Hello!
My 16 week old son has been bottle fed since he was about 5 weeks and everything has always been fine - he is a greedy, hungry, happy boy!
About 2/3 weeks ago, he started to fuss more with the bottle, which I think is pretty common. I put it down to being distracted and also maybe associating feeding with sleep and fighting naps. Things have gotten progressively worse, however, and now during most feeds he has HUGE meltdowns, even sometimes just from seeing the bottle. I feed on demand and even when he is starving he won't take it for ages, screams bloody murder and eventually takes it and is clearly hungry. Then feeds on and off between screams and as he gets more full, calms down completely.
I've tried feeding in quieter/darker spaces (when possible), different positions (he sometimes is more likely to take it when he is sitting in the pram 🫠) and tried waiting but that seems to get him ravenous and more agitated. I also tried different teats, but that made things worse. The only thing that seems to slightly help is if I gently hold his flailing arms down, but I hate doing it and also feels quite uncomfortable especially in public. It looks like I'm force feeding him, but I'm not...
Any ideas? Or is it just one of those phases that I need to ride out? I just don't want things to get worse.
Thank you so much in advance!