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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

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Original poster

Dentinox

21 replies

NoTeaForMe · 17/01/2011 21:24

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of using this? My 13 week old baby is screaming at her night time feed and the health visitor would like us to try a different colic type medicine before looking into anything else ie reflux. I'm really looking for a magical cure now!!

It says on the box to give it with or after a feed, I'm guessing that breast feeding I can give it as I'm switching sides? She has 2 bottles a day, do you think I'll be able to give it before a bottle or does it really have to be with/after? I doubt she'll take anything after as she'll be full and once she's started a bottle she hates me trying to stop her especially the one at bedtime!

Any advice?

OP posts:

thisisyesterday · 17/01/2011 21:28

tbh dentinox, infacol, gripe water etc have had lots of blind tests done on them, and none have been shown to be any more effective than plain water

have you tried colief? that may help.

if you are worried about her then see a GP.

what is her routine? is it only this nighttime feed she screams at? if so i would say it isn't colic, and it isn't reflux
most babies grow out of colic by around 12 weeks, and it is something that lasts for hours and hours a day.
reflux would be constant, not just for a feed during the evening

what else is different? is it a formula feed? perhaps that is upsetting her?

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 17/01/2011 21:49

My baby has 2 formula feeds a day. The second feed of the day and the one at bedtime (7ish) she starts to get fussy from around 4 onwards and quite often wants to feed for a long time at that time or snack on and off for a few hours (this had stopped for a few weeks but now seems back in full force!)
She has a bath before bed which she really enjoys and then we put her in her sleeping bag and give her a bottle, however as soon as we sit down to give her the bottle she starts screaming and arching her back and she won't take it. She then takes it fine for a bit and then screams again.
She used to have about 5 fl oz and tonight she has taken 3 and hasn't had more than 4 at a time in about a week. She takes the bottle much better in the day, took 5 fl oz today absolutely fine but back to the same screaming tonight. She has been having this formula for about 5 weeks now with no problems....surely it can't suddenly be upsetting her tummy?
For the past couple of weeks she has been waking up 3 times in the night when she had only been waking up once.
I'm up for any advice!!

OP posts:

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 17/01/2011 22:27

Any at all?!

OP posts:

moaningminniewhingesagain · 17/01/2011 22:35

The crying/snacking in the evening sounds like normal growth spurt type behaviour really, as does the increase in night waking. I would try offering more feeds when she is crying, as frequent feeding will help your supply to increase in line with her needs.

Hopefully it will only last a few days or so.Does she maybe prefer the breastfeeds, does she fight those too? The breastmilk will be gentler on her tummy than the formula, but I agree that the formula is unlikely to suddenly cause tummy ache.

Only other suggestion - what kind of teats are you using - sometimes they get frustrated with a slow flowing bottle and want to move up to a faster teat, but IIRC it is best to stick to newborn teats when mixed feeding as a faster teat will be quicker flowing than boobs, IYKWIM

tiktok · 18/01/2011 09:02

Sounds as if she wants a breastfeed to help her settle and wind down for the night....doesn't sound like colic, sorry.

This would be normal behaviour in a baby.

Could you just ditch the bottle at that time and breastfeed her instead?

What do you think?

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 09:16

I've wondered about doing that! Should I give her that bottle at her afternoon feed or the first time she wakes in the night instead? I don't want to take the bottle away completely, we were looking at upping them!
Last night she screamed as normal for her bedtime feed and then calmed down, took 3fl oz and fell asleep. She then woke at 11pm and my husband gave her a bottle so I could sleep and she took the whole lot (6 fl oz!) , no fuss at all!!
Why would she suddenly decide she wants to be breastfed at that time? She's been fine for the last 5 or so weeks!!
Please help, it's making the bedtime such a horrible time when it was so lovely!
She's also waking every 3 hours for a feed now which she hasn't done for a while! I thought it was partly because she wasn't taking her bedtime bottle but she took it all at 11pm and still woke every 3 hours!

Help!

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HappyAsASandboy · 18/01/2011 09:20

I'm breast feeding, but I give the occasional bottle of EBM in the hope that my babies will take a bottle from my Mum on the odd occasion I need to leave them with her. My daughter will take a bottle with no hassle, but my son fusses and fights a bottle if he is either not very very hungry or if he is tired.

If your daughter is anything like my son, the last feed of the day would be better from the breast than a bottle. Or could you give a bottle feed before her bath (when she might be less tired) and then just give her a top up from the breast to settle her before bed?

Hope you work it out

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 09:24

What I'm struggling to understand though is that we've given her a bottle at this time for quite a while now-5 weeks or so. Why would she now be fussy?!

OP posts:

tiktok · 18/01/2011 09:24

You ask why she would change from accepting something to not accepting something - well, that's easy enough :) Babies change. They become more sure of what they like and what they don't like, and she may like the closeness and comfort of a breastfeed at times when she is tired and ready for rest and sleep.

You could give the same bottle at another time - it sounds like hard work to do anything else, and upsetting for her.

It's possible the distressing bedtimes are making her less likely to settle herself to sleep when she wakes at night, although 3 hourly waking is normal at this age.

It's often worthwhile to go with the flow and see if overall everyone is happier, and the flow certainly sounds like a bedtime breastfeed from what you say :)

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 09:41

Ok, I'll breastfeed tonights bedtime and see how that goes!

Do you think I should give the bottle at the afternoon feed instead or the first time she wakes in the night (I guess the only downside of this is that she will hopefully eventually start sleeping a bit longer again and she'll drop that feed, although by then maybe there'll be more bottle feeds anyway as we were looking at upping them but wanted to have her settled again before we did that!) I know my husband will be disappointed to have that feed taken away as he has liked that time with her, and given me a break.

We really feel like we've taken a few steps back and we no longer now what we're doing!

Thanks for your help so far!

OP posts:

tiktok · 18/01/2011 09:47

NoTea - it's only a 'few steps back' if you equate parenting and baby care as a 'progression' to full bottle feeding. If you regard 'progression' as confidence in your willingness to adapt to the changing needs of your growing baby, and an appropriate response to these needs, then it's not :) :)

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 09:59

Thanks tiktok , we weren't thinking of the progression to full bottle feeding, just understanding her and getting settled. We thought we were getting there and the. She changes!! I guess we need to get used to that hey?!

When do you think I should change the bedtime bottle to? Her aftenoon feed maybe? We could do the next time she wakes but she'll hopefully stop waking at 11ish and go back to only waking at 3-4ish! Hmm....

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tiktok · 18/01/2011 11:12

Judgment call as to when the second bottle is offered, NoTea. Too close to the first one and you may impact on your breastmilk supply, so over to you :)

thisisyesterday · 18/01/2011 11:43

notea, why do you want to up the bottle feeds?

you say you don't want to move to completely bottle feeding her, but you do need to know that the more bottles you give the less milk your body will produce, so if you want to continue breastfeeding then it may be worthwhile sticking to the 2 formula feeds for the time being.

it doesn't matter which ones you swap I don't think, although personally I would do formula in the day simply because it's so much easier to breastfeed at night rather than prepare a bottle!

I hope she is more settled tonight, do update and let us know :-)

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 12:04

Sorry, we do want to move to full bottle feeding, though now shockingly realise I'm in no rush to do this! ( I had many problems at the beginning and was taking it day by day, now suddenly we're at 3 months! I know it's not exclusive breastfeeding but wouldn't have been able to carry on if it wasn't for formula!)

We would like to up the formula gradually and I definitely won't be breastfeeding for months and months more I don't think. Getting to 6 months with some breastfeeding is my absolute maximum but not counting on getting there!

OP posts:

thisisyesterday · 18/01/2011 12:36

ahh ok i understand now! lol
you've done well, it's amazing how time flies with a new baby isn't it.

think of the money you'll save if you breastfeed (even partially) to a year though!
I remember being really shocked when we switched to formula with ds1 at how expensive it is

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 18/01/2011 22:01

Well I followed advice and breastfed her instead of giving her a bottle. She took it very calmly and fine....however she has just fed from 7.30 til now with two 10 minute breaks! So now I'm sore! She better sleep through!! As she has been feeding every 3 hours the last week or so does this mean she will wake up to be fed in half an hour or will it not work like that?....please tell me she'll sleep longer than half an hour!!

OP posts:

FrozenNorthPole · 18/01/2011 23:27

It's hard, isn't it? It very very much sounds like a combination of a growth spurt and baby becoming a bit more alert / with it and so making her (ever!) changing wishes known. The cluster-feeding is a prime indication of a growth spurt (the only other thing I've found is that if they're a bit under the weather with a cold or similar they might comfort nurse for longer periods). Whilst I can't guarantee when she'll next wake up, what I CAN guarantee is that this will pass soon, faster than you can imagine right now when you are sleep deprived and anxious. Babies are notoriously hard to get on a dependable schedule simply because they weren't designed to be on one until later on in life - to some extent, with DD2, I've tried to stop myself looking at the clock where possible. It's such a period of incredible flux, isn't it? Hang in there - it can feel like two steps forward and one step back at times

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 19/01/2011 10:33

Well, she slept longer than half an hour! She fell asleep at 10 and woke at 1 for a feed, 3 hours later! My husband gave her a bottle and she then slept til 5.30 much better!

I can't do that every night though-too sore and my whole evening was sat in my bedroom feeding her!!

OP posts:

Original poster

NoTeaForMe · 20/01/2011 08:29

Back on the subject of dentinox....does anyone know if it's like infacol so it needs to build up in their system or should I just give it the couple of late afternoon/evening feeds?

Thanks

OP posts:

tiktok · 20/01/2011 09:22

NoTea - there is likely to be a phone no. on the dentinox website or the packaging of the product where you can call for advice.

(Why are you in the bedroom all evening feeding her? Boring :) Would you not feed her downstairs? )

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