At my wits end - baby just doesn’t want milk

[Sunflower160]

DS is 6 months next week and he is teething. There is a white dot on his bottom gum but the tooth still hasn’t broken through and he’s had teething symptoms for a few weeks now. It’s been worse over the past few days and he has clearly been in pain, crying and prodding at his mouth, biting anything he can. He is mixed fed and doesn’t want to breast feed or have a bottle. He has been averaging around 12-15oz a day for a few days now, if that (hard to say as he is half breast fed). On good days he will have around 25oz ish in total.

I am at my wits end, stressed and so anxious. For a bit of a back story, the reason he is mixed fed is because he had two breastfeeding strikes at around 3-4 months and dropped two centiles due to hardly taking milk and the health visitor terrified me saying he may end up dehydrated, need hospitalising etc and I was under a lot of pressure to get his weight back up so we ended up formula feeding as well as breast and he has taken to bottles well. Until now, as he is now refusing the bottle. He either bites down on the teat, pushes it away or cries when I try to feed him. I know he won’t starve himself but I am terrified of his weight dropping again or him ending up dehydrated. When he does drink he only has about 1oz at a time so I feel like I’m constantly having to offer him bottle or boob.

I was wanting to stop breastfeeding altogether as I don’t feel like mixed feeding is working for us as he’s just so fussy but now that he’s refusing bottles I just don’t know what to do. I feel like all of this is really having a negative impact on me mentally and I’m fed up with worrying about his milk intake. He has always been such a fussy feeder. I’ve tried going longer to see if he gets really hungry, today I left it 5 hours and he just didn’t seem bothered. He never cries from hunger. I offered him the bottle and he just pushed it away. He eventually had 1oz, which is not enough. I’m at my wits end with this. I’ve tried teething gel before bottle, cold teething toys, massaging his gums, calpol. Tried changing formula from Cow and Gate to Hipp but things seemed to get even worse then. I’m trying hard not to get stressed so that he doesn’t pick up on it. He just doesn’t seem to like milk! Anyone have any advice?

Have you started weaning? Maybe he would prefer food to milk?

Ah @Sunflower160 it's hard when they're teething so you have my sympathies.

Don't worry too much. Children are just like adults. Sometimes they just don't want to eat! They absolutely will eat when they're hungry.

I'm guessing at 6m your baby is well on the way to being fully weaned, so try giving them some food or a banana or something soft if it's the teeth that are bothersome.

Maybe give some water too to keep hydrated if they don't want the milk. Or put the milk in a cup?

Offer milk again later on. Try not to worry x

Expressed milk popsicles maybe? Will soothe the gums and might get some fluids into him!

Get yourself to the pharmacy for some anbesol liquid. It’s the best thing ever for teething, liquid anaesthetic you rub on the area. It’ll totally take the pain away so he can eat.

Then we just offer favourites and he tends to eat/drink. Milkshakes/ice cream he thought were for mummmy or daddy worked best!

@fruitpastille thank you, yes he’s been having purées and taking to them well, but I’m scared that if I give him too much food he’s going to have even less milk and I thought that nutritionally milk was still the most important :(

@HangryCaterpillar great idea thank you. I’ll definitely give those a try.

@QueenEnid thank you. It’s reassuring to know that he won’t let himself go hungry. It feels like feeding wise it’s just one thing after another with him and it’s really starting to get me down when I just want to be enjoying my beautiful little boy.

@sweetooth92 thank you, literally just about to set off to boots to try and get some of this!

I had exactly the same fussy drinker for the first few months and we also mixed fed (due to a variety of reasons). Also had the constant offering breast/bottle which is so anxiety making and exhausting so I sympathise fully. Perhaps try a different bottle - switching to Mam bottles was revolutionary for us plus the teat size might be the issue. If he is 6 months then I agree with some other PP that perhaps try some baby rice or veg/fruit puree to give him some variety - however milk is still important and he's too young to drop a feed yet so I would try and see what you can do on that front. Good luck.

Sorry I have no suggestions but you have just described my 3.5 month to a tee!
She is so fussy on her bottle (formula fed) and im lucky to get 20oz a day in her. More recently its been about 18oz.
I just dont have the added benefit of her eating as shes too young to wean.
Good luck i hope it gets better for you

Lovely, I hope it gets you the relief he needs!