Nightmare feeding, 12 week old pulling away and getting upset ! Any ideas?!?!

[LuCaKe1]

Apologies for the long post…

My little girl is almost 12 weeks old & formula fed. She has always been a fantastic eater and for as long as I can remember has been on between 4/5oz every 2/3 hours. Usually taking between 850 - 900ml in 24 hours.

Recently, feeding her has become a nightmare. She takes to the bottle absolutely fine, has around 2oz and then does a decent burp or two. I then give her the bottle back and she takes to it like she’s desperate and after a few seconds is pulling away, squirming & getting really upset. I always try to burp her again but even if she does burp again, once I try to give her the bottle she’s still getting upset.

It’s become a battle to get her to eat!

This has been going on for a week or two but not with every feed. However the past two days it’s been every feed & her intake has dropped both days.

Today we went out so I gave her a ready made bottle and she drank 7oz ?! I thought if this solves it she can have the ready mades however before bed I’ve just done her another ready made and unfortunately had the same issue (although she has taken 5oz eventually) I’ve also tried waiting longer inbetween feeds to make sure she’s definitely hungry but again we just have the same issue.

I’ve previously suspected she could have silent reflux and now I’m thinking this even more… tried to get into the GP today (no appointments 😒) so will try again Monday.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this or is experiencing this. I feel so upset that she’s getting upset & I can’t help her.

Also, just to add… she has 1 night feed usually between 4AM & 5AM and with this feed she never has this issue?! She drinks it completely normal and finishes the bottle within 15/20 mins.

Have you tried going up a teat size? Sounds like it might be too slow, and she doesn't mind at night because she's sleepy?

15-20min sounds a long time to drink a bottle, what teat size are you using? I second PP i think you need to move up to next one

She’s on the MAM bottles on size 2 teats. She’s just turned 3 months and I think the next size is 6 months plus. I’ve read reviews on them as I did think this initially but it from what I’ve read they are very fast flow.

It is something I could try though , thank you for your suggestion x

Just googled and realised size 3 is 4 months + so I’m going to order some new teats & try them! Thanks x

Both my 2 were like this and both had reflux, they both had other symptoms as well though and one had Cows Milk Protein Intolerance. Does she hiccup a lot? Do you ever hear her regurgitating? Does she has loose stools or any rashes?
In my area the Health Visitor team have specialist feeding HV’s who were a brilliant help with my youngest, might be worth a ring to see if they could visit to see what they think it could be.

Sorry cross posted. I hope the bigger teats help.

It's always best to stick to the slowest teat size a baby will tolerate so if the issue still happens go back down to 2. I think it sounds like something else is going on. What happens if you do something different/distracting immediately when she signals no and then come back to it? Or if you split the feed into two?

Thank you for your response.

In all my ‘DR Googling’ I started worrying she might have Cows Milk Protein Intolerance due to her looking so much in pain when eating.

I hear her regurgitate quite a bit, sometimes it comes out and sometimes she swallows it. She gets hiccups about 2/3 times a day & has done since birth. She only goes to the toilet once a day sometimes once every other. Mentioned this to the GP who wasn’t concerned even though I was, no rashes.

Did some more googling about the teats & not convinced as apparently 6 month + babies are struggling with how fast the flow is. I think I’ll deffo get in with the GP Monday x

I try to walk around or move her positions. Sometimes it works and she takes a little bit more but then it will just start again. It feels like I’m forcing it on her but I can see she’s hungry.

I stop sometimes and we play or let her just relax and when we come back it’s the same again. Even tried swapping over feeding with my partner. X

My DS was exactly the same. He had silent relux. Imagine that you get really painful heartburn every time you eat. You're not going to want to eat, are you?

DS was given ranitadine and weaned at 16 weeks which seemed to help.

My granddaughter who is 11 weeks now was.just the same until she was put on baby gaviscon. She has no issues with feeding anymore.

Ah she's already on size 2, my daughter could never get on with 3 as yes they are very fast flow. Sorry, was hoping for an easy solution for you!
Hope GP / HV takes your concerns seriously re reflux! Good luck x