Problems with daytime FF

[Tilly4]

My 15 week old DS has recently started refusing daytime feeds. During the night he will take his bottle no problem but during the day he pushes the teet out with his tongue.
I know this sounds as if he is not ready for a feed but I am only feeding when he asks for it rather than watching the clock. Yesterday my mother-in-law and I had a nightmare three hours of relentless crying from DS. Each time we offered him a bottle he pushed it away until eventually he took it and was then as happy as Larry!
We have been like this for about a couple if weeks and I do try hard to get him to accept his bottle but sometimes I feel I am almost force feeding him.

My DD was like this too from around this age and the only thing that worked was changing the teats to one with a higher flow so that she didn't have to work as hard to get the milk. She still was a bit of a fusspot with some of her bottles until we started weaning and dropping bottles in favour of food.

Thanks for that. I am starting to think we'll be weaning him sooner rather than later although I realise he is still a bit young yet. He watches me intently when I'm eating my breakfast or lunch with a kind of "why can't I have that" look on his face. We have changed the teets and I don't think it is that as he rejects the teet before he's even tried to suck on it.
I have resigned myself to the fact that a good nights sleep is only going to happen when I start to wean him even though some smug colleagues think he should be sleeping through already.

One thing you might try is deliberately not persisting with the bottle when he has shown he's not interested - you could inadvertently 'wind him up' by continuing to try him again and again.

Keeping feeding relaxed and on his terms is likely to make things easier.

He's very young for solid food. Babies will watch you whatever you do - driving, making a phone call, posting on mumsnet :) - it does not mean they want to do things themselves and he deffo will not be thinking 'why can't I eat breakfast?'...brain and understanding are nowhere near able to compute in that way. Solid food does not = going through the night, either.

Hope things feel easier for you soon.

Thanks tiktok. I have tried many times to not persist with trying to get a feed down him but this culminated yesterday with three hours of crying and not being able to calm him down. We tried a feed first, then nappy, tried to rock him to sleep, played with him and offered him feeds at fairly spaced out intervals. Finally he decided to take the feed and was suddenly a different baby leading us to the conclusion that he was hungry all along. It was all very frustrating and very upsetting.

What happens when he does feed?

I only ask because ds went on nursing strike at a similar age as he had silent reflux. He had painful wind, would bring up small amounts in between feeds wriggling and squirming etc. not your typical reflux (it carried on until toddlerhood - was a problem with excess acid).

I weaned my DS at 17 weeks, he was also showing an interest to the extent of grabbing the nectarine i was eating, stuffing it in his mouth and sucking on it as if his life depended on it. 17 weeks is the earliest I've seen advised for weaning, not long til you get there. In the meantime, try changing the teat see if this helps.

I was going to suggest reflux too. DD started refusing a bottle while screaming. We sometimes managed to get her to take water then do a sneaky swap to the milk bottle.

I think we swapped to a different feed but eventually had to go to the GP for meds.

Thanks guys for taking an interest and posting it is very much appreciated. Once he does start feeding he is fine and whilst he doesn't polish his feed off on every occasion he doesn't seem in any discomfort during or after feeding. He does get quite a bit of wind though which doesn't always come out of the top end! I have blamed my partner many a night for DS's trumps!

Could he have a sore mouth or throat? Something physical that's bothering him right now?

I did wonder if it was because he is starting to get some teeth. You can clearly see the front teeth in his top gums even though they have not yet erupted.

When my ds3 was around that age he went through a phase where he wouldn't take his bottle unless it was in a darkened room. Don't know why and it passed after a few weeks. My HV was sure there was something wrong, like teats, but like your LO he took his night feeds no bother. For those few weeks I just took him to his room (had a blackout blind) for his feeds. A pain but it worked for the short time he was like this. Might be worth a try if you don't think there's any other probs (teats or reflux).

Thanks crackers. My partner and I did discuss that strategy but felt we were maybe pandering too much to a whim but I will give it a go.

Could he have thrush or something in his mouth which makes it a bit sore to suck on the teat?

You should rule out anything physical to be sure. I checked with our GP to rule out thrush, teething and ear infection or a sore throat. Sounds like it could be teeth?