6 week old baby takes 45 minutes to drink 3-4oz

[gemloving]

This is my second baby, my first took to the breast easily and I breastfed for 14 months. I was not worried about what breastfeeding would be like with my second, well except it never actually happened. 6 1/2 weeks later and I am exclusively expressing.

He finds it even hard to "latch" onto a bottle, I'm not even sure you'd call it a latch. Weight gain has been a struggle, he's on the 9th percentile now, born on the 50th. My first jumped a percentile in the first 3 weeks just from my boobs. I find it all very stressful and also have a 2 year old at home.

So far I have used, life factory bottles - these are the worst teats for us. Tommee Tippee are ok, Dr Brown's are ok but Tommee Tippee are slightly better. I have ordered a MAM bottle which will arrive tomorrow.

It's hot outside and I feed every 3h still but he often only takes 2oz, I sometimes have to change his nappy twice to wake him as he's in such a deep sleep (falling asleep on the bottle) but even when he's awake he's just not taking more milk.

When he's awake, he's alert, happy - first smiles have been received, he's a real darling, the love for him is from another planet but my lord, this feeding journey is giving me so much anxiety. Any advice? Has anyone had a baby that just didn't drink much?

Has he been thoroughly double checked for tongue tie?

What size teat are you using? Might need a faster flow if he’s falling asleep on the bottle. I think Mam are better (and faster) than TT and Dr Browns so hopefully that’ll help!

Also agree with PP though, tongue tie could be a possibility.

@Vicky1989x wow! The MAM bottles arrived and it's a dream! He feeds so well, all we needed was a faster flowing test as the poor thing must have got tired drinking from the other bottles. I only have two but will order a set to be delivered by Amazon ASAP!! Thank you x

Great! My second was the same, mam and test changed worked, but suddenly she was constantly feeding. We had a huge milk increase once I got the bottles right.

@bookh what a relief. It's interesting because nobody ever tells you that your baby might not take to the bottles you ordered.

I ordered 4 more so will have 6 MAM bottles, aiming to move to 6 feeds in the next month or two, every 4h and go longer stretches eventually x

Been there! DC2 was EBF til 4 months, never had any problems, wasn't at all worried. One day I decided he was looking skinny, plopped him on the scale and he'd dropped from 85th centile to 9th!

HV told me to immediately supplement with formula. Which was a bloody nightmare, from that point on he refused boob and bottle. I used to ait with him for hours just trying to get him to take one bottle (singing wheels on the bus repeatedly seemed to help). Was nothing to do with the bottle for him. I also had a 16 month old at time and DH worked away.

Constant weight reviews and eventually our paedatrician appontment (took until he was 6 months +). By that point he'd started weaning and got back up to 25th centile which is where he has remained (and makes sense). Basically he just didn't seem to put on weight with milk.

If he is otherwise happy and healthy then he is probably fine. I kept saying that I don't think there is anything wrong with him (also very happy, smiley, content baby) but wss told there must be.

He's 2.5 now, has had various levels of appetite (some stages have included 3 weetabix for breakfast) and the picture of health, happiness and terrible twos!