Please help with FF 6 month old.

[Fuckadoodledoooo]

I'm at the end of my tether.

6 month old Dd FF from birth. A poor feeder from 4 week. She has never, ever since then taken more than 16oz in 24 hrs. She can go 4/5/6 hours between feeds absolutely happily. Sleeps from 9pm - 5am where she will have half an ounce abs then sleep again until 7;30am.

She was showing some signs of silent reflux (I've had babies with it before so knew immediately). She was out on gaviscon as a first step. It worked a treat. No more posseting clear fluid for hours after a feed. But she didn't take more milk.

She was on cow and gate until ten weeks. She was pooing twice a week. Changed to
Kendamil and now she goes everyday and is a lot more comfortable. But there was still no change in volume.

Since she was 4 months I have had to feed her when she's asleep. If you try abs feed her when she's awake she will take half an ounce, pull away and cry and refuse to drink any more.

I did three weeks of a bottle aversion course. It did nothing.

She was on tommee tippee bottles. Tried all different teats.

Changed to MAM. Initially thought it was our savour as for a couple of days she was taking whole bottles, for three days she took 25oz in 24hrs. But that soon stopped.

Last Friday she stated refusing all together (I mean I feed her when she's alseep but now you can try to get her to start sucking and she just won't.

Saturday to today she's taken a total of 15oz of milk. In four days I've fed her food which she's wolfed down. She takes water from a cup (tried milk in it, she screams). But no matter how hungry she is, she won't drink milk.

We started weaning a couple of weeks ago. She will eat puréed fruit and veg, finger foods. But she will refuse any foods wilt milk in. Mashed veg with milk, porridge. All a no. As soon as she gets a hint of milk she doesn't want to know.

Saw a dr yesterday who suggested we try a lactose free milk. She does seem to have an awful lot of pain after drinking, especially over the last few weeks. He was loathe to do any blood tests for allergies until we tried it - he left the decision to me ultimately, but I didn't want to put her though it just yet. He said to try the lactose free milk for two weeks.

Waiting on the delivery from kendamil as they do one and we both agreed that changing her milk to another brand would be unwise.

(This is all with our private GP, who is brilliant).

Somehow she's managed to grow. She was born on 9th centile and had worked her way up to 35th. God knows how.

Please any advice.

Sorry it was so long, I've tried to include everything.

Dr checked her over fully yesterday (as he has done at 6 weeks, and again when he prescribed gavison). Perfectly healthy.

She's smashing milestones, sitting unaided, rocking on hands and knees and is trying to move her limbs to crawl already.

Was it cows milk you used in the food or was it formula? You can use cows milk in cereal/food from 6 months. Does she eat yoghurt/cheese/cheese sauce as these would.be sources of calcium and other nutrients too

It's unlikely to be lactose related as thats the sugar in all milks including breast milk.

And I meant she's taken a total of 15oz over the past four days - not each day. She's only had 3oz in 24 hours each day.

Have you tried offering from a cup too?

She will have no milk at all. Formula or cows milk, She knows and won't eat.

I tried her on Greek yogurt and all hell broke loose. Exploding nappy and screaming.

Yes, tried a cup. She drinks water from it fine but refuses milk.

Tried cheese sauce mixed with veg. Refused it. Veg on its own, she ate.

I feel like I'm going crazy. Her feeding has always been a worry. We're house bound now as I have to try to feed when she's alseep. Can't risk going for a walk because even if she falls asleep in the Oran she won't take the bottle.

How have her bowels been with formula? More likely to be an issue with cows milk protein than lactose tbh although formula is also cows milk based.

Has anyone looked in her mouth, assessed a feed? I am wondering about an undiagnosed tongue tie interfering with effective feeding.

Her nappies are never consistent.

Sometimes loose and mucusy, sometimes yellow and peanut butter like, sometimes more formed and brown. Never the same nappy twice.

Maybe need dairy free formula rather than lactose free and then look at non dairy sources of calcium

They have looked for tounge tie. Our GP specialises in paediatrics.

And she can feed. She's sometimes downed a 5oz bottle normally. So it's not like she can't feed or there is a problem. She just won't.

Everyone is stumped. The private practice we use had a HV. She can't work it out either.

Have you tried dairy free?

There just doesn't seem to be a reason why she won't drink milk. She's just seems to hate it, right from birth it's been a struggle.

She's usually such a happy little thing regardless. It's just the past ten days or so things have really changed.

And like I said, somehow she's growing!

No not tried a dairy free milk yet. Not tried anything yet, waiting for the lactose free.

GP will test if we want but he didn't think it was a dairy allergy from what we've described. He said try the lactose as she's got horrendous wind etc and said he's seen some improvement with other children trying lactose free.

She's had dairy and no rash or sickness.

I’d say she has an intolerance of allergy so she doesn’t want to take milk as it causes pain. I’d try lactose free and then dairy free.

Yeah, that's what we discussed with the dr yesterday. We were with him over an hour. We went though everything.

He doesn't think it's reflux causing the pain. She's showing no signs of it now.

He suggested lactose as the first try as she has awful gas, bloating etc after feeds.

@Fuckadoodledoooo
This happened with my LO right after his vaccines and never went back to normal. Not quite sure what happened to his tummy but the only thing that helped a bit was probiotics- it stopped the mucus poos and I think he just felt less bloated? And sometimes takes a bit more now.
Sorry this isn't much help. Paeds put him on omeprazole for reflux and lactulose incase he was constipated but both made him worse. Probiotics is the only thing that made a positive difference but still not 100% back to normal

How does she feed at night?

If she feeds ok and without crying until she wakes up more then you’re looking at a behavioural feeding aversion. Pain from reflux etc doesn’t just go away at night or when they’re half asleep.

If you did a three week program and she’s medicated but things aren’t better then she’s still experiencing pressure to feed that reinforces the problem x

Did you do Rowena Bennett’s program?

Yes we did. She still wouldn't feed when awake. She would go all day with nothing quite happily.

So we just started feeding her when she was asleep every time.

She doesn't feed over night. She will start to fidget at 5am and I will try abs feed her while still asleep That can be anything from 1/2 oz to 5oz.

Her feeds are anything between 1-5oz. She will stop when she's asleep, pull away or wake up pissed off when she realises she's drinking. Some times she will wake up screaming while drinking and vomit. Or she will suddenly start coughing or gagging and vomit. Teat isn't too fast.

The most she has ever had at a time is 5oz.

She will sometimes wake in the night crying and pulling up her knees. She farts all night long. She's in a co sleeper crib or sleeps in my arms depending on where she's happiest.

Her farts wake me up they are brutal!

Dairy free formula and private lactation consultant for tounge tie you'd be surprised how many are missed. Both of my children were like this and this is what helped in my experience the NHS are pretty shit at doing anything about tounge ties.

@Misty999

Dairy free formula and private lactation consultant for tounge tie you'd be surprised how many are missed. Both of my children were like this and this is what helped in my experience the NHS are pretty shit at doing anything about tounge ties.

We're not nhs, we're private patients - due to the nhs being shit when my eldest was a baby. She's been checked for tongue tie, she had her six week check with a paediatrician and it was the first thing he checked when I mentioned her poor feeding. She can feed normally when she wants to. She's had the odd bottle no problem.

Paediatrician may miss tounge tie where as a lactation consultant is a specialist in infant feeding and identifying the tie. Obvs this may not be your problem but just sharing my experience. The extent of the tie doesn't always equate to the difficulties in feeding so you could have a really obvious tie with no feeding issues or you could have a really small hard to spot tie that causes lots of problems.