Baby continuously refusing bottle. Help!

[bhiggi]

Our 10 nearly 11 week old son is continually refusing and skipping feeds and it’s getting worse and worse. We can’t get into a routine at all or attempt to do anything outside of the house.

He seems completely full of wind all the time and so uncomfortable, we have had his tongue tie done which was pretty bad, seen a chiropractor and cranial osteopath who both stated he was tense in places which would impact wind and did their work. Still no better.

our GP was no help and just said keep offering him the bottle and he will take it eventually and not starve himself, which I understand however after 10/11 weeks it’s becoming so tough and getting us down. Our daughter is missing out as we can’t go anywhere at the weekends.

has anyone had this before and overcome it, if so any tips or hints on how to get him feeding well? He only seems to have his milk when he’s absolutely starving and must take it. We are not getting anywhere near his recommended daily ounces, his sleep is terrible day and night too. It’s killing us!!

Have you considered an allergy to the milk, or tried any gripe water type products?

I'm sorry you're going through this, it must be distressing. I can't tell from your post -is he entirely bottle fed or does he breastfeed too?
Have you spoken to your local feeding specialist midwives? GP should be able to refer you if not. They may be able to advise on other feeding methods eg finger feeding /cup.

Does he seem to be full of wind when you're offering fhe feed and then he's refusing to have the teat in his mouth?

My first thought was "is he allergic"?

Sorry he is formula fed completely and has been since birth. He’s had weeks of being great and is still putting on loads of weight.

We tried syringe feeding and he goes mad when he realises it’s milk.

he takes the teat most times and just spits it out then gets upset. Sometimes he refuses completely and instantly cries.

Our GP hasn’t been any help.

I thought that, but he has no signs of allergy at all when you look at symptoms other than excessive amounts of wind/gas etc.

We changed his formula too which didn’t go well!!

Yes we use gripe water which works well for bringing up burps/settling his stomach.

not tried cmpa milk, didn’t want to go down that route yet, he has reflux too so is on thickened cow&gate at the min.

it’s so hard to know the right thing to do next and our GP is not helpful at all.

Our DD was a bit like this - if we didn’t get a bottle into her mouth the minute she cried, she would then refuse it. She was born prematurely and it caused us massive anxiety as she really needed to have the correct amount.

We used to distract her with a noisy toy whilst putting the teat in her mouth. It took 2 of us to get her to have her milk, which seemed ridiculous. I used to be very jealous seeing a baby having milk in a busy cafe or play area, as we could only feed at home.

I don’t have any advice but hopes it all improves for you soon. Best wishes OP!

This might sound obvious but have you tried different makes of bottle? We had to try several before we found one that baby was comfortable with, they're all slightly different.

We haven’t to be fair. We have stuck with the Mam bottles so far. Any recommendations for others to try for windy/reflux babies?

In my own limited experience it's tough to get professionals interested if the baby is putting on weight!

It's the teats you need to switch round I think, not necessarily the whole bottle.