Rejecting Bottle and Breast

[Rosmum]

My son is almost 12 weeks old. For the first 6 weeks life was wonderful, he slept and fed and seemed very content. He put on weight and thrived. For weeks 7 - 10 he became very unsettled and would not sleep at all during the day and was whingey and moaney. I had been breastfeeding him but he was given expressed milk through a bottle from 2 weeks which he took well.At about 9 weeks breastfeeding became quite stressful as he pulled on and off the breast and cried frequently. He did not show this problem when bottle feeding so I switched to expressing full time and have been doing this for over 2 weeks now. Last week my son then began to cry taking his bottle. He cries with hunger and sucks furiously for the first few minutes, will drink a few ounces and then starts crying. I have been investigated for Thrush and have taken medication as has the baby. My HV who observed him feeding thought it might be reflux, and I was prescribed Infant Gaviscon, but the crying has persisted. The only way to get him to take a bottle is to literally distract him by moving around the room with him whilst you are feeding him and he will take maximum of 5 ozs. Today he has taken 16 ounces in a 12 hour period, which I don't think is enough for him. The strange thing is that he is in great form between feeds and is smiling and happy, and has short sleeps for about half an hour every one and half hour to two hours. I have tried to breastfeed him also again, but the same behaviour is shown. The doctor has checked him over and he has no ear infection, throat infection or apparent tummy trouble

I am at a loss as to what to do next, he is a big baby (14lb) and his weight gain slowed down in the past week to 4ozs when previously it had been almost double this. Has anyone else experienced anything like it?

My ds who if you've ready any threads that I'm in you'll know is usually ill... well we had a problem with him refusing milk for a while, after talking to hv she said to add a little water to it.

Then did the same thing whilst on formular spoke to hv again she said add an extra scoop of formula this worked, something about changing the taste.

Failing that I'd put baby on a faster flow teat, he may be frustrated with the lack of nurishment his receiving. Sorry did you say you had a boy? Well boy's can be very lazy at feeding so I'm told.

Good luck and don't stress about it, if you're really realy concerned phone your mum, mine was invaluble to me or a breastfeeding councelor. Sometimes it helps to have a human voice say it's alright your doing the right things. Which I'm sure you are.

If he is contented between feeds and will settle flat to sleep afterwards I doubt that it is reflux. Also would seem quite late for it to manifest itself. Is it every feed or could it be when you have eaten something in particular. 4 oz weight gain doesn't sound too bad to me, often tails off in the weeks before starting to wean. If he is otherwise happy and healthy he is probably doing ok.

hth