Weaning a 15 week old

[Ipp3]

My 15 week old has a lot of pain and trouble around eating. The paediatrician suspects either food intolerance or bad reflux. She has given him meds for reflux and disgusting formula milk, which is bitter and yeasty tasting. He hates it. He will only drink between 10 or 40 mls at a time and no more than around 300 in a day. He should be drinking about 900 mls. Because of this I am supplementing with breast milk ( I have stopped eating the foods the paed. Said might be the prob), but he is now refusing to eat by breast too. Anyway, he still only gained 30grams in 8 days of being on the formula. I know it is well before recommended weaning age but I am desperate to get some substinence into him. What are your views on weaning now? My mil did, and I know someone who weaned her daughter at 18 weeks on hospitals advice due to the same problem.
And has anyone else experience of baby with same problem. He arches or straightens when I try to feed him, and throws his head around and refuses food. I think he is scared to eat due to the pain.

Hi OP.

Massive sympathy - I have been there with a baby who refuses to eat and it is truly awful.

I am not sure weaning will work this early. Babies with intolerances are terribly fussy about what goes in their mouths so you may find that your LO simply won't take it anyway. My DD is almost 8 months and is only just taking solids due to issues related to intolerance and reflux.

I would try to mix formula with BM then move to move formula gradually over time. The nutramigen website actually recommends a drop of of banana milkshake syrup as well.

Maybe try these things first before weaning.

I also felt that weaning was the answer to all my worries about feeding. It hasn't been.

Good luck and keep seeking advice - your situation is dreadful.

Also, it can take 3 weeks for the problem substances to be eliminated from your LO's system.

With my DD who was 4 weeks old when she refused to eat and ended up being tube fed, it took another few weeks before she stopped losing weight never mind putting weight on. She was much, much younger but took a long time to take more than 30ml per feed. I worked on the premise of time amounts often. I essentially had a bottle on the go all the time and just tried her periodically. I still find she is better when she is very sleepy and with wean the dream sheep playing.

What dose of omeprazole is your LO on? This was a wonder drug for us - DD's milk intake went up 50% within 24 hours of being on it.

Also, I think your GP sounds most unhelpful. Mine said I could go to him but follow up with the consultant later

I had the same problem with my little one. He had always seemed uncomfortable and was tricky feeder, but around 8-10 weeks it started to get really bad. After experimenting with different meds, we ended up putting him on Neocate to see if that helped.

It took a looooong time. We had to wean him onto it from another hypoallergenic formula very very slowly, it was literally a case of increasing it by a scoop every few days.

I kept googling like mad as I didn't see the miraculous 2 week improvement that my paediatrician had suggested. In the end it took about 5 weeks before we noticed a difference.

Since then, my LO has really come on, he has suddenly zoomed through his developmental milestones and he is like a different baby, but it wasn't overnight but actually quite gradual. He downs his bottles in one now, and you know that when he tells you he's had enough, that he is actually full and you don't have to try and persuade him to take more.

We have even taken him off the omepezrazole (very slowly) and infant gaviscon.

I have since started weaning and it's definitely not the magic answer - some foods seem to bring back his reflux, and it's a nightmare trying to wean a baby without being able to give him any dairy. We are doing baby led weaning and I would definitely recommend this for babies in this situation, as they seem to instinctively know what they want and don't want. He had oral aversion already, so trying to shove a spoon in his mouth before he was old enough to fight back would have been the worst thing we could have done for him.

So hang on in there, take it VERY slowly introducing the new formula, don't expect results for another few weeks and I definitely, definitely wouldn't even consider weaning him yet, as you could make it worse.

Good luck, you have my sympathy.

Different situation but I know someone who had to go over to neocate from breastfeeding. Her dd refused bottles completely (due to pain etc, bad associations with them). They started out giving tiny bits of neocate on a spoon and built up from there using cups not bottles. Perhaps worth trying giving milk via different means?

I began weaning my dd this week at 15 weeks under paed and dietician advice as she will not take a bottle due to milk aversion (severe reflux even on meds). Not sure what formula u are using we have neocate as she is also an allergy baby. Ask your paed about "neocate spoon" a weaning powder like formula but mixes with water to become a yogurt. V high calories that is what we are using until dd hits 17 weeks and we can start to add other foods.

DS is 6m now. He had the same troubles your little one is having.
He was referred to the hospital and his consultant tried a variation of things

First, Gaviscon which constipated him and added to our woes

Then LF milk

Then the LF milk with Ranitidine

Then the magic combo for us anyway of Aptamil Pepti (cows milk protein free) and Omeprazol

It's very much trial and error which is very unhelpful until you find the right mix for your lo.

Weaning - consultant told us to try a bit of early weaning at 17 weeks but he simply was not ready so don't think that introducing food is the magic solution. Now at 28w he is JUST starting to eat bits of food. Up until now he has played with it and tasted bits by putting to his mouth but barely swallowed any at Allan's I suspect it will be another few months before he is eating 'meals'.

What has helped massively is time. As time has passed and he has got stronger and especially now he can sit up himself, things have really improved. So, the right combo of meds/milk plus time is your best bet.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to wean just to get calories into him cos chances are, the number of calories you'd get into him in the early days of weaning is minimal. Push for a better combo of meds/milk. The right one will be there-it's just trial and error but yes, the time spent finding that combo seems like a never ending nightmare

Sorry to hear you're struggling, and it must be awful for your DS to suffer so much with reflux.

Please don't rush to wean him - if he has allergies and intolerances, the damage to his gut could be extensive. It may be worth waiting a bit longer for the meds to kick in and trying to adjust the formula.

I know a few babies with reflux issues - one developed a major food aversion and isn't eating solids at 14 months (but is slowly adjusting after a tongue and lip tie procedure which has helped him hugely).

Another has a much more serious immune disorder. His mother was told he may need to be tube fed and may not have a long life expectancy. She read up on his diagnosis and treated him with the GAPS diet. He's now a strong toddler who can eat lots of foods and she's slowly able to introduce more variety, since his intestines are healing after all the inflammation and damage from his original milk allergy.

I'm not an expert so don't know if the GAPS diet could help your son, but it may be worth looking it up.

Good luck!

Breast milk and formula milk are chock full of calories and nutrients.

If you wean him, you'll be giving him puréed veggies which though solid in appearance are lighter in calories and nutrients.

As tempting as it is, it does not make any sense.

I feel for you, horrible having a baby who won't feed. I wonder if there ate any ways of making feeding calmer and easier for both of you? Dd was breastfed but had phases of being a nightmare to feed, screaming, struggling, refusing to latch on... She had reflux but no food intolerances that I know of (she's 2 now). What sometimes worked for us was experimenting with changing position/location. For example, sometimes it helped to lie her tummy to tummy with me and feed her, so she was kind of upright, sometimes stripping both of us off and snuggling under a blanket, sometimes the only thing that worked was standing up and gently jiggling while feeding (yes we were desperate!). He may be finding the introduction of bottles a bit unsettling and need a bit of extra comfort - have you tried things like carrying him round in a sling (bring upright is good for refluxy babies anyway) or snuggling up together for naps?