Help! 15 week old DD is refusing to eat...

[NewMum232323]

Hi MNers, I really need your experience and advice please cause I'm about to lose my mind...
My baby girl (15 weeks old) all of a sudden has become impossible to feed. She's formula fed from the start and until recently loved Hipp organic or comfort, and she was downing her bottles without an issue.
Around a month ago, she had sort of like a feeding aversion which GP said was possible reflux. I doubted that but was giving her gaviscon as much as possible (considering she wasn't having the AM with the medicine, but I really tried!). At the same time I took steps to overcome what I believed was a behavioral aversion. After around 10 days of reestablishing trust, she started eating well again.
But then she would only have the ready to drink milks, no powder. Fine, at that stage I was happy she was eating anything at all so I accepted it.
Then I realized it might be the temperature of the milk, so after a lot of testing, I think I found the perfect temperature to be between 25-27C.
So I started slowly to reintroduce powdered formula, which she started to drink again.
Until 3 days ago when all of a sudden she refused to drink any formula again.
We've been to the doctor, there's nothing medically or physically wrong with her. I've tried aptamil, kendamill and what not as well, she refuses them too. I've tried 4 different teat sizes too, she doesn't seem to have a preference.
Every time I see a sign she's hungry, I offer her the bottle. But I try not to offer to much or pressure her to eat to prevent feeding aversion. She sometimes refuses to take the bottle at all, other times she'd have a suck or two and push the teat out. When she's starving, she's refusing to eat at all and she's too distressed.
My success so far has been to feed her when she's drowsy (in or out of nap), or when outside in the pram. When we're out and about she'd gladly take the bottle with the just opened ready to drink milk. But last night she refused the bottle even in her half asleep (and never say no to food) state.
Otherwise, she's healthy, growing and has plenty of wet/ dirty nappies. And boy, is she cheeky sometimes and smiling at me when pushing yet another bottle of milk away!

So please help, any ideas will be greatly appreciated! I can't accept the thought that every feed will be this stressful and agonizing for 8-9 more months...

Hello there, @NewMum232323 , we're really sorry to hear that you're going through such a tough time. We've now moved your thread over to our Parenting Forum, where we hope you'll find some useful advice. Best of luck with it all.

Hi op

i posted a while ago as my boy was similar although not as bad with feeding aversion

like you I tried a lot of different things. I found having cooler milk better, teething definitely played a part although no teeth popped out for a while. Try bonjela or anbesol before a feed. I also had to feed during sleep quickly remove dummy and shove bottle in

i think it’s a stage they go through as I read others were similar. After about 2 weeks it gradually got better but it
might be they may want longer between feeds too. The slightest bit of noise or distraction even now he won’t feed. And also even now if my baby gets too tired like past the point he would rather sleep than eat but cries because he is hungry.

hopefully it will pass for you too. I would stick to one formula if you can as it can upset tummy’s changing. Like you I tried them all and went back to the original one!
Xx

If you can afford to, keep up the ready to feed drinks for a few more weeks?

Thank you for sharing, hopefully it will pass soon as you said. I'll try a teething gel, she has been drooling a lot and chewing her fists a lot lately.

The ready to feed AM was my safe haven but she started refusing them as well. She'd only have it if it's a bottle I've just opened, not one I've reheated so it's not straight from the fridge. That makes it quite a posh meal 🙄

@NewMum232323 have you tried following the Rowena bennet book on bottle feeding aversion? It's really good as is the Facebook group. I thought my baby was at the beginning of an aversion so began following it and it helped. The trick is to offer milk no more than two times in a sitting and if they refuse you leave it.. there's a lot more detail in the book but it's about taking all pressure off x

Thanks @testy1997 , I read it over night and am following it, yes. I think that's how I broke the spell to begin with and we were on the way to full recovery as we were before - easy and nice feeding sessions. But then something else happened and I can't put my finger on what it is. Great book though, feel like it applies to many things in life, not just baby feeding!