Not a lover of the bottle

[Norny]

My son is 5 months old. I bottle fed him from the beginning and each feed was a struggle and nightmare. Eventually we found out he was allergic to protein in the milk and switched to a prescribed formula. He never took more than 3 -5 oz a feed. By 13 weeks I had to introduce solids as he grew hungrier but still refused more formula. Now he has started to only take 3 -5 oz a day. He will not drink boiled water or juice. As he is so fond of the spoon I have tried to give him liquids this way, but he just refuses them. Does anyone have any advice for a first-time Mum?. I am so concerned he is not getting enough fluids and nutrients/minerals required for proper development.

I'm sorry - I can't really help you, only thing I would say is have you tried making the milk warmer? When my DD was that age we would often have to reheat the milk in the middle of the feed to make her drink it.
Other than that - just wanted to sympathise with you. Have you spoken to your HV?

Thanks Pandabear for your suggestion, it's worth a try and there might be something in it as he does prefer the botle warm when I first give it to him. Today has been a good day so far. He drank 4.5 oz early this morning and has had 3 oz of juice this afternoon (which is a first!). I spoke with the Hv and she suggested I make up 3 x 5 oz bottles a day and try to get them into him by bottle or mixing in with food - but it is an up hill battle. My main concern was not getting enough liquids into him in this warm weather. I'm sick of hospitals and determined not to have him re-admitted.

When DS was like this at a similar age (due to teething and so only temporary) I used to try and make his purees, porridge, fromage frais etc really sloppy to try and get some down him. I still don't think he drinks enough and think it is a contributory factor to a tendency to constipation. Have you tried your DS with a cup at all? When DS poorly (d&v) I even resorted to giving him water from a syringe. Just some ideas.

Thanks Bozza. Nice to hear someone out there has experienced something like what I'm going through with DS (only getting used to abrvs). The syringe suggestion is very good, never thought of that. Although when I had to give him nightly medine for constipation when we first found out about the allergy, I used a syringe(Sometimes I think going through pregnancy and the aftermath has left me brain dead). Regarding introducing the cup, I had thought about that and had experimented with a few beakers friends had given as pressies. I tested these first to see how strong the suck would have to be and nearly gave myself collapsed lung trying. It seems alot of these are designed as non spill but how a baby or todller is supposed to drink from one is a mystery - so now I will scour the shops for a more suitable beaker (any suggestions would be helpful).

Norny - not any advice re the bottle feeding (sorry) but suggestions for the beakers... the little Boots one (green with no handles, £2) just has a hole and is the only one my DS has ever drunk from. Know what you mean about the collapsed lung for all the others. Do search the boards for 'doidy' cups. The reviews are mainly positive although I have yet to try them out on my 9 month old. Friends of mine have also done 'cheers' with their babies - bit of postive reinforcement for drinking, although as they get older there's more 'cheers' and clanking beakers than drinking going on!

Oh, just wanted to second Bozza's suggestion re making the food watery. DS often had very watered down veg/fruit purees to make sure he was getting enough liquid.

Thanks Gem13, Boots is certainly answering one or two of my prayers lately. The most recent one had to do with a soother. I got a big basket of baby equipment from some friends of DH (very kind of them)and without taking much notice selected one of the packets of soothers only to find out in a panic some 6 weeks later that this type of soother was the only one DS would have and his old one was by then growing hairs!. So after making a very big hole in my pocket scouring every chemist in my local town buying up every available soother known I finally discovered the bl**dy thing came from boots (long winded side story but enjoying sharing information on this fab site) So will definately look out for the beaker you suggested.

My 10 month old has not been keen on drinking much since about January. Doesn't seem to affect him much, though I am concerned. He will take a BF in morning, 1-2ozs water or juice from a trainer cup at lunch and 1-4ozs formula from bottle in evening. That's it. Rest of time I try to put extra fluids into his feeds but this is becoming harder as he has taken so well to solids that runny food is not on. My other 2 were great at taking their milk/water/juice. Any thoughts?

Hi Butterfly Mum, sounds like your in the same boat as me, although I think you have a harder job as your little one is 10 mnths and like you say is not fond of runny food anymore. I just spend each day working through how many ozs Ds has taken and how many more I can work into his meals and worrying all the time. Have you thought about switching to full milk? he may prefer the taste. I was discussing my own situation with my mother recently and she recalled that my younger sister refused formula from 6 months and the only thing she could get into her was full milk, which she took to immediately and never looked back. But it depends on what your view is on introducing full milk earlier than the 12 mnth milestone. The other suggestion I would have (in terms of getting liquid into ds/dh) would be to freeze fruit purees onto a lolipop stick and give these to your child. This idea I picked up from a mother/child mag but can't remember where you get the sticks from (sorry). I can't wait to try this on ds when he is older and sitting unsupported. It is also supposed to be great for teething.

No real advice really, other than my DS was very picky and I had huge struggles trying to get him to drink his formula and then weaning him on to solids. I was still struggling when I went back to work when he was about 6 months. My fab nanny got left to sort it out.

He certainly drank more when we switched to cows milk, I think he just didn't like formula milk.

Now he is 21 months and still does not appear that fussed by food - he can go for long periods of time on what seems to me very little and then he will just decide to eat. If I want him to eat then I have to distract him with stories, songs etc...while i attempt to shovel food into his mouth. The other thing that he does is graze, I just give him lots of opportunities to snack.

On the plus side, food does not rule his life, he isn't that keen on ice cream, biscuits or chocolate and tends to eat really healthy things like raw vegetables ( including raw onion !!).

That is all in the future for you, but I would just keep a close eye on him - get him weighed regularly and make sure that he is not falling behind on his weight centile. If he does then discuss with the HV how to deal with it.

We also gave our DS liquid vitamins - not quite sure when you can start that but check with pharmacist.

In relation to fluids, DS couldn't get the hang of the non spill beakers - so we use one where it ends up going all over him, but at least some goes in his mouth. We use one from Sainsburys - don't know the name but it is opaque with a design on it and has a spout with three holes.

Lastly, it totally stressed me out making feeding a battle - retrospectively the more I struggled to make him eat the more he fought me. At the end of the day he will take in what he wants.

I had so many problems with mine not drinking her formula & never having the recommended amount but my HV & friends convinced me that if she was putting on weight then not to worry & eventually I relaxed. I ended up keeping a diary of how much (or little) she drunk & showed it to the HV...every baby is so different & they do take what they need.
Keep perservering as he gets bigger he will natuarlly take more & more.

It's good to hear that other Mums have had similar worries regarding feeding issues. I'm starting to relax a little now about it all. My DS is putting on weight and no one would think he was a premature baby by looking at him despite my worries about how much formula he takes. Thanks again to all you Mums who took the time to respond to my request for advice on this matter.

Butterflymum - my ds was off fluids for the last 7 days, fusing and refusing the bottle. As you know this has been a constant problem but I became really concerned when nappies appeared real dry and he became constipated so I brought him to a different doctor today. He checked him over and found ds had an on-going throat infection ( I am furious with other doctors for not diagnosing this in the past as I am convinced this has been a contributing factor all along). Also doctor advised I give him flat 7up by syringe frequently. I was quite surprised as thought this was a no-no with such a young baby but doc said ok over 48 hour period whilst antibiotics kick in. I asked him about ds becoming de-hydrated and doc advised that as long as I was getting small amounts of fluids into him regularly I only should become worried if ds starts vomiting. Anyway just thought you may be interested in the fact that this has been left undiagnosed for so long. Perhaps you should check this out with your ds if still worried about his fluid intake.