please help me with 2.5 week old bottle feeding problems - cant cope much more

[mad4mybaby]

ds2 has had probs latching onto bottle since he was born (no tongue tie etc) i tried avent, NUK bottles and then saturday ended up trying tommee tippee closer to nature and he latched on no probs so i thought great progress. However he has always been very windy and cant shift if and was always crying in pain. GP put him on nutramigen for dairy intolerance (ds1 allergic) and this has helped a bit. However, the milk is coming out too fast of these teats dispite being slow flow so alot ends of pouring out his mouth or he chokes and i know this doesnt help his wind. Have just fed him, he only took an ounce, tried winding for ages, nothing comes out and he falls asleep. He is now in basket writhing around, knees up. Not crying but clearly has wind. He is very unsettled when asleep. He never is sound asleep, always fussing about which i think is down to the wind. Using infacol, dentinox did nothing.

gp couldnt help, said spk to HV, HV just said how can i expect a 2 week old to feed properly on a bottle?! She has been no help what sover. MW wont help because im not breast feeding.

This is getting me down, please help me, i dont want to go down the pnd route again.....

Poor you and poor ds. Is there another health visitor you can speak to? The m/w at the hospital are stll responsible for yours and ds's care for up to 28 days after birth or something like that, give them a call.
My ds was really bad with wind and colicky from about 6 days, we tried infocol but found it useless tbh.
Here's what we tried....

1. Give a mouthful or 2 of cooled boiled water before each feed to help with wind
2. When winding, sit baby on lap, placing hand firmly on the lower back
3. If 2 didn't work, press firmly on left hand side of back, no rubbing as incouraged more milk to come up
4. Lay down halkfway through a feed and sit up slowly
5. Rub belly in clockwise direction-helps with digestion
6. lay baby on lap and move legs in cycle motion to encourage wind
7. Make sure milk is warmed, the warmer the milk, the easier the wind comes up
8. We use dr browns bottles, they were great

Hi can't help too much but ((hugs)) as I am having simelar wind/choking issues with my 4 week old. I am BF and tried infacol etc. HV assured choking would improve in time (terrible that your HV wouldn't help as you are FF). I FF my older LOs and remember trying loads of bottles etc and none helped, even the expensive ones. I switched formulas too which didn't do much but a friend got a prescription formula for her DD which she said helped with wind/reflux etc. I think letting him sit up abit during feeds may be worth a try? I am trying this. Think some babies are just sicky and hopefully will grow out of it, my older kids did as they got bigger. Hope things improve.

Yeah my ds was put on a prescribed formula, Infamil A.R. to treat reflux.
I was also told to keep him upright for 45 mins after each feed....

ds1 had severe reflux and was an awful experience so i know this is easier but i obv now have a 2yr old as well. he seems fine laying down after a feed... the only possibility i guess is silent reflux but i wouldve thought he'd be screaming if he had that...

do doctor brown teats fit on any other bottle do you know? Im gutted as closer to nature teats are lovely and ds latch was good but i cant see how i can keep him on them.. would have thought he'd got the hang of them since sat?

I put dr brown teats in my avent bottle and it leaked pretty bad, so I don't think so.
Don't really know what else to suggest apart from get on the phone and make a serious complaint about that health visitor!

shes' due to come round again tomorrow pm. she has been seing ds1 since 5 months old and not had a prob. thinking she may be an ' anti bottle feeding' type one...

i could go get a doc brown bottle this pm.. but i keep buying so many bottles and teats. obv i'll buy for him, just so frustrating plus cant be fair on him! can you buy single ones?

I know it's awful isn't it. We spent loads on bottles too, but anything worth a go. I bought bottles in packs of 2 from toys r us, think Boots sell them too, not sure about singular though. They were about £11 for 2.
Can you call the health centre or whatever and get a different mw to come to the house? If this one isn't being helpful or supportive, mqaybe you should try to see someone else. Or tell her that you feel she is being unreasonable in her lack of support and has made you feel it's that your ff and really it's none of her business how you feed your baby. It makes me really angry when they're like this. I'm so sorry

same here.She is quite old and is actually retiring soon.... so it wont be her much longer anyway...still doesnt help me there though.... my ds1 had chicco bottles but you cant buy them here anymore, occasionally on ebay though..

looking at a picture of dr brown teat, i cant see ds latching on it, it looks the same shape as avent...

It is the same shape as avent. I really don't know what to suggest. I'd give the post-natal ward a call though, they must get loads of stuff like this, worth a try, you won't be any worse off for it.

i did ring them last week and they said they cant help me as im not breast feeding! I hate it because if i was breast feeding id get a breast feeding counsellor or what ever yet there is no help what so ever for those of us that arent breast feeding. That to me is discrimination. I couldnt breast feed right anyway because of the milk situation so right now its out of my control! ARGH! theres my rant for the day!

So everyone is refusing to help you and expect your 2 week old baby to go hungry and stay in pain? That is really quite unacceptable isn't it? Can you speak to the director of mw's and make a complaint? There must be someone somewhere who can/will help?

I'm really shocked at this.
Have to go, we're not even dressed here and need to go shopping. I hope someone comes along soon who can help you. X
Goodluck

mad4mybaby, it is the midwife's and the HV's job to help you feed your baby effectively. The midwife is not allowed to refuse help because you are not breastfeeding - has she actually said that??? You are still within the time of midwife care.

I think the issue may lie in one (or more) of three areas:

i) technique of giving the bottle
ii) difficulty in digesting any formula at all (the faily history of allergy might make this more of a possibility)
iii) interpreting 'normal' squirminess as pain

But you would need to see someone for this to be assessed - someone who woud watch what happens during and after a feed. Hope you find that right person.

The other possibility is that you consider relactating - breastfeeding, even now. There may be reasons why you don't want to think of this, of course, but you need the information that it can be done in order to make a proper choice not to do it, if you know what I mean

those were the MW words 'we cant help you if your not breast feeding, you need to speak to the HV'

hmm the more i say this out loud the more angry it makes me. My gp (who actually is quite good normally) only works tues and weds, i was going to try see her tomo anyway and talk to her about the milk.

tiktok, you 'point' number 3, do you mean it could be how he is? well as i type right now he is in quite a deep sleep and is very still. Then after a few minutes he makes a funny screwed up kinda face, legs draw up and he fidgets left to right, not crying just fussing about waking up. He wasnt like this for first few days.. at the beginning he was VERY settled, barely moved, barely woke but then i know the first few days arent really 'true'

I think maybe the midwife meant that now your care has been transferred to the HV, she is 'in charge' except if you are breastfeeding when they might get involved again....but it's still pretty poor

Tell your GP how unsupported you feel.

Fussing and squirming when asleep and screwing up his face....that could just be normal. Plenty of babies do this.

no its def wind, he's been doing it for last 20 mins and has just farted twice and gone back to sleep. I dont understand why its always trapped

Yeah....well 'wind' and 'farting' is normal, and if he does get rid of it, it isn't trapped

Seriously, squirming without waking is not a problem.

There may be other concerns, of course, but that isn't one of them.

mad4mybaby My ds would sqirm exactly how you're describing, the legs pulled right up, the screwed up face, squirming left to right and would remain asleep. The thing is regardless of how much pain or discomfort they are in, they will still sleep at some point if they are tired. And while this movement can be normal, you think he is in pain so he probably is.
The squirming and trapped wind does sound like colic doesn't it as the legs are being drawn up, and colic normally passes on it's own at about 12/14 weeks. He isn't on a hungrier baby formula is he? Coz that'll make it worse.
If he still has trouble from a bottle, can you try feeding with a medi-syringe or a small plastic spoon?

My ds is bottle feed with tommy tippee have you tried the vari-flow teats? We found these a god send as ds wasn't getting enough milk through with the no1 teats. Basically the baby controls the flow of the milk so they can take it as quick or as slow as they want. HTH

You really want to complain about your midwife and HV as surely they have a duty of care weather you FF or BF

to fit the closer to nature bottles? I have put him on dr browns at the mo...

Yeah they fit the closer to nature bottles as they are the ones I have. The packet the teats come in has a half green/half orange bit on it with 3 droplets in the middle. I highly recommend them.