vry fussy baby while feeding please help!

[alfiesmummyxx]

my baby is 12 weeks old now and since he was about 6 weeks he became very fussy with his bottle, i switched to dr brown bottles which helped a bit, but for the past 4 weeks he will start the feed ok take an oz or 2 then the fussing start..he squirms arches his back hits the bottle out the way cry and goes on and on, i've tried burping him every oz before the fussing starts, he burps well but then its impossible to get him to latch on again, the only way i can finish the feed is by lying him on his changing mat propping his head up with a pillow then he takes it like an angle! the docs said he has silent relfux and put him in ranitine i said about his fussy feeding and they just said to go with it and ride it out but i dont feel it is refux and dont like the idea of keeping a baby so young on meds. its really getting to me that i havent been able to hold my little baby while being fed i feel like a bad mum and that we're missing out on bonding, anybody else experienced this?

TBH it does sound like reflux and you're very lucky that your doc has picked up on it. Most are cluless about it!
My DD was on 3 lots of meds at one point to control her pain.
Ranitidine tries to neutralise the acid but to be honest it never really worked with DD. The best for her was Omeprazole which stops the body producing acid in the first place. Only then could I hold DD and feed her without the fighting and back arching (and she was BF, it was blooming hard till then!)
She's now 10m old and thriving, only been on Omeprazole since 7m and now on a lower dose hoping to phase out altogether soon.
I thought lots about the meds, but seeing my baby girl in such pain made the decision for me, and in hindsight it was the right one!
Also look for a Pollywog nursing pillow, they are great as keep baby at an elevated angle yet you still get the closeness.
Hope this helps.

thanks for your reply, i'll carry on with meds and see how we go! i managed to do one bottle today holding him, just is horrible seeing him in pain feeding time should be enjoyable poor thing! i've got is 12 week jabs tomorrow i'll get them to review his meds and maybe try something different when did you LO start the omeprazole and i will def purchase a nursing pillow! welldone for carring on breast feeding unfortantally i had lots of probs with it and milk supply got to low so stopped expressing when he was 4 weeks old. thanks for your adive :)

My DS did exactly this too - really stressful for the both of us. The thing that worked for us was comfort milk and infant gaviscon, basically just made the milk alot thicker so he could take it more calmly/slowly. Perhaps try that if tha ranitidine doens't help x

he was on comfort milk but changed back to normal as we first got prescribe gavison and made it too thick for my LO, your right is very stressfull and feel envious when i go to my baby group and see other mums feeding their babies so calmly :( got the docs tomorrow so see what they say but they weren't much help! nice to know that me and my DS aren't the only ones going through this xx

If your docs aren't willing to do any more (and some won't as it's outside their comfort zone) ask for a paed referal.
Might also be worth thinking about trialing an allergenic formula, my DD is intollerant to cows milk protein, soya even through breastmilk. Maybe wait till the meds are sorted but if the don't sort out all the symptoms it's worth thinking about.
Check out the reflux support thread in this section.

Defo reflux,dd 6wks has it and was on gaviscon dom peidone and ranatidine but just swapped to omeprazole which is much better,i think they feel pain when drinking as their gullets are literally sore,the medication is important as the acis can burn the osophegus and cause more pain,I agree about the paedeatric referal.Prop the cot up,and hold him upright to feed and for around 30 mins afterwards.good luck

Also worth looking for an AR sleep wedge if settling to sleep becomes a problem. My dd never slept for more than 20m after 3 weeks untill we got this at 8 weeks old!

thanks for replys got docs at 1.30 so shall let you all know how it goes, i asked about allergies but they said where hes putting weight on and 'thriving' that it proberly isn't. thankfully his sleep hasn't been effected and is sleeping 10 hours at night, its usally naps after feeds that can be hard am propping matress up which seems to help! feel so sorry for the lil thing wish they could tell us whats wtong