5 month old refusing food

[JoandMax]

Hi everyone,
I have a bit of a long running problem with my little boy's feeding. From around 8 weeks he started to fuss at feeds, push the bottle away etc. We have seen the GP, asked the HV and they have not really given any help but to say it's just a phase........ We're been given Ranitadine in case it's silent reflux but it makes no difference.
The last few days he has been the worse he's ever been, each feed has ended up him screaming and me crying, he's only had 80ml at 7am this morning and 40ml at 11.30am and I cannot get him to take anymore. He has some solids which he will eat but we're right at the beginning of weaning so it's a couple of teaspoons, not really enough to be affecting his appetite.
I just feel at the end of my tether, he's dropped from 91st to below 50th centile in weight and I just don't know wha to do anymore. He's also started sleping badly recently and I feel like I'm the worst mother in the world and am doing something so wrong to make him so miserable, my confidence is at an all time low
Any advice welcome xx

I don't really have any advice about the feeding but I just didn't want to read and not answer. Don't feel bad though! The sleeping is probably unrelated to the feeding and will be developmental (he's working on new skills which disrupt his sleep). My dd started sleeping badly at this age too and it wasn't anything to do with feeding. Could you go back to the GP again and badger them a bit more? My friend's wee boy dropped from the 91st to the 50th and stayed there, but he's 13 months now and perfectly healthy. Although my friend still worries about it as well.

Thank you. I think the lack of sleep is probably making me feel a lot worse, what I would do for a solid 8 hours!!
I have made an appointment to see the GP again next week, they seem to think as he's developing well, not dehydrated or listless then it's behavioural (although I can't see how a baby this young could have behaviour problems myself!). Will take husband though for moral support, he's a bit better than me at being assertive too.
A month ago he was fine, slept all night, ate reasonably well and now it's like we've regressed, ah well it can't last indefinitely I suppose x

Yes, you've got to keep thinking 'it will pass' but sleep deprivation is awful, believe I know and I feel for you. Good luck with it.

Hi - I've only just seen this message as have only just joined Mumsnet. I am having a similar problem with my 5 month old. It started 2 months ago and I had to take her to a&e as she didn't accept anything for over 7 hours. They couldn't find anything wrong, said she had a reddish throat and gave me some difflam spray. Don't know if it was a co-incidence (or extreme hunger) but after that she took a bottle. However for the past two months it's been a nightmare getting much into her - some weeks are worse than others and today is really bad as she's got another cold. I'm now going to start trying different bottles & formula and am taking her to see a paed on monday so will let you know if I have any joy. It's really hard I agree.

Hi Corbett,

Sorry you're havng this too, it's horrible as you just want them to be healthy and grow well!!
Max had a dreadful christmas, hardly had anything but the last week has started to pick up and amazingly took a whole 200ml feed this morning. We think it's because we are now not feeding him between 7pm and 7am so he is actually hungry now in the morning. We had given him a dreamfeed at 10pm which he took so were reluctant to stop that but one day last week we were so tired and as he was waking up in the night anyway we thought we'd just go to bed and wait for him to wake up to feed and he didn't!
We are also weaning so he will have a decent sized bowl of baby rice at breakfast (I make it with 50ml of milk so he gets some from there), vegetables at 11.30am and fruit/rice at 5.30pm. He now just has 4 milk feeds a day which although some people will think is too few it does seem to have helped him be able to take more.
I hope you get some good advice from the paed and things start to improve x

My 5mth old DD is the same.
This is the second phase of this we have had and agree its most annoying!

DD will take 3ozs max then just stop and refuse any more. At night she will wake and only take 1 Oz but wake an hour later hungry again. Its been like this for a few days now.

DD is teething so im guessing there maybe a connection.. that the sucking is hurting her gums or something.

Not really any help but just to say I know how you feel and your not alone!

Hi JoandMax and Pigleypudding,
I have no idea if this will be of any help to either of you but I took my little one to the paed and he said she has silent reflux (acid comes up and is causing her pain so she's associated pain with the bottle). I know he's the professional but I am a bit dubious as I know quite a few people where this has been diagnosed and when treated nothing has improved. However I'm now giving her Zantac liquid 3 times a day but apparently it takes a while to work and repair the damage the acid has done. In the meantime the only trick that works for me at the moment is if she gets worked up before she feeds I'm giving her a dummy to calm her (don't normally use one but she won't feed if she's screaming). If that still doesn't work (which it normally doesn't by itself) i put on her 'womb box' - we have used this since birth as it sends her to sleep. So basically a combination of the dummy and womb box totally chills her out and sometimes I have to wait until she's really sleepy until she takes anything. Sorry for long message but I agree that it gets better once they are on solids. I feel for anyone in this position but now I know I can get something into her via this method I have chilled out a lot more and I think that helps as well. It's really hard as it can consume your day so I do feel for you.

Hi Corbett,
Glad you have something to try, this is what Max has as the doctors thought silent reflux too. It does make a difference in that Max used to scream for up to an hour after feeds and now doesn't which is a very good thing!
I find getting him to chill works too, also if we're having a particularly bad day then I feed him when he's asleep, gets a good 4 ounces in him so at least I know he's hydrated and has had something.
Max is having a good week luckily and ate well yesterday, had him weighed too and he's only 2oz away from doubling his birth weight whihc is fab - the paed wanted to start further tests if he hadn't by 6 months so a very relived mummy about that!
Lots of love to you both and fingers crossed things start to get better xx