17 week old refusing feeds HELP

[lucyricketts]

Please help! My son is 17 weeks (tomorrow) & for the past few weeks has been really crying, sometimes screaming, pushing the bottle away with his hands before I even attempt to feed him. It's been really challenging getting him to accept milk at any time. I've tried decreasing/increasing length of time, amounts, temperature, position and it's just not working.

He will sometimes take it if I use the dummy and quickly switch but not always.

Is this part of leap 4? I don't know what to do! It's exhausting and so stressful. I hate to see him upset when I can tell he's clearly hungry. He cries like he's in pain!

Should I change the formula? We've always used kendamil, thinking of trying aptamil? Have always questioned him on kendamil & whether it's too rich?

Should I consider bottle change? He's always been on MAM and never any issues but is it possible he's changed his mind?

He used to do 180-210 ish every 3 hrs and now I can barely get 60-90 or anything at the 3 hr mark. He takes it much better at the overnight feeds but not always.

Any advice or reassurance that it gets better would be greatly appreciated.

If he's refusing feeds, does he have any of these symptoms?

Not really, apart from the refusal of feeds, crying (but mainly at feeds) xx

That's an interesting one then as Fred refusal is usually a classic sign.

A few things you can try though so all is not lost

Have you upped the teat size? They can sometimes start refusing feeds if the flow isn't fast enough?

Swap the formula but not to Aptamil. There are so many threads where LOs have problems with these two formulas.

If you've swapped the formula and they're still refusing, try adding Dentinox to the bottles.

If all of that doesn't work try a comfort formula.

And have you tried swaddling baby whilst they feed? It does work for some babies although you'd have to be careful with overheating if you're in the UK right now.

And if none of that works, try Your Baby's Bottle Feeding Aversion.

Feed not Fred!

Let us know how you get on today