someone please help - reflux? growth spurt? perfers bottles? supply too low? HELP

[littlemiss26]

hi

if there is anyone out there who can help me i'll be eternally grateful. My baby will be 16 weeks on sunday. He started life on the 98th centile and is now on the 20th, he began following the 20th centile about a month ago and steadily gains 3oz a week on average.

for the last couple of weeks he has cried during feeds and after feeds, and has wanted to feed regularly i.e every 2 hours max. He was also sleeping 9 hours a night without waking. I took him the doctor who thought he might have silent reflux and prescibed gaviscon. We have now been giving this to him for a week. But the last couple of days hes been waking at 1, 3, 5 and 7 for feeds. Today he wanted to feed really regularly again so was putting him to the breast but he would only feed for a couple of mins before coming off crying. It got quite persistant so i gave in and gave him a bottle of formula (whilst crying - was so upset as i really feel this is the beggining of the end!). He took 9OZS so was clearly STARVING. That was at 3:15pm but he has just now done a 10 min breastfeed off me no problem, but thats only 2 hours after having all that milk.

The only other info that might help is that he has received one bottle of formula every night before bed since birth, and he has a dummy as a comforter.

Basically my question is what in the hell is going on here? and is it time to do formula? if i can avoid formula i would love to but am really begining to think i just don't have enough milk for him - HELP!!!

Imay be way off the mark but after I found i had this the other week i have suggested it every time!
He doesn't have thrush does he? DS was very fretful during feeds and wanting to feed constantly when we had it, because it hurt his mouth to feed he stopped before he was finished, which meant it didnt take long til he needed feeding again, plus he cried during the feed as he was frustrated with it hurting him trying to get the milk, iyswim.

If thrush can be ruled out then the main reason babies want extra feeds is growth spurt or to increase your milk, how long has he had a bottle for? It could possibly have interferred with your supply and he is merely trying to increase it, thjough I don't see why he would cry at the breast in that instance.

Remember in this heat a bf baby will feed more, they will get thirsty and bf is thirst quenching!

Are there certain times during the feed he is fussing? before/after/during let-down? Are there certain points in the day? Is he starting to get teeth? Is it both breasts one breast?

sorry so many questions and possibles, but it could be agreat deal of things, I'm trying to think of every angle to cover!

Hi thanks for the reply, what would the symptoms be for thrush? he is showing no white spots in his mouth. I have had mastitis and a blocked duct before now I have actually had a bit of an ache in my boob that i thought might be a blocked duct starting again, but so far no blockage. Its definately not painful though, just feels a bit engorged (but its not).

As for the bottle he has had one bottle every night since he was born, so nothing has changed there, although he has been frustrated with size one teats so we switched to size two yesterday.

I have offered him water as i thought he might be thirsty but hasn't taken any. I understand he might feed more frequently if thirsty but he doesn't seem to get much when he does feed, would of thought he would gulp if really thirsty??

he is usually good at breast feeding in the morning and gradually gets fussier and more stressed about it as the day goes on. I don't really feel let-down so not sure if thats got anything to do with it, but he usually comes of between 1 min and 5 mins crying when i try to feed him.

Wondered about teething but have not noticed anything, ried teething gel and teething rings made no difference - he does put his hand in his mouth and drool at times, but not convinced its teeth

it is both breasts that he fusses at, he used to have a favourite but after having a blocked duct in his favourite i can no longer tell a particular difference.

its a nightmare to be honest. Any ideas??