Fussing at bottle

[yoda]

Hi all,

My ds (nearly 12wks) has recently started fussing quite badly when he is feeding. He will quite happily take a couple of ounces, then cries/screams, arches his back and generally makes it difficult to try and feed him. We try winding him, sitting him up straighter and different flow rates. This morning it has taken him nearly an hour to take 6oz. Once he has had his grizzle/thrash he generally settles to more milk. Does anyone else suffer this ? My ds rarely seems to be happy when he finishes his feeds, except when he drops off. After about 5mins or so he becomes happy and it seems not to bother him. He is gaining weight well (15lb 3oz) and seems to be healthy/happy, but this fussing is starting to get me down. Any suggestions ??

No advice for you, just sympathy. My ds used to always take his feeds in 2 'shifts'. It drove us mad! It would take an hour for every feed then and hour and half after that he would be looking for another one! It did settle down though. Quite quickly and bear in mind that in a few weeks you can start solids. That helped my ds lots.

It does sound like something to do with trapped wind. Have you tried Infacol or such?

HTH.

hi yoda. My nearly 12wk old ds has started doing exactly the same thing. Some days it's been impossible to get him to finish his feed, he has one breast and then the screams start.
I thought it could be wind so I'm trying to cut down on so-called 'wind-producing' foods e..g broccoli, beans, brown rice and caffeine. The caffeine is proving really hard - I need my cups of tea!
He's been better today so maybe it's working. Or maybe it's just been a good day!
Does Infacol work? Does it have any side-effects that anyone knows of?

jennyj, I found infacol was great for both my babies wind. No side effects at all and completely safe from birth.

I should have had shares in infacol, i bought so much. Truly a lifesaver with our windy little one. It is practically inert and just coats the digestive bits, I think, to allow wind bubbles to join and be expelled easier rather than fizz about inside causing pain. That's how I understood it anyway (not scientific!)

is he really hungry? Maybe thats what hes trying to say!1 GRRR babies!

I think babies have hungry days and not hungry days. If he's refusing more than one breast maybe he doesn't need more?

Hi there - we had similar problems. A couple of things helped - winding as soon as he started to wriggle (or even before starting feeding) seemed to help a lot, later when this wasn't working we took the advice from some lovely person on mumsnet and increased the flow speed. Which teat size are you using? Could it be your baby is getting frustrated?

I'm soooo glad I'm not the only person with this problem!! DD has been like this for 3-4wks now. She screams, arches her back, makes a strange growling noise and generally makes feeding time pretty stressful. I've found that she does prefer to take the bottle whilst sitting in her bouncy chair and also a darkened room helps which is not great when your out!

I breast and bottle feed and have had the same problems with both methods. I guess we just have to sit tight and hope it's a phase.

Sorry I'm not much help but I really do sympathise!

I get this body arching from DS with both breast and bottle feeding. When he does it during bottle feeding I have to put him flat on his mat or bed/bouncer and feed him flat, something I do worry about. But it works. With breast-feeding he can get into a real rage when hungry with a slow flow and I have to lie in bed with him to breast feed. He prefers it to sitting up with me.

With any kind of feeding it takes forever to get milk down him and we have hours of staring around, feeding, arching, smiling and then starting all over again.

Yoda, I sympathize. My 13-week-old feeds for 6-8 mins then breaks off and screams when I try to put her back on. It has been driving me mad but she's putting on weight so she must be getting enough. I usually get up, plonk her in baby chair and go and do something else e.g. empty washing machine then try again 15 mins later. It actually works quite well b/c at least I know the feeds are fairly brief - dd1 used to be on for about 40 mins every time and I'd be glued to the sofa unable to move.

I do think that sometimes she's overtired and can't be bothered to latch on properly so I put a dummy in and when she's soothed herself by sucking I whip it out and shove my nipple in instead and she doesn't seem to notice. Very cunning, I thought! Got the idea from another post on mumsnet.

The other annoying thing is that after about 2/3 mins I get a massive letdown and she ALWAYS pulls off and I spray her, the room and my clothes (and the doctor's surgery on Wednesday afternoon) with a fine mist of milk.