Help 4 month old very bad feeding aversion & Silent Reflux :((

[LynseyH23]

Hello, I am in desperate need of some reassurance or even some tips or solutions.

I have been up and down to see paeditricians over the last two months as my then 2 month old was developing a feeding aversion. She her 8 week vaccines she has been having very bad acid reflux, especially at night and we finally convinced my paed to prescribe us Neocate in case of CMPA.

However, we have tried gradually weaning her onto it using Carobel as she likes thick milk for the reflux and mixing with her regular HIPP formula, and also tried recently at 4 months using pear purée to sweeten it.

She is at the point where she cries during the day out of hunger but will only take an ounce or two if I’m lucky every few hours. She finishes a full bottle at night and then maybe might go more than 10 hours without feeding. So she is only feeding 3 times a day and two of those bottles she is only having a couple of ounces.

I don’t know what else to do!? I am very worried about this aversion and her not getting nutrients and then the reflux at night burning up her throat and sinuses and leaving her congested obviously is making it worse.

Dr says that all reflux is the same and they outgrow it and is reluctant for me to take Nexium (omezparole) which I tried for 2 days and saw her reflux worsen?

I feel so helpless and exhausted with it and not making any progress.

Has anyone experienced something similiar? Did it get better and how and how soon? :((

Hi, I had a similar experience re feeding aversion when my first born was 2 months old. Went on for months and was truly a horrible horrible time in my life. I'm so sorry you're going through this.
Rowena Bennett has a book relating to bottle aversion, and a really supportive Facebook group where you can find out the tips etc without having to buy the book (although it's definitely worth a read). It's called Baby Care Advice Feeding Aversion Support Group

My first born had terrible CMPA and reflux. He was Bf though as refused formula. He had a bad feeding aversion but would feed throughout the night when sleepy (can you dreamfeed your little one?). Once we got the reflux under control with Omeprazole his feeding did improve but it took a lot of trial and error and I didn't eat any dairy as it transferred through my milk. Eventually we weaned him at 5 months under the advice of a dietician and now he is a thriving 4 year old. It is really really hard when you are in it and I don't have any specific advice on the formula front but just want to reassure you that it did get easier with each passing week and it doesn't last forever. I've had some similar (but not identical issues) with my second son and this time I have tried not to stress quite so much about it. It's really hard and you are doing amazingly. No one expects their baby not to feed and when you know they are hungry it's beyond frustrating.

Hey Iv been in the same boat with my LO and also had to fight for prescription milk. He’s on aptamil pepti. Why was the choice made to slowly transition on to new milk, was it because of the horrible taste? I discussed with my HV the slow transition but it really makes no sense to continue to give an allergen, it did take a while for feeding to get better after the change. Maybe it took awhile for my LO to realise this new milk want cause him pain. I chose to go down the non medicine root so refused omerazole to the annoyance of my gp, initially due to the fact I believed the reflux to be a symptom of the CMPA so it didn’t make sense to prescribe medication before change of milk. I did try gavison but it made it worse. My belief is that for CMPA the baby is expelling the milk because their body can not handle it and anything that keeps the milk down makes it’s worse. My little one improved massively from the change of milk although he drinks like a breastfed baby, 2-4 oz every 2-3 hours. We have good weeks and bad but nothing as bad as it was before the prescription milk. He’s 4.3 months. I give him baby rice (milk free) only, after his morning nap. Foods such as pear can aggravate reflux. It’s difficult to know what to do but I always think pick one thing and ride it out for 2 weeks or you will never know what works and what doesn’t. I would be inclined to just completely swap to prescribed milk only, stop anything else. This is only my opinion obviously I am not a doc and all babies are different.

I wanted to add that I was also feeding an 1oz an hour so I understand the exhaustion and endless cycle of washing, sterilising, making and then throwing away bottles. Not being able to go out, I was so embarrassed to feed him while out he would choke, gag, cry, spit the milk out and even hit the bottle across the room. His nose was so congested making it worse. When I changed to the new milk I also brought for led light and downloaded some relaxing music. My routine was, to sit in the steamy bathroom and change nappy, use saline drops, put music/lights on. I try with 1oz a few times and if he shows signs he doesn’t want it i take it away and try again in an hour. Lots of winding and definitely never laying flat, even the cot. My paediatrician said it was ok for me to incline the cot but this is your decision. I feed every hour like this and then when he started to take more I stretched the time by 15mins until we are now at 2-3 hours.

My DD2 is 5 months on Monday and we've had horrendous reflux issues and were advised to wean early by the paediatrician- she was also developing a feeding aversion.

We have been doing plain porridge made with formula in the mornings after first bottle and then first flavour veg hugely diluted with baby rice and formula at dinner time. I feel we are finally coming out the other side and the porridge and rice seem to be 'anchoring' down the milk. Might be worth a try doing it that way so she's getting more formula in her while giving the stomach something to mix the milk with?

Just an aside (and not being a dick!!) if you're putting the pear in with the formula in her bottle that's really against loads of the guidelines, just in case you weren't aware! X

@violetcuriosity hello! Thank you for that…I am scared to wean her but I think I should try and the paed did recommend I start too. But oddly he told me to start with apple which I thought would aggravate acid reflux? So I just feel so let down by drs.

Her aversion is so bad now she is drinking next to nothing in an entire day. I think I will give it a go with the oatmeal today.

No I didn’t know about not being able to add the purée to her milk. I just added a couple of drops that’s all instead of adding maple syrup or brown sugar as I thought it wouldn’t be as unhealthy. Why is it wrong?

Hello @Twiglet2353 thank you for that I think I had come across her name weeks ago when this all started and then forgot. I will have a look!

@Louise0410 hello thank you for that! Ugh it’s so frustrating as at the moment she isn’t even having an ounce. She hasn’t had an ounce since 4am and it’s 130pm now. She had a couple of bad nights of acid reflux I think it’s left her in a lot of pain she won’t drink. Did you experience that and what did you do? She is starting to get constipated now because she is not drinking, so stressful.

Also, when you started weaning how much milk was she taking do you remember? Did she take more milk? I’m worried she won’t get the nutrients.

@Kcheey yes, I completely agree with you. The dr told me to mix and wean her onto it because of the bad taste he said. But we couldn’t seem to move past 3 scoops to 2 scoops Neocate. She wasn’t taking it like that much to be honest either, I think she had already developed a bit of an aversion to be honest.

It makes me so sad because in the first weeks she was such a good feeder it was only after her 8 week vaccines it all changed.

I am torn and didn’t want to medicate her either and wanted to try to just get her onto the new formula so see if that helped but can’t get her on it and the last few nights her acid reflux was so bad I think her throat is all tore up now, so going to take her to dr today to check it.

If she won’t take the new milk I don’t know what to do then that’s the frustrating part…do I medicate and hopefully get her reflux under control…but that seemed to aggravate it too when she had it a couple of days.

Last night I switched her onto just Neocate but she’s just not drinking anything so I don’t know what to do now very stressful.

thank you for all your tips I will try the music and others :)