Does anyone know why a baby would . . .

[RedPandaFluff]

. . . start feeding happily from a bottle, then a few seconds in, have the most awful shrieking crying session which lasts for a few minutes, before they eventually calm down and resume taking the bottle? I am MYSTIFIED.

Background - this started a couple of weeks ago. DD is almost 5 months old, was mostly breastfed until about 3 weeks ago but also always had two bottles of expressed milk a day (I wanted her to be happy with breast or bottle). It doesn't happen at every bottle, maybe one out of every three, and there's no pattern although it seems to happen more at the late afternoon/early evening feeds. At the moment she's getting half breastmilk bottles and half formula bottles - again, it can happen either with breastmilk or formula so I don't think it's the taste.

Any ideas, wise mumsnetters?

Sounds like colic. Have you tried infacol (aka magic potion) before feeding? It may help.

Oh I'll definitely try anything at this point! Thank you for the suggestion. For some reason I thought colic was extended periods of crying, where they're inconsolable for hours on end . . . this doesn't last that long but oh my goodness she's absolutely heartbroken

Silent reflux maybe, has she only just started to have formula? Does she have any symptoms of CMPI, eczema, mucus in nappies, hiccups?

At that age colic should be phasing out, I would think teeth or she swallows too much air with the bottle, maybe burp a few times during feed.
My 5 month old struggles with teething and pulls off the breast

Sounds similar to my baby who has reflux. Sometimes the screaming is during a bottle, sometimes about 20 minutes after

Hmmm . . . see, we thought she had reflux at one time, and started giving her infant Gaviscon. We thought it worked but then (and I can't remember why) we stopped giving it to her and didn't have any more issues. Until now, anyway. Maybe we should start using it again . . .

She DOES have eczema, and does get the hiccups regularly but that seems to coincide with spells where she's babbling away and it seems like talking gives her the hiccups rather than food. No mucus in her nappies but urgh - formula nappies stink compared to breastmilk nappies

I wondered about teething - timing is about right. I guess the only thing for that would be calpol.

Thanks everyone!

Eczema, hiccups and getting distressed with or after feeds are all symptoms of Cows Milk Protein Intolerance or Allergy. So worth speaking to your GP about trialling an allergy milk like Nutramigen. The CMPI/A can cause reflux which can cause pain when/after feeds.

My baby went mental every time I tried to FF her. I stopped trying with formula but had some left over when weaning and added a bit to some purée and she did the exact same thing straight away. So ..... turns out she had a cows milk protein allergy.
See your GP for an allergy test. She's allergic to egg too. (She's 12 now!)

So, by way of update in case anyone else is reading this because they're experiencing similar, GP suspects cows milk protein allergy so we've got Similac Alimentum for a couple of weeks and then we speak to a dietitian.

It might be my imagination but she seems a bit happier. Although she spits up a lot - I'm constantly covered in damp patches. And it stinks - reminds me of freeze dried potato of my childhood

@RedPandaFluff glad it's getting sorted. My DD was 6 months ish when she had the allergy testing. I remember it being fairly distressing for both of us. Broke my heart watching them get blood out of her

That’s great that you’ve got a supportive GP.
My daughter has got Dairy Intolerance not Allergy although the last Consultant said only 70% of allergies can be proved by finger prick tests, and he felt it was more likely to be an allergy than intolerance from her symptoms.
We’re now waiting for her to have an endoscopy to see why she hasn’t yet grown out of the reflux, even though she has a completely dairy free diet. It was booked for mid March but then all procedures were cancelled.
She still suffers from eczema as well, so the dietician thinks she may be reacting to something else in her diet, but as dairy is such a major food group, they don’t want us to cut anything else out and food diaries haven’t given us any clues.
I hope you’re right and your daughter is more comfortable on her new formula.