Feel like we just can't get 7 week old feeding right

[Liland]

My LO was born 7 weeks ago, and feeding has been a problem from the get go. His first night in hospital after my section, the midwives took him away (I agreed as they said he was starving) and fed him 30ml of formula. They recommended I keep topping him up with formula until my milk came in - he had a great latch but was just starving apparently. We switched to exclusively using formula around day 5 after a nasty bout of mastitis. My milk had come in great, but I just didn't have the knowledge or (to be frank) the mental capacity to push through it. He couldn't latch on the rock hard nipples, and pumping didn't reduce the firmness as all. It was a really really hard time for me with bad baby blues.

During one of our home visits, a midwife told us he wasn't eating enough and put him on a 3 hour feeding schedule (although he's always been on the 25th percentile and always gained after the first week). We're now back to demand feeding formula having solved some pretty serious reflux issues with ranatidine.

I'm worried that we're not getting it right still. We keep a book to record all his feedings, and he's only having about 650ml in 24 hours, and that's after much pushing. And when I say we're demand feeding, I mean he wakes up, roots, drinks maybe 50ml, and then we try to cajole him into drinking more for a good while after. We are winding him like there's no tomorrow during and after each feed as we've had severe problems with this too. All the health professionals we've spoken to say he should be having much more in each feed, but if LO had it his way, he'd be having 10-12 feeds of maybe 50ml each time. This is on comfort food - we were on anti reflux formula a few weeks back and he'd happily drink 120-150ml each feed, so I know he's capable, but his constipation was horrific. Little pebble poops he could barely get out himself.

I just feel like I'm getting it all wrong. Is there a better way I can approach his feeding to increase how much he's having each feed? I don't see how we're meant to get him in a routine (which the HV tells me I should be doing now) if he's eating so little and often. We're using NUK bottles to help with the wind - they've been so much better than others we've tried. He has plenty of wet nappies, but one dirty nappy every 3 days.

I'm back to work in less than 2 months and really stressing over this. Sorry it's long!

Bollocks to a routine at 7 weeks. That is ridiculous early and your baby is a prem! Idiot of HV.

Look up the size of your baby’s tummy it’s tiny so he will need lots of little feeds.

Comfort milk is extra thick and it can cause constipation. Ring the GPs and ask for an appointment today. Ask for Rantitadine for the reflux and go back to regular formula. There are other things you can tweak eg allergy milk but it’s only worth changing one thing at time so you know what works.

We have ranatidine already, he has three doses per day of almost 0.5ml per dose at the moment. We were thinking of trying regular formula again now he has the meds to see if he'll drink and/or poop more. We did discuss potential cow milk sensitivity, but they think he has very few symptoms of that.

It’s so difficult when they are tiny. Give the other milk ago, as the comfort is probably causing the constipation and the constipation will be making him want to drink less.

I'm not sure he is constipated? His dirty nappies, while every 3 days, are the expected texture and, like mush. He does seem uncomfy a good 24 hours before he goes, but nothing like when he was only putting out pebbles on the anti reflux formula.

That amount seems fine to me for his age, and if he's staying on his percentile line then that's fine!

I'd just nod and smile at HV, tell her what she wants to hear, and then carry on as you are. If he's gaining weight and is otherwise healthy then there's no need to stress too much!

We have a 8 weeks old little boy and he's suffered terrible with wind too. Our HV suggested using Infacol to help bring his wind up which works a charm for him.
We also have started giving him colief/co lactose drops for his trapped wind which seams to make him a lot more comfortable as he was getting quite upset whilst passing wind.

We did try Infacol for a while, and it actually made it worse. He couldn't pass any wind at all then. We've not tried anything else though, just the standard million winding poses, warm baths, massage and such.

So we should keep cajoling him into bigger feeds? I'm thinking of trying a more relaxed approach for a couple of days and just offering the bottle a couple of times after the first 50ml feed and wind and then leaving it. Perhaps if he gets himself hungrier he'll eat better? He seems really grumpy from the coerced feeding, and I can't blame him.

If he's gaining weight it's fine. So stress about it. My DS is 3.5 months and he drinks less than it says on the pack. And he's big. What am I supposedly to do? Put a funnel in him? DD was the opposite.

As to the pooing. I thought babies don't necessary need to poo everyday, so maybe every 3 days is his thing.

The routine refers to 3-hourly feeding (or thereabouts). It is kind of true, but have they got suggestions for when baby doesn't play ball? I thought not. It's a target, not a rule.

Just carry on as you are, and eventually he'll find a way to drink more (and sleep longer, because that's what motivates them).

What weight is he? General rule of thumb is 2.5oz per lb of weight. Are the teats fast enough for comfort milk? It is thicker and you need a faster teat

He's 10lb3oz. We just moved up a teat size from the small nuk size 1 to the medium nuk size 1. Until now he'd not been able to handle the normal starter teat size, he was drowning in it.

I guess I should just stress less. Pfb and all that though, I can't help but worry!

I thought you said his poos were like pebbles?

OP said the poo was like pebbles with the anti reflux milk but normal with comfort milk. Given his weight then the rule of thumb would give 25oz which is about 750mls so not that much more than the 650mls he is taking. It's just a guide anyway

Aah sorry I misunderstood.

My 14 week old still feeds little (occasionally lot!) and often (she is breast fed but don't think it should make that much difference). Some babies just don't do routine!!

My twins didn’t do routine at all - they had a lot of milk but were grazers - every 1.5-2 hours for months. Sounds like the staff have scared you to death - there’s no need for all this stress if your baby isn’t dropping centiles.

Do you think the ranitidine is helping? If not that may be part of the issue.

Feed on demand and compare - he may take more. I’d definitely try regular formula again. The thicker formula may be too difficult for him to digest. Are you sure it’s reflux and not cmpa?

From a quantity point of view my 5 month old DD who is on the 75th percentile has between 600 - 800ml in 24 hours. I breastfeed too but my supply us low and basically only give her about 4 x 5 min feeds in 24 hours so she doesn't get much from me.

I'm baffled that anyone would say your DS isn't eating enough. Ime babies eat what they want and when they want. The only thing you could try is feeding directly before a sleep to stretch out the gap between feeds and then hopefully he'll take more in one go. He's probably not having more than what he's having because he's full. Caveat....is he crying lots and in pain when having the small amounts?

We've had the exact opposite problem with our 8 week old. I can only sympathise with your concerns, I know how it feels to be worried about feeding them.

Thanks for all the replies!

The ranatidine has definitely made a huge difference. He was never very vomity, it was just pain during and after feeds (which with such frequent feeding, was pretty much always) which is now entirely gone with the exception of some obvious wind-based pain after feeds.

He only cries around food when I repeatedly try to get him to take more. And it's an angry cry, definitely not a pain cry.

Regarding feeding before sleeping - the only guaranteed sleeps he has are the overnight ones. He snacks all evening with my partner (we're doing shifts because of the frequent night wakings) and is awake for much of the time. He sleeps well from midnight to about 8am, with 2-3 bigger feeds of about 80-100ml each time. Then he's up a lot of the day unless I put him in the sling, where he sleeps long and well!

I've bought some of the original formula to start tonight since we haven't ever had the ranatidine in combination with it. Fingers crossed!

Just want to say I feel your pain. I have had feeding problems from the start..had to stop breastfeeding at 8 weeks. He was born 9th centile but has dropped to 0.3 even on formula. He only gets about 24oz a day and he's 11lb7 at 4 months. He WILL NOT drink more than he wants to. He feeds every 4 hours...and not a minute before. He has been known to drink 6oz bottles but usually only 3 or 4 oz. Is is low weight and should be drinking so much more but I don't know how I'm meant to do that. He was referred to peadiatrition who is happy with him but I still get upset about this most days. Especially when I see other babies guzzling milk down. All babies are different...and I really feel like mine just doesn't really like milk. I think ignore what you think they should be getting....he will drink what his body needs and if he is tracking the centile line you are doing a great job. I would perhaps just try a day of feeding every 4 ish hours. We used to feed often and little but 4 hourly worked better for him and did increase his intake. We offer the bottle...he drinks and pulls off so we burp him then offer again. Sometimes he will take it....Sometimes he doesn't. If he doesn't then we don't offer again until the next feed. We are strict with this because when we kept trying to offer it to get him to drink he started getting a bottle aversion.

I wish you all the luck, I know how stressful this is but you are doing an amazing job xx