Baby choking on bottle

[GeorgieGirl66]

Hi,

Hope this is the right section for this.

I was hoping someone might have some advice/experience with this.

I have a 4 week old baby girl. She's been bottle fed for about 2 weeks. All was fine but recently she's started coughing and choking on her bottle. She'll drink and swallow down fine for a few seconds then it's like she forgets to breathe and starts coughing. She's had some nasal congestion which I thought was the problem but she hasn't always got a blocked nose and she's still doing it - if anything it's worse.

I've tried different bottles in case flow was too fast but this doesn't make much of a difference- however it might be this, but she was alright with the bottles we use at first.

Alternatively we thought it might be reflux but I don't know.

She has also started bringing up a lot more milk (just now she had 60ml and spit up about 4 or 5 times). She's also vomited twice in the last 24 hours. Previously she hasn't spit up or vomited very much at all. She's not been sleeping very well, waking often, and not settling very easily. All of this is out of character to how she was before.

It's all very stressful and upsetting. I feel awful and I don't know how to help her. I will take her to the doctor on Tuesday but that seems so far away currently.

Sorry for the long post. Any help/advice/support would be gratefully received. Thanks

I don’t have any direct experience but gosh it sounds distressing for you. Maybe you could try paced bottle feeding? It’s a slower way of bottle feeding which means the baby has to do more work. It’s supposed to prevent bottle preference in bf babies but a slower paced feed might help your little one.

Try sitting her up and holding the bottle more horizontally. A better explanation here:

www.mamanatural.com/paced-bottle-feeding/

Hi. Our little girl does the exact same thing. Scared us at first but we try feeding her more upright now x

My first DD had to be feed in a sitting up position due to similar issues.

My boy had a similar issue with the bottle as well as while BFing. Turned out he had a tongue tie which had not been diagnosed. We had to stop breastfeeding for multiple reasons but after getting his tongue tie snipped, bottle feeding is much better and he is much more comfortable. Paced feeding was helpful in the interim period. Maybe you could check for a tongue tie, especially a posterior one - its missed quite frequently according to the lactation consultant we met with.

Sounds like reflux to me.... can come on after a couple of weeks. My son was fine until he was 3 weeks old...maybe just keep giving him breaks while your feeding so he can catch his breath ?

How do they check for posterior tongue tie?

Hi Courtney, they need to check for posterior tie under a bright light, usually missed in the hospital since they look for anterior tie only. Plus NHS does not have the protocol for snipping posterior ties since they don't believe it affects feeding urgently. We got it diagnosed and snipped privately.

This happened with my daughter starting at 4 weeks, and lasted until 10 weeks. Most likely reflux in her case.

Switching to slow flow nipples, and feeding slowly and in an upright/ sitting position got it under control to some degree. Feeds took forever though!

I should add she is combination breast and formula fed due to low supply, and this only happened after the bottle never after breast.

This happened to our little one came on about 4 weeks, chocking on the bottle, spitting up alot, congested and cranky at feeding time. She was diagnosed with reflux. We got prescribed Carobel to thicken her feeds which has worked brilliantly.