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Infant feeding

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

Has anyone been through feeding aversion with BF baby and come out the other side?

9 replies

ilovetosleep · 11/08/2014 13:05

Or maybe its just a very severe case of distracted baby, but my instincts tell me otherwise :( I've posted about this before so apologies, I'm feeling a little less hysterical about it now having started on anti depressants for pnd last week.

He's 17 weeks, and it started at 13 weeks old, so been going on a month now.

He point blank refuses to feed if he's awake. He rolls away from me and arches his back away in the opposite direction. He doesn't get particularly upset, unless I push it, but if he's crying already ( and I think ooh he could be hungry) he cries even more and gets quite distressed. I feel like he's afraid of me.

I can feed him just as he wakes from a nap but leave it more than a second and he realises he's awake and won't go near me.

I have managed to feed him lying down on occasion, but not side by side, just dangling from above (looks bizarre).

Other than that, he loves his bedtime feed and has 3 feeds in the night.

He is being treated for reflux, DR thinks he has a pain association but thought it would resolve itself much quicker than it has. I have stopped dairy for 3 weeks but accidentally ate some last week, didn't notice a huge difference tbh.

He is a very alert, big and happy baby so no body is concerned except for me. I had a beautiful BF relationship with DC1 and this is making me so sad.

He is so alert that he is constantly straining his neck around to see what is going on, which is why I thought it was a distraction thing, but he won't even latch on or feed in a dark room, emulating night times. It gets worse and worse the more tired he gets.

Oh and he also has a TT, regrown after 2 snips already.

I'd like to say he's a generally happy baby, but he's becoming increasingly grumpy these last few days.

Beginning to despair...

OP posts:
ilovetosleep · 11/08/2014 13:08

I thought I'd post how often he does feed, in case it really is nothing to worry about. I know some babies go 4 hours between feeds, I just find it really hard to get my head around considering he was every 2 hours until this started.

So last 24 hours were like this:
8am fed to sleep from really drowsy being rocked.
11am fed on waking from nap, very small on off feed
1.30 fed on waking from nap, first good feed of the day
5pm fed in bed dangling over him!
7.30pm good bedtime feed both sides
11.30pm feed
2.30am feed
4am feed
6am very very small feed.

It's probably enough, but none of the feeds are particularly wanted and definitely not requested from him. he seems totally not bothered :(

OP posts:
GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 12/08/2014 08:09

My dd was very much like this! Would only feed if basically asleep and never if out. It's terribly limiting! I think it might just be a personality thing- there was always something more interesting to look at! If I was feeding her and I coughed, she would get distracted and that would be the end. But she always gained weight well. As long as you feel you can't is getting enough and isn't getting dehydrated there is nothing to worry about. It is really hard though!

GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 12/08/2014 08:10

*baby

Highlove · 12/08/2014 09:08

My 5mo is like this. She's also being treated for reflux and it's helped a bit. I think she is very slowly growing out of it and tends to 'give in' and feed sooner than she used to, but it's still really frustrating. Mornings are our worst time - she will do a couple of minutes on waking - one side only, certainly won't drain it - and won't take any more. I keep offering and she gets cross. But she also gets increasingly grumpy which I think is hunger. She'll usually now take a decent feed just before her nap whereas it used to sometimes take till lunchtime. I generally find it gets easier as the day progresses now.

She's also worse when she's out but I've tried not to let it stop us doing stuff - she'll take enough to take the edge of her hunger and has big feeds at bedtime and overnight. She's gaining weight ok now so I am just learning to live with it and not fight her about it. So sorry no advice here, just empathy and optimism they grow out if it eventually!

Highlove · 12/08/2014 09:09

How is his weight gain?

ilovetosleep · 12/08/2014 19:32

Thanks for the replies, glad to hear I'm not the only one but sorry you are going through similar, highlove! It's exhausting isn't it?

Guybrush did your dd grow out of it? I am hoping its just a phase, I am getting quite fed up with it. We did have a minor breakthrough today when he fed himself to sleep from wide awake, rather than getting totally over tired and hysterical and refusing to feed at all until waking.

Just had him weighed and he is following his centile (between 75 and 91). So no one is worried apart from me, obviously.

OP posts:
Syra · 10/06/2020 19:08

@ilovetosleep sorry I know this an old thread but I’m in the same position and I’m feeling very desperate. My son is 13 weeks old and has been doing exactly what you described above for around 3 weeks now. I’m at breaking point. I feel like he hates feeding and I can only get him to feed when he’s woken from a nap or in the middle of the night. Any other time he wails and pulls away and will only feed if I bounce and walk at the same time. I’m so tired!

Did you ever manage to resolve this?

Sak110 · 04/02/2024 13:26

Currently going through this exact thing. Any tips? Please tell me it gets easier.

Hazzyyy · 04/02/2024 18:48

Also going through a feeding aversion too!!!

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