Huge feeding problems

[ellasmum]

Hi...

My 15 week old DD has recently started eating very little.

She wakes up at about 6.30am and shows no interest in food at all. So I have started leaving it for a while but have now got to the point where she has hardly eaten at all before her morning nap. When she does eat it is for about 2 minutes and then she turns away and gets very cross.

This goes on all day. I am worried that she is getting too many calories at night (she still wakes up at 11.00ish and 3.00ish) and therefore doesn't need as many during the day. I have been trying to give her extra feeds during the day to get more calories in but she WILL NOT feed.

I am getting really stressed and upset about it as I am concerned she is not eating enough.

She is putting on weight/filling nappies etc.. but it is very stressfull as all I seem to be doing is trying to get her to feed. She used to feed whenever I offered it to her but something has changed and I don't know what.

I hope someone can help as I am at my wits end.

Thanks

Ellasmum

How recently is recently? Are you talking days or weeks?

I know how stressful it can be, I remember when my dd really was not interested in food for a long time, but I really was not that worried. From reading different articles and topical websites it would appear that lots of experts do not recommend weaning until 6 months, as baby will take all the calories that they need in milk.

If you are concerned I would contact your health visitor to put your mind at rest.

Do you mean eating solids, or milk? If you mean solids, she may not be interested yet. I tried dd at 15 weeks but she wasn't keen until about 18 weeks.

It has been about 2 weeks.

I am not going to start solids for a while so am keen to get this feeding sorted put.

Was it milk your baby wasn't interested in? How long did it last?

Sorry, should have been clearer.

I am breastfeeding only. She won't take a bottle so I can't even see how much she is having. We are perservering with the bottle issue though.

ellasmum, when you say she is putting on weight, is she putting on enough - is she maintaining her line on the weight chart? Does she otherwise seem well in herself? It may be that she is getting more at each feed, and therefore is needing to feed less often - as I remember from my two, when they were tiny they fed little and often, but as they got older (and bigger) the frequency decreased. If she seems happy then don't worry.

As for the bottles, my dd never took to them - I don't think she was really all that keen on milk (still isn't).

She is maintaining her position on the line and seems well.

I think I am just worrying too much - mainly because I cannot see an end to the night wakings and am convinced that it is because she is not eating enough during the day.

I am just going to have to assume that she is getting more than I realise when she feeds.

If she's happy, putting on weight and her nappies are wet (meaning she's not dehydrated) then she's almost certainly completely fine. Babies do get very good at feeding and can feed very efficiently and quickly after a while - my ds can feed in five mins.If your dd is having 2min snacks all day, she probably won't need a big feed. If you would prefer to feed for longer less often, you could either offer at regular times with a three to four hour gap (eg on waking, 11am, 2.30, 6pm and before sleeping) or only offer when she shows signs of hunger. Don't stress yourselves out by offering all the time and having a struggle. If she really starts to lose weight and start droppping through the centiles, you would probably want to ask your GP about it, but I think she's fine - just good at feeding.

I think your last post is right Ellasmum....
If you want to slow down the night feeds and increase the day feeds you might want to try giving her water in the night but as she won't bottle feed.... I am not sure !
If she keeps gaining weight she is fine. And even if she stopped it is not necessarily cause for concern. A GP would look at height and head circumference (+ overall look of baby) before it would be felt that there is a serious issue
She MAY be teething (unlikely but can happen).
Also as you know you can't see how much she is feeding - she may eat far more than you realise...

What does she do during the day ?

Aloha - I am trying to feed her every 4 hours but the problem is that when I go to feed her at these times she is not interested so I try again 20 minutes later etc.. and it then feels like it goes on for ages. The problem seems to start with the morning feed when she is just not hungry when she wakes up.

Pupuce - DD has 3 naps during the day and was on a 4 hourly feed cycle before she lost interest in feeding. I am determined to get her to feed more during the day to build up calories but obviously cannot force it.

I will have to assume she is the most efficient feeder I know. I should think myself lucky I suppose as it meas more time for play!!!

My main problem is that I am worried that if she has not had enough she will not nap well during the day.

Ellasmum... 4 hours is too big a gap... maybe you are dropping in quantity produced and she feels this is too much work ? Why don't you try offering every 2 hours (daytime) for the next 2 days, just see how it goes. Keep a diary at evety feed as you might be surpise that it's actually better than you imagine.

I would not worry too much about her dropping her naps just yet.

Have you looke at the Contented Little Baby book ???? As you seem to be doing similar things. If you feed her at 7AM, then feed her again at 10, 12, 1430, 17 and 19 + what ever during eveining and night.

If my quantity produced is dropping would this mean that she would still be hungry? I had thought that this could be the problem but then decided it wasn't as DD never really seemed hungry. If she couldn't be bothered with the work surely she would show more signs of being hungry? Aaaggghhh - babies are sooo confusing.

Have read CCLB and tried it for a while in the early days. However DD never ever conformed to the sleep patterns so I gave up. My routine during the day is pretty good - although she sleeps longer than GF recommends and is much happier on it.

Meant to say that I will try offering every 2 hours - but what happens after that? Do I gradually start to lengthen the gaps again?

I think I am confused because she seemed happy on every 4 hours a while ago.

DD sleeps lomger than the book recommends as well but I ahve found her feeding patterned helped her feed at right intervals.
Do keep a diary though

Ellasmum: I think your baby speaks for herself. I mean she obviously is getting enough from her night feeds. Your hormones are most responseive then to making milk and maintaining your supply, which is probably why babies are programmed to feed in the middle of the night. Plus at this age there is just so much for a baby to do, watching the world! Why should a baby waste valuable daylight hours when she can watch the world and learn from it, with boring time spent feeding?

This may not help... but both of mine had noticeable growth spurts and increased night feeds around 15-16 wks old. I started DS on solids I was so desperate for sleep... soiids didn't make him sleep more; he never slept thru consistently until we left him to scream at 11 months old :-). DD, though, was always a "good" sleeper, and did settle down again around 6 months old.

So at 15 weeks I should be on the times you suggested?

I am now concerned about my milk supply as she has very uncharacteristically woken up v. early from her nap and seems to be hungry. When I fed her she only went for about 3 minutes and had had enough. Do you think she is getting fed up trying to get the milk out?

If I offer her it every 2 hours, will this build up the supply again quite quickly?

Hi, my DD also started cutting back on her (bottle) milk at around 12/15 weeks and this went on for a month or so. Because it was bottles, we knew exactly how much she should be taking, and got very worried ! We racked our brains for a reason for this and tried all sorts - I even remember scooping all the bubbles off the top of the milk incase she was taking in too much air !! I also stopped taking her out as I got stressed feeding her in public and wrestling to try and get her to take more milk. When I went to the doctors, she said DD was fine and suggested that I had PND kicking in and was using DD as a cry for help !! Not the helpful response I had hoped for.......
Anyway, we weaned DD at about 16 weeks and used GF's method - ie. just carrot puree in the mornings at about 11am and then baby rice in the evening after her bottle. The milk refusal went on for a little longer and then just stopped as suddenly as it had started. DD is now 7.5 months and the size of a small house so all is once again groovy.

Ellasmum, I would try not to worry too much. All babies seem to go through these phases where they vary how much they eat - just like adults. The fact that she is still putting on weight means that she is probably getting exactly what she needs. And even a small weightloss would not be the end of the world (although it may seem it at the time!).

I do think, however, that the very structured feeding plan that you have spoken about (every four hours) could possibly cause problems like these as rather than following their natural hunger patterns they are taught very early on to override these and fit in with a regime that is not really suited to them, which isn't very natural. If this makes her very hungry, by the time her feed does come round she could be too tired, or it may seem like too much effort to take much. If I were you I would try demand feeding her for a couple of days - if she wants to go for four hours without and then feed every 1/2 hour for the next four hours then ride it out and let her take the lead and get into a pattern that really suits her. I think it is probably better to wait for her to cry for her milk rather than offering it to her constantly though, as otherwise you could end up with her just snacking rather than doing a proper feed - also it is quite demoralising to be refused constantly!

I think you are quite right to delay with solid foods though, it is much more important that she is taking her milk first and the WHO does recommend starting as late as possible, nearer to 6 months.

Re: the night waking for these feeds, to me this sounds quite normal for a baby of this age and I can't imagine that just those two feeds would make her go without during the day. Oh, and the other thing, around this age babies get a lot quicker at feeding. I remember feeling very upset at the short feeds my dd was having and worrying about her, but my HV said this was quite normal and that she just more efficient at getting the milk now.

What a long ramble! Sorry, hope some of that makes sense. But it sounds like you and your dd have things just right and that she is just going through a bit of a blip. One thought though - is it possible that she is teething early??? My dd either goes for feeding an awful lot or completely starves herself while teething depending on what kind of pain it is, I suppose. Is this a possibility?

Thankyou Ellaroo - more info the better as far as I am concerned.

Don't think she is teething but will have a good check later.

ellasmum - don't stress this is quite normal. My baby is about the same age (14 weeks) and still takes several feeds int eh ngiht. Its quite normal and natural for a baby to stock up on calories during the night. I sleep with my baby and I just pull her towards me and feed her - I hardly even notice. She then may have hardly anything till lunch time.

Ellasmum - try not to be too analytical about your baby's feeding pattern. She sounds like a really efficient feeder who is managing quite nicely thankyou!
You are right to think that a bigger milk consumption during the day may reduce her looking for more feeds at night but the night feeds you describe are not out of the ordinary for a 15 wk old baby.
I totally agree with Ellaroo and Zebra. Let her feed on demand whether it is less than 4 hours or more inbetween and things will sort themselves out.

Ellasmum

My DS went through a similar phase at about 3mths - in our case, he would feed for very short intervals (less than a minute) and then pull off and scream. In retrospect it may have been some sort of gastro problem, but because he was still putting on weight and otherwise happy, the doctors were pretty unhelpful. And yes, it is very stressful! When you are used to them feeding for 30min at a time, then it seems obvious they are not feeding enough in the day. We also discovered that sometimes he would feed lying down, but never on my lap, so you may find it useful to experiment with positions. Also try at different times - sometimes they are better if they are a bit sleepy. Or try expressing and seeing if she will take a bottle? Eventually he grew out of it (after about 2mths), went back to feeding normally and now (at 8mths) is fine. If she seems happy enough and settled when she pulls off, then I would just go with that rather than trying to feed her all day - and at least you know if she is feeding at night she is getting enough. Also nap times at this age are still irregular (and still are in our case!).

If you wanted to talk more about this, Ellasmum, even if its just for reassurance, an NCT Breastfeeding Counsellor would be happy to listen. I don't have the URL or phone no here but I'm sure someone else does!

NCT bf line is 0870 444 8708 - opem 8 am to 10 pm every day.

Thanks for all the advice - much appreciated!!

Ella was weighed today and had put on a massive 8oz (compared to her usual 4oz in the last few weeks). I have no idea where this extra weight has come from - maybe she is sneaking into the kitchen at night!!!!

Think I will stop worrying now.

Ellasmum, so pleased to hear about her fantastic weight gain - you must be so relieved - it is always such a worry (although as soon as my dd started putting weight on again HV said it was too much and I needed to cut her back a bit - it seems poor dd could not get it right, so ignored HV's advice as she looked perfect to me). By the way, I love her name.