Pain to feed

[Pizzaandsushi]

So my 4.5 month old has always been a struggle to feed. CMPA, reflux, nightmare to wind, the lot. We’re now on Neocate for the allergy and omeprazole for the reflux, both are working well.
However, the last 3-4 weeks he has become such a pain to feed. Constantly trying to grab and hold the bottle himself, trying to stick his hands in his mouth at the same time as feeding, pushing the bottle in and out if his mouth (in a bored sort of way not refusal/pain), constantly trying to look around everywhere else, he babbles and coos away during the whole bottle which is so very cute to hear but after 3 months of dreading every single feed, this is just adding to my exhaustion.
It’s essentially like he has ants in his pants!
is this normal behaviour for this age? When does he start to focus on drinking properly again? Anything I can do to make feeding smoother?
if he just focused on the bottle, I know he could be done in ten minutes and then we could play all he wants but instead we have to go through a 30-40 minute fiasco every time 😩

Very normal at 4-5 months. I ebf but both DC got to a point at 4-6 months where I could only feed in a darkened room or under a muslin

Totally normal behaviour I’m afraid, and will just mostly continue in this vein, the more aware they become the more interested they become in everything else around them.

It might help to feed in a calm and quiet place, a darker room or turn the telly off, reduce distractions. Are you pace feeding? Letting them control the feed a bit a more can make it less of a battle.

@CallmeMrsPricklepants ahh another joy to parenthood then 😂. Of all the things I worried and stressed over, I never envisioned feeding a baby would be this difficult! I will have to give the feeding in a dark room a go. Fingers crossed.
I’ll probably end up just having him coo and giggle away in the dark instead haha.

I have cmpa DC so you have my sympathies. Perhaps try a bf necklace to focus baby as they take the bottle?

@BuffaloCauliflower yes we’ve paced fed from the beginning to try and help with his reflux but honestly now it’s like he’s never seen a bottle before. Gumming away at the bottle whilst he looks at me taunting me and the second I slightly pull it away or tilt it back to let him catch his breath he starts “talking” to me 😂.
I’m definitely going to try feeding in a darker room, hopefully one with not much going on for him to look at.
glad to hear it’s perfectly normal though. Even if I am close to losing my sanity.

@CallmeMrsPricklepants that’s a good idea thank you! So is this something they can sort of play using their hands as that would be ideal if I could keep his hands busy and not interfere with the bottle.

I would leave a bit of extra time before the feed he doesn't sound hungry enough

@collieresponder88 we’ve tried this and doesn’t seem to make a difference unfortunately. He’ll start drinking well and then I guess when the initial hunger has worn off after 1-2 ounces, the hands start playing with the bottle.
We’ve never left him until he’s outright screaming for a bottle but when we’ve addressed everything else we can think of like nappy, wind etc and he starts getting tetchy we make a bottle. We used to wait for hands near mouth but that’s impossible now as he pretty much has them in constantly!
think we’ll try stretching time between feeds again though if a calmer environment doesn’t help.