2 month old feeding problems.

[pcate21]

Hello all, my daughter is 9 weeks on Tuesday. Ever since she was born she has always had a break halfway through her bottle to burp her and change her bum to wake her up as she gets sleepy so it wakes her up a bit and then she’s ready to have the rest and she took the second half of the bottle straight away no problems, up until around 2 weeks ago. She was on 7oz having every drop of it before but now she unlatches herself after around 2-4 oz and she’s still wide awake but will not take the bottle again once she’s unlatched, she shows signs she’s still hungry like sucking her hand, smacking her lips and rooting but when I put the bottle in her mouth she pushes it out and cries. No matter how much I try she will not take it. She was on kendamil but the doctor prescribed some aptamil pepti 1 milk to try it that hasn’t made a difference, I have tried changing the teat size, changing feeding positions, waiting a bit before trying to give it her again, I’ve tried everything I can possibly think of to help but no luck. I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they resolved the problem or knows why she may be refusing it.

Maybe she was taking the 7oz because she was having a growth spurt and now she's evened out again?

I’m not sure as she has always took a fair bit. She moves up oz rather quickly. She was on 6oz for 3 weeks or so before she moved up to 7 but now she won’t drink anymore than 4 but the issue is sometimes she won’t take the bottle at all.

7oz is a massive bottle for only 9 weeks, that’s a typical feed amount for a 6 month old. You were most likely overfeeding her and she was taking it because of a growth spurt, the sucking reflex, silent reflux causing her to not stop when she was full or any combination of the above. The fact that she’s now on the prescription milk is also significant I think because CMPA also often goes alongside silent reflux and they want to keep sucking because the swallowing provides relief. The 4oz she’s taking now is much more normal for her age (4-5oz a typical feed size for a 2 months old) so I’d actually be somewhat relieved that whatever was causing her to want to overfeed seems to be getting better. Also, those prescription milks can apparently taste horrid so if there’s an issue with her refusing altogether maybe go back to the doctor to see if you can try another type.

She was happily taking 7oz, i moved her up as she was still hungry after 6oz. I have only ever moved her up an oz as she is hungry after each bottle over a period of time so I knew it wasn’t just a one off if you get what I’m saying. Thank you for the advice. My main worry is her not getting enough. I have tried giving her Kendamil which is what she was on before but there’s issues taking both milks. Neither is better than the other.

They start sucking their hands for fun at about 2 months, so it stops being a reliable hunger indicator. 4oz seems ok to me. I don't know how you managed to get 7oz into such a tiny baby. I wonder if that caused some of the issues

Like I said above I only moved her up appropriately and it was also by health visitors advice that she was moved up each time as I was convened about causing issues. I posted for advice not to be jumped on about how I feed my child. Every baby is different, some babies take less and some take more, my friend has a baby who is a week older than my daughter and her baby is on 8oz with no issues. No need for the judgmental comments. I’m a first time mum still learning.