Horribly messy feeder

[Rollonbedtime7pm]

My DD2 is bottle fed, after being EBF until around 10 weeks. I intended to try and keep doing bf at night but she took to the bottle so well she went immediately off bf so we stopped completely.

She's now 16 weeks and is the messiest feeder! She feeds about every 4 hours during the day and seems ready and hungry each time. She does a good few first socks and then starts dribbling and spitting the milk everywhere! I end up covered in it, the muslin and bib are drenched and her neck is getting disgusting! Milk runs round under her chin and it's so hard to clean as she is still so hunched!

She has tommee tippee bottles with variflow teats but she was dribbling on stage 1 so not sure it is this. I considered new bottles (mam teats look chunkier so maybe fill her mouth better?) but i'm reluctant to keep spending loads of money when it might not help!

I'm sure 2oz of the 6oz in the bottle must end up down her front. Any advice anyone?

Was she ever checked for tongue tie?

Get her palate checked. I didn't as I didn't know it was a thing and didn't find out that my ds has a submucal cleft palate until he was nearly 3. Or it could be tongue tie.

Either way, get it investigated. Good luck

She was briefly checked for TT when I had sore nipples at the start of bf but the mw seemed to think she was OK. She did have a very shallow latch though, which led to us stopping amongst other things, so guess you never know.

I might call the HV - it's not just me though is it, surely babies just aren't this messy?! She's my 3rd, you think I would know by now lol! My nephew is 5 weeks older and sure he never makes as much mess!

They said my ds didn't have tongue tie. When he wouldn't latch on they were just bemused by the whole thing.

When I had my next dc he had a posterior tongue tie. I asked the midwife that snipped it to check my eldest out of interest and lo and behold he had it too. No wonder it used to take nearly an hour for him to finish a bottle. And no one picked up on it.

Unless they're losing weight ime like, you'll be left to it. Keep asking to be referred to a paediatrician and don't be fobbed off. If an expert checks and all is well, great. But at least you'll know someone who actually knows they're looking for has checked.

That's my worry - she dropped 2 centiles just before we stopped bf so they will probably just say "well she's gaining now so all ok" They're not the ones getting soaked at every feed are they?!

My nephew had his TT snipped so will ask my SIL how she got it sorted.

Good luck! Hope you get some answers.