FF 12 week baby taking 2oz

[NovemberBubbles]

As the title, my FF baby has never taken huge amounts (5oz max) but for the last few weeks I'm literally having to to fight with him to take more than 2oz which is absolutely heartbreaking.
He will take the first 2oz completely fine, no fuss just sometimes wiggle the bottle a litter to remind him to keep going.
After then burping him it's so hard for him to continue, he cries, turns his head, pushes bottle away etc.... I just don't know why as he will eventually take 1-2oz more if I persist through this so it's not like he doesn't have the room.
He's a normal size/weight for his age, currently sleeps well and does wet/dirty nappies fine.
He's on Aptamil milk which I'm reluctant to change as it doesn't seem to be disagreeing with his tummy but obviously will if needed.

I'll add, the persisting for another couple oz is TOUGH... takes so much time and I can only do so when at home with just my partner due to the amounts of fuss.

I don’t know if I’ll be much help as both my girls did this and it got extreme (reflux and dehydration for the first, milk refusal and weight loss for the second). We weaned under a dietitian at 17 weeks and all was resolved, started putting weight on and even taking a tiny bit more milk.

These are issues that we were advised to check through first:

• Teething, as in does gel help?
• Ear/throat/urine infection
• Teat size too fast/slow
• Silent reflux; does thickening the milk help?

Hope this bumps the thread and you get some more advice. My girls were obviously unusual cases and are now absolutely fine, 3yo perfectly healthy and eats anything, 6mo gaining weight and thriving at last. So hopefully yours will be a nice simple fix.

My little boy was the exact same as you're describing, he was on Hipp Organic at first, then changed to Kendamil which he did seem to like a bit better. Still wouldn't really take more than a few oz at a time. I was told its fine as weight etc was normal. I held on and did BLW at around 6 months and he's almost 2 now and eats loads and loves his food so there were no lasting effects. I just assumed that he wasn't really interested in milk, but loves food. Trust your instincts though and if you're not happy speak to health visitor

Try a faster teat, sounds like he’s frustrated with the flow!

Have you tried just stopping at the 2oz when he wants to ? It may be the case he will feed more regularly but smaller amounts (bit is pain having to feed every 1-2 hours if that’s the case but could just be a phase)

My DS does this periodically too. He has been FF from birth and never been a massive milk drinker.

At 12 weeks he'd probs take a max of 5oz too (much more likely to be around 4oz), but during any Leaps (Wonder Weeks) his milk intake will always go dramatically downhill for the duration. I think there might be Leap around that time (?). When he goes off milk during a Leap he'll take about 2-3oz max per bottle.

This did get worse when he reached 4months actually and began teething too. He wasn't having much at all. We were referred to peadiatrician as his overall daily intake was quite low and he'd begun to drift of his percentile line, and advised to wean to solids early...I was sceptical about doing so, but he took to solids amazingly and oddly as he began to accept solids more, he naturally began to take more milk per feed too. He's now 7months and is having 4 7oz bottles (never in a million years did I ever expect him to drink a 7oz bottle!).

Oh, importantly, I was advised by HV, GP and Pead that I should not try and force DS to take more milk if he was clear he was done. I think I'd got so worried that I often fell into the trap of trying to trick him to take a little more here and there. It never worked and they all said it can become a bit of a feeding aversion if the baby is often having feeds forced upon them when they dont want it.