Bottle feeding nightmare! Why is DD going off her milk?

[Lottiemum]

Hello all,

Just joined talk but have to say a big thank you to you all for the tips and advice you have already given me through the Mumsnet threads. I was reading while I was pregnant and since DD arrived 18 weeks ago.

DD has been bottle fed from 4 weeks and steadily increased her feeds up to 6oz (5 times a day). DD has started to drop her milk intake at both her last feed (22:30) and her second feed (11:00). I am not so concerned with the last feed as this is a dreamy feed but can't understand why she will only take between 3 and 4oz at 11:00 and has stalled at 6oz all other feeds and is making no signs to up to 7oz.

HV has advised that I should start weaning her so I started at 17 weeks but to be honest DD isn't really that interested.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

Thanks,

Anne

Is she teething? How long has it been happening for?

I wouldn't bother with weaning yet if she isn't bothered, milk is more calorific anyway and she does eat stuff it will fill her up and she might take less milk as a result.

OMG, are you sure you're not me??!!

My DD is also 18 weeks and is doing exactly this!! But my HV advised AGAINST weaning. Basically Formula has a lot more calories than any of the weaning foods that you could give and weaning may actually cause your LO to lose weight if she's not wanting her bottles.

My LO does have a bit of an excuse as she had thrush in her mouth which was diagnosed at 12 weeks and she'd had it pretty much since birth (of course the GPs didn't believe us because she was FF... ), so because her mouth feels so different now it's gone, her feeding has been really erratic.

I don't know about you, but I am absolutely despairing and have to walk away in tears when she doesn't take her feeds as she's dropped from the 25th to just above the 2nd centile in weight. She's happy, weeing and pooing and generally very healthy, she's also still on the right centile for height and head circumference, it's just her weight.

She's taking between 24-30oz a day at the moment and still sleeps for 12 hours a night without waking.

In pure desperation, I phoned Aptamil today on their advice line and they said not to panic. If she's taking some milk (strangely they only say they need between 6-8ozs 4-5 times a day between 4 and 5 months...) and is still weeing and pooing and is generally healthy, she will be fine. They also said that before babies start teething, their teeth begin to move around under their gums, causing pain. Because of this, the babies will only take the bare minimum to satisfy their immediate hunger as it's painful to suck. So it could be that this is happening to your LO as I think this might be the case with my DD.

As long as she is weeing and pooing and generally healthy/happy, I'm being told not to worry, so I'd say the same to you!!

HTH xxx

Thank you both,

This has been happening for about 3 weeks.

I'm not going to persist with weaning. To be honest I wasn't too comfortable to start weaning so soon when LO isn't showing very many signs that she is looking for solids just yet.

DD is starting to teeth and is all hands in mouth and drooling all over the place. I give her Ashton & Parsons to help with this and it seems to be helping her be less irritable.

Will try not to worry too much. DD is generally happy and has lots of wet and dirty nappies.

I was thinking of changing DD's teat to a faster flow to lessen the amount of sucking she has to do - what do you think?

Thanks again,

Anne x

faster flow teat is definitely worth trying.

Hope things sort themselves out, and I know it is hard but as she seems happy and alert I really would try not to worry.

Hi Lottiemum,

Changing the teats (and even bottles in my case), is definitely something to try. Also, if it's not too costly, maybe try changing to MAM bottles. We'd used Avent all the time but found that she initially improved when we changed to MAM bottles as the teat was a different shape.

Eventually though, my LO has reverted to being fussy. I'm just hoping that she's a fussy eater and there isn't actually anything wrong.

Have made the decision though to stop getting her weighed as the stress is starting to effect me quite badly. Unless she seems unhappy or visibly ill, I'm not going to take her back to the HV. The centile charts are just a nightmare!!

xxx

DD1 never ever drank more than 20-25oz a day when she was 4-6mths. She thrived whilst we had a miserable time trying to figure out why. We weaned at 5/6 mths and she ate so little it wasn't worth the stress. If she was ever ill she ate nothing. it was utter misery for over a year where food was concerned. However she bounced around 50-75th centiles. Tbh she only started eating regular amounts from aged 3! She is now 4 and wears aged 7 clothes and off the weight and height charts altogether. I just wished I had enjoyed her more instead of worrying.

BTW we spent a fortune on teats and bottle. MAM fast flow the best but she still never took more than 4oz at a time

Yentil, that's such a relief... Thank you. Did the HV worry about the centile issue? I think the concern they have is that she started on the 25th centile, then dropped to the 9th which I believe is totally related to the fall-out from the oral thrush as she just couldn't get to grips with the different feel and taste in her mouth. But this week she'd dropped again to just about the 2nd.

Do you think I'm right to stop worrying and not think about taking her back to the HV. A lot of people have told me to stop going back if it's stressing me out so much...

Lottiemum - sorry to hijack but hopefully some of this info will be helpful to you aswell!!

xx