6mo refusing to feed cmpa

[Zara1234uk]

I just wondered if anyone had been through something similar. My 6mo LG has been on alfamino for about 4 months, she’s got suspected cmpa and silent reflux, which is managed by liquid omeprazole. Usually during the day/ night she’s bright alert and happy. Until it’s time to feed! She’s formula fed since birth as I failed at breastfeeding due to a bad case of mastitis. She hates having a bottle, her dietician calls it bottle aversion, we use vanilla in her bottles as advised and sometimes she will take it ok ish if she’s not distracted but very rarely. It’s been getting progressively worse and now she’s refusing each feed. We started weaning on advice of dieticain a month ago but it’s been very slow and the amount of purée she has isn’t having any affect on the amount of milk she should have. I’ve asked if I can transition her early to oat milk perhaps with an added vitamin but they’ve said no. Sorry for the absolute essay but I’m at my wits end. She doesn’t sleep due to hunger but won’t feed to go back to sleep and going anywhere in the day is a huge no no (covid permitting) as I can’t risk that she won’t feed! Any help is greatly appreciated thank you x

No experience sorry, well apart from me having CMPA. I totally get that she will probably associate milk with pain and discomfort but it does sound like you need some help for her feeding aversion and quickly. Hopefully someone will be along soon with some experience of having a baby with this. In the meantime can you add olive oil to some of her purées to add calories and good fats?

@BunnyRuddington oh brill I didn’t think of that thank you for replying! It’s such a useless situation I’m just wishing for Monday so I can call her dieticain. Thanks again

Will she take milk in another way other than a bottle? SNS, cup feeding?

Hi OP. Are you looking for options of getting more dairy into your child, or alternative milk options?
My son has CMPA and I moved him onto Nannycare goat milk and he was fine. Of course check with your health visitor but I was e it by another mum whose baby had CMPA. I’m not sure the exact reason but it seems to have done the trick!
I use oat milk for everything else.
Will your baby take a sippy cup? You could try offering warm milk in that during the day and keeping the bottle for nighttime’s. If she’s half asleep hopefully she’ll accept it a bit better.

Thanks @addler and @OllietheOwl I haven’t actually tried cup feeding. I just want her to drink either really I was going to swop her to oat milk but they’ve said not before 1. They’ve told me also that goats milk is too similar to cows milk so not o bother. It’s so hard to know what to do for the best incase I set her back even further. Sorry what is sns? Thanks everyone

The amino milks taste vile. I've been there with open of mine and it is awful. Chasing your baby round with the bottle whilst they bat it away.....

Is your baby able to feed themselves i.e. convey stuff to mouth reliably? If so high calorie milk free things might work... avocado sticks being one example. Dairy-free cake/ brownie bars etc... The usual rules about only offering healthy stuff don't apply with babies with feeding aversion. Maybe softish bread dipped in hummus? Only if no worries about sesame allergies of course....

Swap not swop sorry!

With one. Not open!

@Aalvarino that’s exactly how it goes it’s insanely frustrating isn’t it. No we’ve not started with finger food yet but I’m certainly thinking this is the way to go as she just hates taking in liquid. I’m definitely going to suggest that when I call on Monday morning thank you

It is a special form of torture that is not easy to understand if you've not been through it. You have my sympathy.

@Aalvarino I definitely agree with you there it’s awful. Thanks again

Ask your doctor for neocate to try. It comes in different flavours so not quite as bad as some other milk free formulas. We ended up with severe milk allergy so had to stop anything dairy and it was hard going.

@Morechocmorechoc thank you I will mention it to her dietician on Monday (providing they answer!)

If she's averse and you have her health problems under control, you want to read Rowena Bennett.

My ds was cmpa and severely projectile vomit refluxy. All day every day. And at night. It took us until he was 6 months to get the right formula (also alfamino) and meds in place, and we did Rowena's program for averse babies at 8 months when he still wouldn't drink unless asleep... We had to feed him in his bouncer for a couple of months after, but he took it willingly and now loves his bottles and is back in arms or wherever. It's life changing.

Bottle/milk averse babies are often also averse to solids. It's a control issue. Mine is now over 2 and still learning to eat. He has night milk STILL to maintain his weight. It's not great and he's still skinny, but he's getting there very slowly. He has never allowed us to feed him with a spoon except the occasional yogurt. Early weaning did not help us, but he did eventually start on those melty puffs (if you completely ignored him and sat really far away).

Good luck. I know there are worse things you can go through with a baby, but being unable to feed your child is unimaginable hell.

Forgot to add, while the amino acid formula tastes rank, it doesn't really matter to a truly averse baby. They don't drink because of learned pressure.

Definitely try Rowena Bennet - I'll try to dig out the link to her book.

Also - what bottles do you use? My baby had feeding aversion and a combination of RB/feeding less frequently/anti colic bottles have really helped a lot.

Definitely worth trying a few things. Feeding aversion is hell and it wasn't until about 7 months that we finally got it sorted out.

Another vote for Rowena Bennet. My daughter had severe reflux pretty much since birth, by the time she was 3 months her reflux was under control with medication however every feeding session was traumatic, hours spent with both of us in tears and me crying over every oz she hadn’t taken. Eventually I read Rowenas book and done her programme, within 2 weeks things were so much better and now 2 months down the line she feeds beautiful, I even said to my husband yesterday I enjoy feeding her something neither of us ever though would be possible.

I agree with all the posters who mentioned Rowena Bennett's book, you can also join the Facebook group :

www.facebook.com/groups/babycarefeedingaversionsupportgroup/?ref=share

(Sorry I don't know how to do a clicky link)

My daughter had CMPA, and bottle aversion. She used to only drink the minimum amount of milk about 60ml per feed and it was such a stressful and incredibly worrying time. She actually ended up with a feeding tube when in actual fact they should've just taught us how to deal with her aversion! In the end we did the programme ourselves without recommendation from the paediatrician, as they told us she'd have the tube until she was at least 1yr old (she was 5 months old at this point)

It was awful!

Anyway. Don't end up with a tube! Try the programme first - read the book ASAP. It will change your life :)

My daughter was also on Alfamino and we tried mixing it with some sugar free Crusha chocolate flavour and that helped her to drink it.

Good luck. It truly is horrible to have a bottle averse baby. But you can and will get through it x

Thanks so much to everyone that’s replied. I have ordered rowena Bennett’s book and joined the fb group. It’s such a hard thing to go through and no one really understands especially when the rest of the time baby looks totally fine! I’m sorry that you’ve all had a similar problem but I’m reassured that you’ve managed to solve it! Hoping to read the whole thing in one nap time! She’s just drank 5 oz in her sleep so we will see how the next feed goes. We use mam anti colic bottles and she feeds lying on a pillow as she refuses to be held. Anyway thanks again everyone.

Ah ok,mam anti colic is what we changed to (previously used mam glass bottles and the teat kept collapsing/air couldn't get in). It still might be worth trying different bottles in case your LO gets on better with them for some reason.

How are you getting on with purees? We chose to do blw mainly because of the horrible experience of feeding aversion, so with solids we never place anything in her mouth, she does it all herself. It took her a while to get the hang of it but she's doing really well now (8 months). Totally up to you of course and might be irrelevant if your LO gets on with purees but just thought I'd mention it.

Good luck! Feeding aversion is awful to experience x

Just offering you a hand hold.

My baby was diagnosed as CMPA at 9 weeks old and life was so difficult in terms of encouraging him to feed and then the nightmare that was meaning. It was a really difficult period of my life: poor weight gain due to refusing to eat and it certainly took its toll on me. Every meal time I would end up in tears because it all felt so hopeless.

Thankfully we turned a corner when he was just over 2 years old and now, aged 3.5 years old he will pretty much anything and everything.

My friend has got an 11 month old CMPA baby and she is so stressed over her intake and it’s like looking in a mirror of when my life was so difficult.

As a previous poster said, having a CMPA infant is a form of hell that people just can’t understand unless they’ve been there themselves

@Zara1234uk

Hi, I hope you are well

I'm literally going through the same thing ATM and I am in tears at every feed

My 7 month old is not weaning, won't open mouth, has dropped from 9th to 0.4 centile and has CMPA on Puramino with vanilla essence but I'm struggling to get past 14oz a day

How did you get on in the end? Any pearls of wisdom?

Thank you

@Hazzyyy

Hello, sorry your going through this, it really is nightmare, but it does get better! We found the only way to distract her was to put baby sensory tv on and pray she opened her mouth for the bottle. It’s not really helpful advice as I’m sure you’re already doing all sorts of things. She would dream feed too but again it’s really not ideal. We moved her over to Alpro growing up milk at 11 months, early I know but the health visitor ok’d it as we were so desperate. She eventually realised she liked the new milk (soya) and still now at 3 happily takes a bottle of it before bed. (Still giving it as her diets so limited) it was a case of riding the worst time out till she eventually started taking more solids, she has an aversion to “wet” food which made weaning a terrible time too and I found myself wishing the time away so I could give her hard foods. Have you tried baby led weaning? I hear that works well for babies who dislike puree. Sorry I haven’t been much help but honestly it can only get better and it will in a few short weeks! Xx