?

Hi Sugarplum,

I keep checking her mouth and sometimes it is white on the roof other times like just now not so much so realy not sure. I will still take her to the docs though and hopefully if it is it will clear up.

She does let the bottle into her mouth but drinks 2oz and then starts putting her thumb in her mouth and then pushes it away.

Today she had a bottle at 5, i didnt give her breakfast but bottle at 9, she didnt want it so left it and gave her one at 10 and then she drank 5oz, i left it til 2 she drank another 5oz and i then gave her some solids. just waiting til 6 now to see if she drinks that. seems perhaps cutting the solids back is the way to go.

tbh i am realy suprprised at the lack of response i have had on here, have been on Mn for a while and thought i would get alot more support then i have. Do you have any ideas why?

i was a bit surprised too but then i noticed you posted in breast and bottle feeding. Most people who post in this forum are EBF or choose not to post on threads dealing with formula.

Maybe you could repost in weaning?

15 oz so far is pretty good. She might just be one of those babies that gets a taste for solids and never wants milk again. hope not though!

Thanks Sugarplum i would have to agree i think thats why i havent had many responses.
I would think though that even EBF babies go off their milk sometimes so expected a bigger response.

You have been very helpful thankyou, i didnt realise there was a weaning thread so will post over there to. will copy and paste from here.

This section has got all a bit nasty lately with trolling type behaviour and extreme comments. I would normally be here a bit but have been avoiding it tbh. You can buy daktarin gel at the chemist to avoid being given nystatin - just tell the pharmacist it's for an adult - you or your dh or something! The company that make it changed the recommendations and said it was not for babies in case of choking. As if you'd squirt a big chunk of it in. A small amount on finger tip flattened out is fine for even a wee baby. If it's not thrush then it might be an independence thing. Ds was ff and at about 5.5 months he suddenly wanted to feed himself his bottles. We changed to a cup - can't remember which one as it was 12 years ago (and even if I could they probably don't make them any more!). He started drinking a whole lot more once he felt in control. Also the suggestion to hide milk in food is a good one. Hth.

Well I worked it out that she is taking 25oz cna you just confrim that?

My youngest was one of those who dropped her milk feeds very quickly once she was weaned, I was EBF but it was a whole feed every 3-4 weeks so by 10 months she has one milk feed per day!

I would offer her plenty of dairy produce as part of her meals and obviously check her out for thrush as suggested.

Ray - re why people EBF probably couldn't answer this. It's because you can't tell how much they are taking. If they are still feeding the same number of times per day, you don't know if they are cutting down on volume. I don't think it's people being mean.

I am afraid I can't be much help on your actual question, but it looks from your schedule like a lot more than 10oz, or is she only having a tiny bit from each bottle?

Ribenaberry,

I think i am just being overly paranoid tbh i gave up BF at 16 weeks and have regretted it ever since so feeling quilty so feel like am being judged when i am most likely not.

This was the schedule we were following and all was going fine but now she is just taking 2oz from each bottle and no more.

Docs have confirmed no thrush and no sore throat.

I have started giving bottles first and this seems to be working in that she is taking alittle more but not much.

"Most people who post in this forum are EBF or choose not to post on threads dealing with formula. "

I think you're making quite a few sweeping statements there SugarPlumFairy.

This forum is for both breast and formula milk feeders.

Hope you get back on track soon ray81

Well, you are certainly not being judged by me, and I think I fall into the category of 'extended BFer', so worse than the normal lot .

I do think it's a downside of ff. Friends used to say 'ooh, but you can see how much they've had', and I just thought that sounded like another thing to worry about! I prefered not knowing and just going by whether DC were happy and growing. That's hard when you have numbers to scare you.

Maybe she just isn't into bottles any more. Does she drink from a cup. Could you try a sippy cup? Sorry, can't think of much else, but wanted to try!

My ds2 was like this. He was breastfed but when I got going with the solids he very quickly started to lose interest in milk. I know in my case I couldn't see how much he was taking in terms of milk but I do know it became very little because he started to reject BF all together and so I tried formula but he turned his nose up at that also.

I did what someone else suggested, adding milk to food. I would give him porridge made with formula. Baby rice with milk and add fruit/veg.

He gave up drinking milk altogether by about 10-11months and I was concerned about it but not a lot I could do as he rejected it. (Would still have it in food)

He has always been very healthy with good growth and is now a very lively 3yr old. To this day he will not drink milk or any milky drink (tried milk shakes, hot chocolate) he just doesn't like it. He does however have loads of cheese and yoghurt.

ray81

I was going to suggest that you always offer milk first, and just give the solids as a taster after the milk feed. As your DC is only just six months the vast majority of her calories must come from milk.

Looking at your routine, I'd say that by offering solids at 9am you will be taking away her apetite for milk at 10am, that's just my feeling looking at it.

At the six month point I was following GF which is not that different to what you're doing anyway, but the morning solids would be brought back to about 7.45 after a milk feed at 7am. Full milk feed around 10.45-11.00ish followed by solids again. Milk feed at 2.30 ish, solid feed at 5.00pm and milk feed at 6.30 for bed 7pm. This is roughly how I remember it.

The period from six to nine months is quite rapid in terms of solids, by nine months we were on three meals per day plus milk, but most of my DD's calories were coming from food by then, with milk feeds just at 2.30pm and 6.30pm by age one we'd dropped the pm milk and just milk at night.