3month old only taking half bottles

[Nellie850]

My 3 month old has generally always been a good eater. ATM she is on 5 6ozbottles a day. Over the past week or so she has been getting very fussy about half way through her bottles. The only one she finishes with no problems is the one at 4am. We’re using MAM bottles and have tried going from a 2 to a 3 teat but the milk just seemed to then be coming out her mouth like it was too fast for her still. She has always been n the lower centile for weight so I’m worried she’ll drop even further. Does anyone have any suggestions? I should be seeing my HV in the next few weeks and I will ask them but just wondered if anyone here had any wisdom??

Maybe she's just had a growth spurt and now wants to take less at a time. How much is she taking out of the amount offered?

My baby did this at around that age and is now doing it again at 6 months, at 3 months she seemed distracted and feeding her in the dark upstairs helped for a bit, this time she needed a bigger teat size. My mum's theory is that they drink enough to take the hunger off (always half the bottle for us) then have better things to do! I usually give her a break then try again after ten mins or so when she's like this and she'll drink more.

@dementedpixie she’ll generally take about 3oz, sometimes 4oz at a push.

@Walesrecommendations that’s maybe a good point re distractions. Although she does seem to be almost uncomfortable when she gets to the half way mark.

Does she have reflux?

@Vicky1989x no, never been a sicky baby and has only ever had very minimal sick ups

DD has silent reflux but she used to break off the bottle and cry and couldn't be laid down without crying, she was very rarely actually sick. It looked quite different to just her messing about mid feed.

Bottle Aversion? My daughter would only drink 60ml and then stop and cry and refuse the bottle. Once we overcame that she was much better.

I would stop mid feed, maybe change her, wind her have 5 mins chatting with her and then try the rest of the feed. If she is settled and happy in-between feeds and having lots of wet nappies then I wouldn’t worry.

@Walesrecommendations didn’t really know about silent reflux. Thanks, I’ll keep an eye on it and see how she is if I put her down after a feed. She definitely does seem to be better sitting up and I was putting that down to nosiness but maybe it’s not. Just strange that she takes a full bottle at 4am no problem and is straight back to sleep afterwards with no tears

@BunnyJumper did you just put your LO on to a different brand of bottles?

My DD always has her night feeds too, which makes me think it is distraction in the day.

Could she be teething? My lo got his first tooth at four months but was fussy during feeds on and off for a while before that. He was breastfed so slightly different but he was definitely not feeding as much as I was getting engorged a lot. Once his teeth came through he went back to feeding happily so I'm certain they made feeding uncomfortable/ painful for him.

@Nellie850 nope, if it it a bottle aversion then it's more of a pressure when feeding time scenario, so they take the minimum amount to keep them going basically.

I'm not sure if that's the case with your little one though, maybe Google it and see if any of the signs match? X

I second everything @BunnyJumper has said. 👍

That she’s absolutely fine at night is a clue that it isn’t pain or reflux (which wouldn’t magically stop at night) but a behavioural response to feeling pressured/uncomfortable eating 💐

3 months is the usual age for it to become apparent as the sucking reflex has worn off and baby is becoming aware enough and strong enough to object x

The half bottles are her overcoming her discomfort because she is very hungry and then once the hunger pangs wane her feelings of discomfort and stress outweigh the desire to keep drinking

Join the fb bottle aversion support group and have a google for Rowena Bennett articles x

(My 25th centile babies ended up on the 9th after I saw what you’re seeing at 11 weeks and kept going till I figured it out at 14 weeks xx)

@FlashesOfRage :)
Thanks for posting more of a detailed and awesome response than I did!

I'm still part of that Facebook group. Will always be grateful for the people on there and of course, Rowena who we had a consultation with.

Op, I'd definitely recommend joining the group and learning more about bottle aversion. My daughter ended up with a feeding tube instead of the Dr's teaching about what we should do for the aversion!

If it wasn't for my other half finding Rowena's book and group on Fb our daughter would still have that bloody tube in! Don't be like me x

@BunnyJumper @FlashesOfRage thank you both for your responses. My gut feeling was that it wasn’t discomfort because of the night feeds going well. I must admit when she started getting like this I then started getting stressed about it and she is maybe picking up on that as well which won’t help. I’ll definitely look at what you have suggested. Thank you both!