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Infant feeding

Get advice and support with infant feeding from other users here.

10 week old takes so little formula.

57 replies

WankPuffins · 28/10/2020 09:48

Sorry if it’s a bit long, just want to address everything in one go.

Dd will be 10 weeks on Friday. She will not drink more than 2oz of formula at a time. Sometimes she will drink 3, but never any more than that. And if she drinks 3 at one feed, it will be 1oz the next.

She eats around every 3-4 hours. Very good sleeper.

Will wake once or twice in the night (depending on if you call 5:30/6am night or day!) and will take two oz - although past two nights it’s been only one oz. She falls right back to sleep after.

She will not take dream feeds, mouth clamped shut.

Will not take any other feeds if offered. If you try and offer the bottle back after a burp she won’t take it. She’s taken to laughing at me if I try to offer the bottle back Grin

Will sometimes take the teat in her mouth after she’s had her 2oz and a burp, choke and bring up everything she’s that taken, so it’s not worth trying really.

She’s good at hungry cues - e.g hand rubbing mouth and a couple of others that are idiosyncratic to her. Doesn’t cry for feeds but that’s because I see the cues and we co sleep so I wake when she stirs.

She’s taking about 16oz of milk in 24 hours. Which seems little for her age - she’s 10 weeks old in two days.

Nappies are sometimes wet but bone dry throughout the night. No other signs of dehydration.

She was on cow and gate and only having a dirty nappy very 4 days, however we switched to Hipp organic two weeks ago and it’s got much better She’s a lot more comfortable.

No signs of silent reflux (My son was a reflux baby, so I know the signs well).

No colic, no real wind issues.

She doesn’t fall asleep on the bottle, she’s just had enough. She drinks it in a about 5 mins.

Teat is fine - variflow from 3 weeks as she was taking so much wind sucking so hard to get anything from slow flow. Medium seems too slow, fast too fast so she seems happy on variflow.

As for weight She was born on 3rd centile at 5lb 8oz but was back to birth weight in ten days. Was 25th at 6 1/2 weeks and again at 8 1/2 weeks (was 10b, 3oz).

I did speak to the nurse at the vaccinations last week as I asked if she could weigh her when she had her vaccinations last week as I was worried she wasn’t taking enough milk (the nurse was a HV when she worked for the NHS - it’s a private practice I go to so she is providing the HV aspect re weighing etc as we don’t use the nhs HV service or GP), who seemed to think it was ok but didn’t really respond when I said it was only 16oz a day, just that not to get hung up on milk and centiles as they are all so different.

Which I get totally. But it’s a worry when she’s still on the same amount as she was at a week old!

Seeing the doctor for 12 week vaccinations in 4 weeks (he’s specialises in paediatrics) so will speak to him then. Any probs our health insurance is good so we’ll get referred right away.

She’s happy, alert. Sleeps well. It’s just that I’ve had two other babies who were milk monsters!

I’ve never had a baby take so little (although, I did persevere with EBF for the first four weeks of my older two children’s lives. I produce next to no milk, they both starved for the first three until I topped up with formula and then gave up BF at 4 weeks so I think they thought, “finally, food!” And guzzled away! I didn’t try to BF this time as I knew what would happen. Not a drop of milk came in at all again).

I just want to know if anyone else has had a baby who eats so little?

I’ve googled but all I can find is babies who take 2oz every hour or so - not every 3 or 4!

I guess all I can do is keep an eye on her weight? But the nurse was right, I don’t want to get too hung up on it. I think o just worry about her as she was so small when she was born (my other two were only 6 1/2 pounds but seemed so much bigger).

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WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:13

Just bumping this incase anyone can help.

She’s 11 weeks today and milk intake is getting worse.

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UnicornAndSparkles · 06/11/2020 15:20

Ask your HV/GP/midwife again. Just to be sure. But I agree with you its probably nothing to worry about if you've looked at all the possibilities.

My daughter was a combination of boob and expressed milk and hardly took anything from the bottle and boob feedings were very short. Turned out she had silent reflux. She never lost weight but was always small, 25th centile. So my first thought was that, but you say there are no signs and know the signs from your son. Silent reflux is notoriously hard to diagnose though.

Maybe buy some baby scales and weigh at home weekly?

If she's gaining weight i wouldn't worry.

UnicornAndSparkles · 06/11/2020 15:21

PS my LG rarely took more than 2 or 3oz and fed every 3h or so. She started jumping up the centiles when she got to around the age of 2. Until then she just wasn't fussed with food.

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:26

See now I’m wondering if it is silent reflux.

She does still bring up tiny bits - she looks in discomfort while she does this and looks like it tates horrible by the look on her face and the noises she makes (it’s not right after a feed, sometimes a couple of hours later and clear).

I’ve just made an appointment with GP for Monday.

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WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:27

I made the appointment mainly as she’s not having many wet nappies over the past few days so she’s clearly not taking enough.

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dannydyerismydad · 06/11/2020 15:47

It may be worth investigating tongue tie also. Tongue tie affects both breast and bottle fed babies and can make milk transfer difficult meaning babies tire easily when feeding and take smaller feeds as a result. Feeds can be splutters and messy too sometimes. You could try offering every 2 rather than every 3 hours to see if you can squeeze a bit more in that way, but some babies will only feed when they demand, not when it's offered!

mscongeniality · 06/11/2020 15:49

My 10 month old still only drinks max 4oz in one go. My older Ds was the same, some babies just drink less but more often!

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:51

@mscongeniality

My 10 month old still only drinks max 4oz in one go. My older Ds was the same, some babies just drink less but more often!
It’s not more often though. She will have 2oz every 4 hours - at night she can go for 7 and still only have 2oz when she wakes up.

If it was every couple of hours I wouldn’t worry as much.

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mscongeniality · 06/11/2020 15:51

Mine are not big milk drinkers so I understand the worry, just keep trying to offer her a bottle every 2 hours or so. It's frustrating I know!

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:54

@dannydyerismydad she’s been checked for tongue tie at birth and then again when we registered with the ped/gp at 6 weeks.

Yeah, I could offer her all the bottles in the world, she won’t entertain the idea! Clamps her mouth shut or just bites the teat if you do manage to get it in. Or looks at me and laughs.

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WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 15:55

This is why I’m thinking silent reflux. She does her hungry cues 4 hourly but then fights and screams and it’s an efffort to get 2oz down her.

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Shelby30 · 06/11/2020 16:14

My little girl was a rubbish feeder. I was nearly bk in hospital with her as she wld barely take anything. Sometimes it was a fight to get her to take an ounce! We tried various bottles to see if that made a difference. That's what midwives and HV suggested. Spent a fortune but she was definitely better with mam bottles after trying nuby and nuk. Also went for vari flow teat which helped. She still wasn't great though and it cld take an hour to feed her a couple of ounce and then 2 hrs later time to feed her again. She did have reflux and wind issues though.

We eventually got to a point when she was older where we wld let her take some and then put her down to play and try again 20mins later so sometimes she wld have 6 ounce but in 3 sittings.

All I can say is it's hard work but if she's putting on weight that's the best sign. I weigh myself holding her and then with her to work out her weight.

She's now 11 months and I was hoping to see a big improvement when she started weaning but she didn't take to that well either and was very up and down with it. She pretty much refused purées and we had to do blw which I thought was scary but now I love that she feeds herself!

She's now starting to turn in to a right little feeder and always wants what you have and eats a decent amount of food now. She actually takes an 8 ounce bottle at night but still not really that in to milk. I know u think she will never take that much I was the same but she will get better at it but maybe slowly.

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 16:22

@Shelby30 thank you.

She’s just so different to my other two. Even my boy with severe reflux managed 8oz bottles, nothing stopped him feeding.

I just worry so much. More than I thought I would seeing as she’s my third.

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UnicornAndSparkles · 06/11/2020 17:03

From what you've said now I think its worth looking into silent reflux more. My LG never spat up and the only indication of her having it was being very unsettled, waking often in the night for a few minutes feed when all my friends babies were feeding for 4x as long. And she would never take much from a bottle.

It almost disappeared once she started on solids at 6m.

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 17:09

@UnicornAndSparkles

From what you've said now I think its worth looking into silent reflux more. My LG never spat up and the only indication of her having it was being very unsettled, waking often in the night for a few minutes feed when all my friends babies were feeding for 4x as long. And she would never take much from a bottle.

It almost disappeared once she started on solids at 6m.

@UnicornAndSparkles yes, will be speaking to the Dr about it on Monday.

My Ds is 18 now, they were weaned at 4 months back then. Paediatrician told us to start solids at 15 weeks and it helped no end with the reflux. 15 weeks seems terribly young for food these days!

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WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 17:11

@UnicornAndSparkles and yes she wakes twice for a feed of one or maybe 2oz in the night. I really don’t mind, I just wish it was more volume than that. She’s a great sleeper otherwise though. She just has that quick feed and right back to sleep again.

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MamMomMommyMa · 06/11/2020 17:14

My daughter was taking very little milk and dropped off centiles and ended up being admitted to hospital for 4 days. We think it was silent reflux in the end and treated for that, she eventually got back to 2nd centile and has stayed on that for the last year. If your worried about weight you should follow up with GP

UnicornAndSparkles · 06/11/2020 17:44

A friend was advised to wean early too, purely bc of reflux; this was almost 3y ago so I'm not sure if the advice has changed. I didnt, but if my next baby has the same problem again I would as it really did help dramatically. Obviously I wouldn't be feeding full meals at 4m but some mashed veg etc.

Good luck with the GP.

WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 17:47

@MamMomMommyMa god that sounds like a worrying time. Yes. GP on Monday. I’m just not happy with the situation.

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WankPuffins · 06/11/2020 17:48

@UnicornAndSparkles thank you. And yes, it was just mashed up root veg. But it helped him so much.

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WankPuffins · 11/11/2020 11:35

So we were given gaviscon.

She seems happier without the constant acid coming up.

But still no more milk.

I actually thought we’d had a breakthrough with the gaviscon. For two day, she took 5oz bottles (over 45 mins) but would then go 6 hours between feeds and sleep all night. So still drinking the same a amount overall.

Today it seems as if we arw back to 2oz every 4-5 hours.

I’m at a loss again.

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WankPuffins · 11/11/2020 11:36

GP didn’t weigh her. Seeing him for vaccinations next week.

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UnicornAndSparkles · 11/11/2020 12:05

Keep up the offering, thats all you can do really, imo.

Hopefully the gaviscon will help. If not, ranitadine will be the next level I believe.

WankPuffins · 13/11/2020 17:27

It’s still not getting any better. No matter how she does it (dribs and drabs or 5oz every 5 hours) she’s still only taking a max of 20oz.

All the advice is to either - up the volume of the bottle (there is always more in there than she takes, I don’t know what idiot would only make a 2oz bottle and complain the baby wasn’t drinking more!), feed little and often (she’s not interested, you can’t feed her if she doesn’t want it), keep offering milk (ditto).

All the advice seems to make it like I’m being stupid or I don’t know what to do. I’m trying everything here.

I thought it might be the pain of the reflux but she’s just not interested in feeding much.

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WankPuffins · 13/11/2020 17:29

Dr/HV just keep saying to feed her more milk. I feel like I’m banging my head against a brick wall telling them she won’t take it.

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