Trumping, comfort milk, vented bottles? Confused!

[buttershy]

Hi all after some advice regarding formula - BF hasn't worked out for us and sadly I didn't do enough research when pregnant and now finding myself feeling totally lost and overwhelmed!

My HV visited yesterday, my daughter is 4wks old and I mentioned she is still feeding very little and often, maybe every 2hrs or more about 2-3oz at a time, day and night. If I increase the quantity she can be sick and is prone to quite big spit ups - this means night times are difficult as I have to watch her like a hawk as it's so horrible if I wake up and discover she has been a bit sick and had to lay cold and wet in it :( so I don't get much sleep and she doesn't either with wanting lots of feeding.

Baby also chokes quite a lot when feeding - it's quite dramatic and has a noisy cough episode every now and again. The HV said this could all indicate silent reflux which also explains why she stops crying the minute she's held upright over your shoulder.

The HV advised to start giving infacol and switch from Aptamil stage one to cow and gate comfort. I've done this for a day and a half and have noticed baby is suddenly very windy and really really uncomfortable passing trumps, straining, crying and bright red. She is no longer bringing anything at all up but isn't really drinking more in one go or wanting feeding less often.

So my question is can comfort milk cause painful trumping? Her poop this morning was runny for the first time and she struggled to pass it.

I'd also like to know whether when you use a vented bottle like dr Browns, TT anti colic or the MAM anti colic bottles whether you should be mixing the formula in a plain bottle and transferring it after? I've been using the comfort milk in a vented TT bottle with a stage 2 teat I was told by a friend that comfort milk is thicker and not so good in stage 1 teats - is this right?

Also if anyone knows what actually causes wind, eg swallowing air when feeding etc that might help me help her!

Thanks

X

Feeding little and often is totally normal at 4 weeks, and current advice is that you should be feeding on demand anyway.

Has your DD been checked for tongue tie? It might be that a tongue tie is interfering with how she feeds from the bottle. Also maybe try the smaller teat size as it could also be that the size 2 are too fast for her. You could also look into paced feeding which might help.

kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/feeding-tools/bottle-feeding/

The straining, crying and going red are all normal for a baby trying to poo or fart. They're still getting to grips with how their digestion works and it can be unsettling for them.

I don't understand the need to transfer bottles. We were on aptamil comfort milk with dr Browns and did have to go up a test size to size 2 as it often got stuck. They leak when you shake them to mix so you need to buy the separate caps/lids for the mixing part. I found if the teat did get clogged I could clear it by whacking the bottle on the table or flicking the teat.

I have no idea what constitutes normal poo. My 9 week old keeps changing so I just don't know!

Go to the gp about he possible reflux. My daughter has it and gaviscon gave her constipation but ranitidine has make a positive difference. She definitely likes being upright though!