Why is she fighting me ????

[livysmum]

Hello. first time mum and my 17 week old Olivia is a fighter.
We're on the Aptimel 2nd stage milk and she refused water so we now give her 5oz of water with 1.5oz of heinz baby juice and she takes that BUT NOW when she rus her eyes and been up for like 2 hours she'll only fall asleep on one of them but shes sucks for 5-10 seconds, crys for 30 over and over, and then i think shes wants the milk so i try the milk and she'll not have it, or the dummy so back to juice then milk....you see where i'm going its a big circle.. then when i lay her down she stops and looks like shes going to sleep then 2 mins later shes crying and the milk/juice/dummy process happens again like 3-4 times. I dont know if its her gums or over tired but surely only up for 2 hours cant be over tired...can it? Why is she doing this? Has anyone else had this before? any tips or tricks??

I think you need to decide what you're offering, and offer only that. It's not unusual for a young baby to fuss when they feed, but part of the reason she's fussing may be because you keep changing what you're giving her.

She doesn't need extra water, so really I'd stop giving her anything other than milk - apart from anything else, giving her fruit juice now may mean she won't drink anything other than juice when she's older. Plus juice doesn't have any nutritional value, but will be filling her up so she doesn't have room for her milk. It may be too acidic for her tummy, which may well be exacerbating the problem with feeding her.

At 17 weeks she could well be over-tired, they do need an awful lot of sleep at that age! Maybe feeding her a little earlier would help, so that she's not quite so tired when she does feed?

lots of babies get tired after being awake for 1.5 or 2 hours. very normal. no need for the juice, or even the water unless it's really really hot. assume you're in the UK? so no need.

Thank you both for the input
shes bottle fed now, and if we dont give her anythign else she gets constipated. I breastfed for 6 weeks and it got too much she was on every 1.5 hours and i was tearful all the time.. i wish i could have kept on, but there was no way.
how do i know wether to give her juice or milk?? but i can see your point about her getting fussy over me trying to give her one then the other.
DO you think that if i just tried like flavoured water from the shops that would be ok?? its just she wont take plain water.
and if i do take the juie away, how will i get her to drink the water without another fight?

I doubt she's thirsty if she doesn't want milk tbh. Perhaps she is just getting more restless and easily overtired as she becomes more aware of her surroundings. Milk shopudl continue to be her primary source of nutrition until 6 months , then gradually she'll reduce her milk intake as she takes solids. She's too young to expect her to take much plain water but if you continue to offer her sweetened versions - be they baby juice, diluted furit juice, flavoured water etc - that is all she will get used to and it may affect her teeth in the long run as well as providing empty calories which codul affect her milk intake. Was she similar on the first stage milk , could you revert to that if not.

My 15 week old is breastfed. And he behaves the way you describe when he gets overtired. He wants the comfort of the boob (in your case the bottle) but cannot settle on it. So cries, then tries again, and cries, etc. His body goes all rigid and his movements more frantic. Could possibly be pre-teething as well.

At this point, I just pop him into a sling or a buggy and see if that settles him better.

Don't give her flavoured water, most brands are full of artificial sweeteners and all kinds of nasties that you don't want to pump into a tiny baby. Persist with plain water, if she's thirsty she will take it - but she shouldn't really need it.

If she's getting constipated, maybe try a change of formula; some of them do have that effect on babies. You don't need to use second-stage milk; if she was OK on first stage then maybe it would be worth going back onto that again.