Teething 20 week old struggling to feed

[CoffeeMonkey]

Hi all,

Our little boy is 20 weeks old today & has always been a great feeder, recently he has been taking between 180-210ml roughly every 3 hours during the day, usually 5 feeds in total.

He’s been teething for a while now, dribbling, chewing on everything, rosey cheeks but it’s reached a peak the last couple of weeks & seems to be worse in the evenings.

It’s now started to affect his feeding, he is making his usual hungry cues but then will either only take half the usual amount or else a few sucks & then start to cry & fuss & refuse the feed.

We just moved him from size 2 to size 3 teats thinking if his gums were sore then this may be easier for him but it doesn’t seem to have helped but just has milk flying everywhere!

Anyone have any thoughts please?

Have you tried him with a dose of ibruprofen about half an hour before one of his feeds and some teething gel, like Dentinox immediately before the bottle?

Thanks @PanicBuyingSprouts should have said we have him ibuprofen about an hour before his last feed this evening thinking that it would help but no difference 😔

He’s still a bit too young from Dentinox, it’s from 5 months, but we do give him Ashton & Parsons gel on & off, tbh I’m not sure if it helps him a whole lot & have found it can make him do sicky burps sometimes, even with just a very small application

Didn't realise it was from 5 months, sorry about that.

How long has he been like this for?

@PanicBuyingSprouts don’t be sorry, some of the gels are from different ages so it’s hard to keep track!

He’s been like this on & off around the last 4 or 5 days, he will have some full feeds as normal but this seems to happen at least a couple of times a day, usually evening time

Sounds like he has a sore throat to me. Mine were always like this with a sore throat. Try some calpol & if it improves while you get to dr.

Thanks @N0tfinished, I never thought of a sore throat, I’m probably just putting everything down to teething at the moment

First bottle went well today (he’s bound to have been so hungry!) so will see how rest of day goes & if no better will maybe call GP tomorrow

How have the rest of the feeds gone so far @CoffeeMonkey?

Much better today @PanicBuyingSprouts thanks for asking. He pretty much finished all feeds except for his last one at bedtime where he had about two thirds.

I think maybe the faster flow teats have helped as he’s not having to work so hard & so it’s easier on his gums, will just take a bit of getting used to for both of us!