3 month old not interested in feeding - help please....

[Hangster]

My 3 month old is bottle fed and for the past month has been a nightmare to feed. He is just not interested and it takes between 40 mins to an hour to do one feed
Have spoken to HV and GP but as he is gaining weight they have just said to carry on...I am at the end of my tether as I also have an almost 3 year old running around. It has got to the stage where I have to be at home for feeds which means restricted time out of the house!

I have tried demand feeding (he will only take 60 mls every 4 hours) and so I end up sitting for hours encouraging him to feed leading to tired mum, tired baby and bored toddler.

I bf my first one so not sure what I should be doing with this one feedwise...all the people I know that have bottle fed have not had this problem.

Any help gratefully received!

Hi Gina, good news ds2 put on weight ! It must be the "magic" milk. He has only been taking around 600mls per day so it really is a miracle - HV even asked how I was coping seeing as I have ds1 to look after as well - wonders will never cease! Let's hope that ds2 continues to gain weight.

When DS2 was prescribed gaviscon we were told to mix it in with the milk. You have to shake the bottle really well (like making a cocktail) to get it to mix in - it turns the milk thick and gloopy so you just have to make sure there is actually milk coming through the teat as it can occasionally get blocked. Not ideal when you are already having feeding issues but all I did was to get the next size teat (bigger/more holes) so that the milk with gaviscon mixed in is still able to flow through. Was using size 4 avent teats (6 months plus) before changing over to Nuk 0-6 months latex teats with large feed hole (changed to nuk as ds2 seemed to prefer them when he was in hospital). Both of these seemed to let the milk mixed with gaviscon flow normally.

How long has your dd been on the gaviscon? I would give it a week before going back to the gp/paed.

Not sure on the sucking issue, it does seem strange that she is able to suck in her sleep and not when she is awake...DS2 has periods of "weak" sucking, DH and I have taken to calling it his pretend sucking. This used to be an issue when we were using avent but hasn't been so much of an issue since we swapped over to latex nuk teats. Do you wake your dd up for her night feed at 11? If you do why not try just lifting her out of her cot so she is still sleeping and gently easing the bottle into her mouth? That's what I do with ds2 at his 10:30pm feed. I don't actually wake him up at all, just lift him out of his cot and ease the bottle into his mouth, he then just starts sucking and will push out the teat when he has had enough. I just then burp him, quietly change his nappy (with the help of the nightlight) without waking him and pop him back in his cot. The whole feed is done via a night light so it is virtually dark. He still doesn't drink much milk but as least there is no major crying, it's the calmest feed of the day! Sorry I can't be of more help on the weak sucking thing..

Got to go as DH wants the laptop.

Have a good night.
x

Thats great - had my fingers crossed for you all! I really don't know how you cope with a toddler too, i'm just about coping with dd1 who is 7 and half. She is on half term this week and has verbal Diarrhoea! I don't know what has got into her! She won't stop talking!

I rang HV today to ask about the Gaviscon and she suggested i give it to her via the bottle,as giving it 20-30 mins before was distressing her too much. I was advised to make the bottle and to get it to a good temperature then add the Gaviscon and give it a good shake. Which seems to be disolving.

As for teats i never got on with Avent teats infact they were the worst ones. I found she prefered flat teats e.g. orthodontic. I was using mam teats at first but found that fast flow wasn't doing the trick and unfortunately they don't have a variable flow. Mothercare do an orthodontic teat for standard neck bottles which were the last ones i tried and have been the best ones. I think the nuk teats are a similar shape. flat and not so round! When the feeds where taking so long and she was falling asleep from being so tired of sucking, i enhanced the whole in the teat. So the milk is coming out quite easily.

DD has been on the Gaviscon since monday afternoon. When i spoke to HV today she said it can take up to a week for the indegestion to settle down. I should say there is a slight difference.

I'm not waking dd for night feed any more. HV advised that we try the new timetable for a week and to see the weight gain on monday. The night feed use to be the less traumatic feed of the day but she didn't really drink much of it. She prefered to sleep instead. Her last feed now is between 8-9pm. The morning feed is alot better too, she takes the first 4oz with no problem it's the rest which is a struggle.

Going back to the sucking issue, dd i suppose has a weak suck too. Reading what you wrote about ds2 sounds very similar. When the teat is in her mouth she seems to stroke the teat rather than get a grip and suck, but this only happens when she is awake. As she is falling asleep she begins to suck on it. So confusing.

Anyway going to have an early night tonight - so tired all i've done is feed all day!

Hope tomorrow will be better than today.

xxx

Hi, sorry for the lack of news, have been caught up in getting renewels etc done on insurance and other boring matters.

Gina - how is everything going with dd2? Has the gaviscon helped and how is her weight? Hope you managed half term with dd1 ok. DS1 was on half term from his pre-school the past 2 weeks - he finally went back this morning!

We took ds2 to see the private paed yesterday morning and he too was concerned with the lack of volume he is taking. Although he gained weight last week on the infatrini the paed is concerned about liver and kidney having too much salt as ds2 isn't taking extra water?? bloods are due to be done next monday but in the meantime he wants us to carry on but also try to get him to drink more water (much easier said than done). It great to be finally listened to properly and the paed agreed that it is a concern although he couldn't offer any explanations at present, we'll just have to wait and see. Funny how it takes going private to be listened to properly. As well as all this we do have follow up appointments at the local hospital with the dietician and another paed so things are moving in the right direction.

Gina - let me know how things are going. I have to go as need to prepare lunch before going to pick up ds1.

Speak soon.
x

Hi Hangster so sorry i haven't posted but i have had the worst week ever.

How is ds2? Have you had the private appointment yet and any improvement?

Last tuesday dd2 started refusing feeds and there was no way i could get her to feed. She would refuse milk and solids.

Went to A&E on Wednesday and was told that she probably had some sort of virual bug and to just give fluids.

Thursday was a struggle but we got there in the end.

Friday morning DD2 was lying in her cot lifeless. Lips were dry and her muscle tone was very weak.

Took her to see the doc and was told to go to the hospital as she was very dehydrated and that they would have to put her on a drip. They also wanted a urine sample so we were syringing fluids into her. No urine though.

Got to the hospital and was seen straight away.

Was told after all this that dd2 has silent reflux and because it has been left untreated with medication that chances were that her osephagus was ulcerated and sore therefore not wanting to feed.

She is now on ranitidine and is doing so much better. I can't beleive the difference she actually reaches out for her milk. This morning she had 15oz of milk and a rusk in the space of 3 hours.

I can't beleive when i went to the doc when she was 2 months old worried about her feeding and that i didn't think there was anything majorly wrong but something was underlining her not wanting her to feed, i was sent home made to feel like a nyrotic mother.

When i went to see the health visitor yesterday she was speechless and looked like she was going to cry. She kept on apologising and wishing she had done more.

It breaks my heart that she has been suffering all this time when something could have been done about it 3 and half months ago. I've always beleived in my intuition and wasn't going to beleive that she was a bad feeder and that was it.

There is so much more that happened but my head is still spinning from last week and i thought i would just fill you in briefly as to what has been going on.

Please let me know the latest on your side.

xxx

Gina - what a terrible time you've had. I've sent you a CAT. Would love to talk to you one on one.

xx

Hi hangster - thank you - i'm all a bit new to this so only just found out what CAT meant. Still not sure where to find it.

Here is my email address if you can email me [email protected] would also like to talk i'm sure we can support each other through all this!

xxx

Gina - just sent you an email.

xx

hello all
i have a just 4month old girl and she has recently taken to squirming and crying when we try to bottle feed her. before then she has been fine. seems to coincide with teething, but hard to know sometimes what's causing the problem. has been very stressful as i was worried she wasn't drinking enough milk. my husband came up with a solution, putting her in her baby bjorn chair. she calms right down and drinks fine. am worried it may not be good for her to be in this position, but she is quite upright and i wind her immediately afterwards..but it is LITERALLY the only way she wants to feed right now! anyone else experienced this? guess it's a phase she's going through..but then again i guess onceshe starts solids she'll be sitting in a chair then, so it's just happened a little prematurely?!
thanks x

Don't know if anyone may still notice this thread but I was searching for similar cases to my baby's poor feeding, and she seems to have exactly the same symptoms as that of Gina 1981's baby... She is now 5 and a half months old and has never been a great feeder, starting to reject my breast at 3 months. She would only go for a few minutes each side then cry and wouldn't take more. NHS doctor kept saying everything's fine - she's probably taking enough very fast - so went to see private paed who suspected oesophagitus and prescribed ranitadine. That day she started taking ebm from a bottle - don't think it was the ranidtadine as it couldn't have acted that fast. She was fine for a few days so stopped the ranitadine. Couldn't keep up with her with pumping so starting giving her formula. We have just returned from a month long trip to Australia and Hong Kong which was exhausting as her feeding was erratic. She would range from 40 ml - 200 ml per feed. Gave her the ranitadine again for a week but it didn't work. By the last week of our holiday she was drinking fine, around 160 - 200 ml per feed. We have just got back home for a week, and at first she didn't seem too bad, even downing 250 ml in one feed one morning. Since then it's all downhill again, and for the last few days have not taken more than 600 ml in a whole day (today she ony ly took 70 ml then 80 ml then 130 ml so far), and a couple of times even regurgitated what looks like a whole feed back up. Saw doctor in Australia too who said she looked fine,and maybe it was the travel and the heat.

Anyway, saw the health vistor today who said pretty much the same thing, her weight gain is steady on the 9th percentile. I just don't know why she has these periodic hunger strikes and wonder if it's reflux again (she doesn't cry when lying flat for sleeping or playing, only halfway through the bottle). It's really distressing, and hv says not to start solids until she has settled back into her milk feeds, but don't know when that would happen.... She doesn't like to take water either.

This is probably more a rant than anything, but if anyone has any advice or similar story to share I would feel much better....

Hi Werdna,

Just to say you are not alone! My LO, who is now nearly 7 months, has been a bit of nightmare feeder since very young. It got to the stage where he would take 30ml then scream for up to an hour, dropped from 91st centile to 50th centile (although never lost weight, was just gaing 1oz a week or so) and I was pushed between GP and HV who both told me different things.

We ended up seeing a paedeatrician who prescribed Ranitadine and Domperidone which really helped, the screaming stopped and he started taking more milk. We also started weaning a couple of months ago.

I've kind of got used to it by now though, he will have a week where he'll have 1000ml milk a day plus 3 good meals of solids, then he'll have a week where each feed is a struggle and he'll have 400ml of milk and 2 mouthfuls of food! It does upset me at times but I try to just accept that this is how he is and no amount of me forcing him is going to help. I feed him in a 4 hour routine and have a time limit of half an hour for him to have the bottle. If after this time he's still fussing, only had 30ml I just stop and wait til the next feed.

It is very hard, you never imagine your baby will not want to feed and I do get pangs of envy when I'm out with friends and their babies sit calmly and drain a 250ml bottle while I have to contend with a wriggling, shouting baby who takes 50ml.

I do find that he will take a decentish feed when asleep so if he's having a particularly bad patch and I'm worried he's dehydrated then I just do his feeds when he's asleep, not ideal but needs must! He is developing normally and a happy little boy so I just try to go with the flow..........

Also, what reassured me was having his head circumference and length measured - he is on same percentile as birth so I'm happy he's growing well just a little bit skinny!

Thanks JoandMax! It's good to hear from you. You must have had a distressing time with your LO, at least he seems to be developing normally. Sometimes at really bad feeds I would try to feed my girl with a syringe but she hates it so I am kind of resigned to letting her feed little now. She only took 90 ml just now so we are heading for a 400 ml day today... Fed her in the middle of the night last night too (she usually sleeps through - even if she only had 40 ml!) and took 100 ml. I have to wake her up though - when she is asleep she won't suck! It's so exhausting - each feed lasts about 45 minutes (I give her half an hour to let her work up a second wind)The worst feed of the day is the 11 pm one when sheis so tired.... But like your son she is generally healthy looking and happy and actually looks quite chubby although she is only on the 9th percentile.... as at birth. Is your son still on the ranitadine and Domperidone (I thought the latter was for increasing breast milk) supply??) Do you give it to him periodically during a bad patch or not at all anymore? I am thinking of giving my daughter some tonight from the leftover medication the paediatrician gave me 2 months ago (the doctor in Australia said I could if 'I felt like it'!) bt dont know if it works if I don't give it to her as a course but only a couple of days at a time...

Hi Werdna,

I stopped giving him the domperidone at 6 months as it was making him have lots of dirty nappies! It basically works by making your stomach move things along more regularly so should stop any feelings of nausea or bloatedness which could of been a reason why he wasn't feeding.

I sill give the ranitadine to him 3 times a day, he has 4 bottles and 3 meals now and sometime I will feed him about 1am (frustratingly he will normally take 200ml then, why not during the day?!!!). I am thinking of stopping, or at least cutting the ranitadine down as he has solid food before milk for 4 of his bottles so hoping that will help. Although he also has days where he refuses any solids too, so confusing! I think the ranitadine is supposed to take a few days to work so you could try it for a week and see if any improvement?

It is hard but I am finally beginning to not get so stressed about it, like your LO they are happy so if there was something really wrong they wouldn't be like that.

I just think they must have very efficient internal systems and use every calorie they eat so don't need any excess, and the types who when older will not eat through stress or upset. My husband is very like that though, I ask him when he gets home from work if he has eaten that day and he frequently hasn't or can't remember........ me, I'm planning my lunch as I'm eating brekkie!!

I hope things are going ok, keep in touch xxx