Help needed for new worried MNer please ladies.

[VictorianSqualor]

Just seen this on another thread but thoguh it needed it's own one so they dont get too confused!!

Can any of you wonderful aldies help this woman??This was her post on the other thread.

"Hi I am new to posting a message and am looking for similar advice - but my lo has entirely stopped taking all of her bottle feeds. I am very worried.

I weaned her slightly early as she was never very keen on milk - at 5.5 months. She is now almost 7 months. She is very small for her age but had previously followed her centile.

She developed a fever a week and a half ago which she seemed to recover from this but then around 6 days ago started to faff with her milk feeds and then 4 days ago stopped taking her bottle feeds altogether. She was clearly not very well and was up in the night not sleeping properly and crying much more than she does normally. We were up around 10 times per night.

Since then she has been eating but not taking any milk at all. She was taking aprox 20oz over 5 feeds, one of which was a dream feed. All of these have stopped. I took her to the doctor this morning who said she had a virus and to get more fluid in. I thought if I didn't feed her purees then she would take more milk but it hasn't worked at all. She has gone to bed now asleep having not had more than 5oz today and not had any food.

I have also tried giving teething gel/ and or calpol before her feeding but it doesn't help. When presented with the bottle she arches her back and crys or when the going is good puts it in her mouth. Then spits it out and puts her thumb back in.

Please does anyone have any advice. I am just at a loss as to what to do and very worried as to how to get her to take milk again.

thank you"

...ooops..I meant to say that to victoriansqualor - my daughter is also 5.5months

Try adding drops of vannilla extract to her normal milk. The ready flavoured stuff expensive.

i personally would avoid flavouring the milk,

this could well be a short term issue to do with illness or teething, no point then getting milk into a baby by virtue of changing the taste and making it sweeter. then you have an issue of weaning them off the sweeter variety

first port of call is GP
if no joy, then a referral to paed

as long as the child is not 'failing to thrive' there is no need to panic.

as long as htey take some food, some drink, and are not dehydrated then hopefully they will up their intake once better.

a lot of children go through phases of refusing food, especially after illness.. DD refused all solid food for 10 days when she was around 10 months old has she was poorly.

lulumama - totally agree with not sweetening the milk. Found vanilla extract doesn't sweeten just adds flavour & interest, also used unsweetened organic cocoa, & strawberry juice.

fair enough

it can be very worrying when babies are not taking a good amount of food and drink, always good to be checked out by a doctor. more than once if there is no improvement.

yes hospital this evening when hubbie returns from work as it is friday and weekend, no normal doc about. The issue could well be illness or teething...we will see. If she is not ill then I may consider buying one packet of the vanilla flavoured follow on milk from Nestle to see if she takes to that - or adding vanilla extract (not syrup), see what I can find that has no sugar. Will let you know how it went this evening at the hospital.

Bekkie 32 good luck this evening. i am sorry to hear your LO is in a similar situation. its really rough. but i am pleased there is someone else out there who knows how i am feeling.

i tried changing brands and teats to no avail. i will keep trying though.

the gp didn't think she had an infection just a virus and checked her over but he is useless.

i wouldn't be so worried if she wasn't already so small but she is pretty long and thin and i can see she has lost weight. i will be dreading the weigh in with HV next week, but will ask about a dieyician.

coasalmum thanks for the tips its a great idea - i have some vanilla extract in the cupboard which i will try this pm.,...

CL4DB - My little one is also fairly small - long and thin. Not sure how much she weighs now (on 10th Jan, she was around 14lbs 6,2kilos) - will find out tonight. Just feel silly going into the emergency at the hospital when it may not be anything - but it is a weekend and I am going potty and will be good to know before husband jets off to China on business for 11 days . She was ill over xmas (throat and respiratory infection plus fever ) although her throat was better on 10th Jan when we were at the docs, she has never really been the same with milk, since. Of course we had to go to the hospital then too as no docs over xmas. So she chooses the best of times to get ill , and we will become familiar faces in the hospital

Will post later when I have news.

oh and she still fits into tops that 3 month olds wear ..

SNAP! i still squeeze her long skinny body into 3 month old long sleeved bodies poor thing. she weighed just short of 15lb last month at 6 months. i dread going to get her weighed! the hv always advised that she will always get what she needs but i am sorry but i don't believe that about my dd.
Bekkie good luck, its such a scary thing to do but i am sure the hospital will be sympathetic.

15lbs is not too bad..(I know that does not help the situation by saying that ) that will be the same as mine....really. I have a book which says by 6 months they should have doubled their birth weight. Then weight gain kind of gets less for a bit from 6 months for all babies. If she has doubled her birth weight at this stage that is ok. I myself was a tiny baby, weighed only 18 or 19lbs at the age of one! Withmy baby she needs larger size trousers, but all her tops can be as small as 6 months. She had quite long legs from birth.

Just been to the doctors - she is teething and apparently it wont be too long before the teeth show We went to the casualty at the local hospital (10 mins drive away from us ), as docs are off duty over weekend. When I looked in the mouth I could see nothing, but the doctors know where to look - and this doctor was good. Oh and apparently she has a bit of the sniffles which Doc said was a virus, but I heard you get that with teething sometimes too.

She does not suck her thumb as such, but she would push out the bottle and try to get her fingers back into her mouth for a good...BITE. If I put my own clean little finger in her mouth she also bites down on that, when before she used to suck.

Maybe it is the same with yours, as she is the same age? A doctor could easily look it over if he or she is not good. As this was th hospital they picked up on it - my normal PED. probably would not have noticed it as she is hopeless. I know how you feel, the whole stress and worry brings you to tears. I have also cried. I just did a supermarket shop and got some vanilla flavoured followon milk in hope that she will maybe take to it tomorrow. Will let you know..

tops as small as 3 months... I meant to say in the above post If youir Doc is hopeless, why dont you try the casulaty trick..I kind of deliberately held off to the weekend to use it as an excuse for going (as no other Doc on duty ), as I know my PED. would not have picked up on something like teething.

Still, although I have an answer, I am still faced with a feeding battle..

that's good news that they have picked up a possible cause - that certainly helps. did they have any solutions? i think patience is a key thing which i am all too bad at. i am hoping we just need to wait it out and then hopefully it will get better soon. i really hope your dd just loves the vanilla milk (i tried flavoring today with no joy). let me know how it goes. take care...

Not really any solutions except nose drops for the baby and advice such as hard things to chew on etc... Patience is also needed like you say as they get through this difficult time (of course I have not alot either ). There is not much more one can do. They did say that if, for example, she got down to one bottle a day, then I could go back. At 22.00pm she took 200ml vanilla baby rice in a bottle and then at 3.30am I tried the new vanilla milk - she took 160ml (at a bit of a push ). She has refused all bottles this morning - I keep trying every hour - next attempt 10.30am. But refusal of milk just puts a spanner in the works for weaning, as it is more the fluid they need than the mush. When people tell me to mix milk in the baby food it is not the best solution as she only takes 4-5 teaspoons of babyfood anyway. Let me know what you decide to do aswell, and if a cause is found for your baby. x

Hi, we managed to get dd to have a bottle this morning and she took one just now too. my dp did it by sliding it in when she is sucking her thumb and eventually she took out her thumb and started sucking the bottle. she took about 4oz at each. i bought bigger teats yesterday as figured if she does start sucking then at least she will get more with each suck. i feel so relieved - i was ecstatic this morning - but like you i feel there is still a long way to go. i just don't think she has any appetite at the moment. she had a few teaspoons of brekkie and lunch so am wondering if the milk has taken the edge of her appetite for food. still at least she has had some milk and has perked up a lot more today. she is not crying as much as was smiling and chattering today.

when you went to the hospital did they suggest how much milk your dd should be having?

when are you going to get her weighed next?

i will let you know how the rest of the day and evening goes. hope your dd is not suffering too much with her teeth. i tried the teetha powders on my dd. not sure they worked but she really liked them...

Today she had:

3.30am = 160ml
11.00am = 170ml
12.00 Lunch = 3/4 glass of a baby menu - almost finished it, was impressed.
16.00 = 160ml (fell asleep at the end)
17.00 = Rest of the glass of food for teatime.
20.15ish = an expected 200ml of baby rice.

None of the milk feeds were what you would call easy going i.e eagerly gulping down. there is still this long gap from 3.30 - 11.00am where she does not fancy anything.

At the hospital I asked how much she should drink and they said it varies from baby to baby. I have read though, that during weaning and eating solid foods they should drink atleast 500 - 600ml of formula milk daily. She seems to like the vanilla milk although for us, it is more expense but it seems ti have upped her amount a little bit, per feed (touch wood, early days yet ). At the hospital they did not weigh her as she looked fine - the nurse said she did not appear unhealthy looking or too skinny. We go for her next major check-up on 4th march - she will be weighed and fully examined there. Obviously if her drinking amount goes any lower than what it is we will visit docs earlier. Will let you know how it all progresses as the days go by. Hubbie is off to China tomorrow and I am alone with it all, so lets hope she does not worsen or develop a fever. The motherinlaw lives not so far away, so I can call her if need be, to help.

oh and we continue:..

3.30am = 120ml (spewed half of it back up so took really only about 70ml - she very rarely does this, but has to happen when you are trying to get the fluids in ). So had to change sleeping bag, pyjamas and everything in middle of the night.

7.30am = 70ml at a push.

Now gonna wait til about 11.ooish before the next try.

Hoping this teething will soon be over. Have tried looking into her mouth to see if I can see signs of teeth, but it iks difficult as she keeps turning her head and closing her mouth.

It is a seemingly neverending NIGHTMARE!

Hey Bekkie, ah the joys of parenthood. its so tough i really am right there. its scary when you start to examine every last drop they take. its easy to say, not easy to practice though but your lo looks to be doing ok and is well over 500 ml of milk. it sounds v hard work but rest assured that at least she is taking some... as for feeds in the night, you may find that her morning feed will get bigger if she cuts back her night feeding a bit and also isn't the 11 am the one they start to cut back on when they go onto solids? i am useless at these things but honestly it sounds a grand quantity of milk. you should feel proud.

dd not such a great quantity but i was less forceful today and she actively opened her mouth for it... i am feeling better today but worrying about the weight she lost when she wasn't having any milk (naturally!).

like you night times are not so easy and her sleep patterns have been really messed up with her illness - so something else for me to worry about...

hope you are managing ok with your dp and feeling strong and proud of your lo.

good luck tonight and tomorrow

She had 170ml at around 4.00am this morning. Will see what she takes now.

The 11.00am I think I will keep, but I have given up feeding her at 8.00am, as she always fusses on this. In the gap between 4.00am and 11.00am I tried feeding her some fruit puree, and it worked - she took almost 100g. I feel comfortable keeping the 4.00am feed, as when I go back to work next year, she will be dropped off at the Kindergarten at around 6.00am, so she will always get a quick bottle early on. The 20.45ish oat milk, I want to replace with normal formula milk as soon as she is eating enough for lunch and tea. Things will likely change later on as she approaches 8 months or so - the 4.00am one may become a 6.00 or 7.00am feed instead (with the 11.00am one gone ), once she is able to eat yoghurts and other dairy products with more calcium and things.

Will let you know how the week progresses.

oh I changed teats too. She is on a followon milk which seems marginally thicker in consistency - so changed the teat size to one that is usually used for solids, with a larger hole. It worked for the feed this morning, without choking her. Will see how it goes rest of today.

WOW ... 11.00am feed ... an easy 170ml sucked bone dry, with no fussing! The teats and change in milk seemed to have helped (touch wood )... Tomorrow I will put 200ml in and see how go. Lets hope she does not cotton on and revert back to the good old 70mls at a push.

I will try some lunch at 12.30ish.

will let you know if this is a temporary improvement or more longterm...

YIPPPEEEEE from an ecstatic mum!!!!