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Infant feeding

Baby never demands feed, screams at bottle & failing to thrive

10 replies

Blackwell453 · 19/11/2012 22:55

Can anyone offer any suggestions or advice?
I'm nearly at my wits end, my baby is 13 wks, & ever since birth has struggled with feeds, I gave up breast feeding as I found it too stressful but almost every feed is becoming a mission. Baby sometimes takes bottle no probs but 9 times out of 10 she screams, throws her head around, arches her back & sometimes it's before she's even taken any, it's as soon as I put the bottle to her mouth (and the same with my breast she just wouldn't latch on) she has been diagnosed with reflux & been given ranitidine which has done nothing to help, I've tried different teats and infacol, also comfort milk but it seems the bottle freaks her out. She was checked for tongue tie when she was born & the pediatrician said she seems fine otherwise. She's failing to thrive & dropping further down her centiles & I am getting constantly stressed dreading every feed and worrying so much. She also never demands feeds, I always have to prompt her between 3-5hrs during the day and she goes 10hrs of a night & even then I have to wake her up!! (Morning feed is generally pretty successful) I am wondering if anyone can help I have booked another pediatric apt but got to wait over a week :( she is smiley & alert otherwise, doing enough wees and a poo a day & a bloody good well behaved baby except for her feeds! Any suggestions as to what is bothering her would be appreciated until her appointment. I dont know what else to do. Thank you.

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Loislane78 · 20/11/2012 11:00

Bumping for you

That sounds v stressful, hope you get it sorted :)

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SamSmalaidh · 20/11/2012 11:03

Have you tried a different medication? Or different milks - has dairy allergy been ruled out?

If the bottle is associated with pain for her, that might be why she is refusing it.

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OpheliasWeepingWillow · 20/11/2012 12:08

You are describing my DD at that age. Mine had horrible silent reflux. Please please research it and go back to GP or find another GP. There is a website called Crying over Spilt Milk which is awesome.

Sad

Had you tried dream feeding during naps?
Infant Gaviscon?
White noise while you feed?

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OpheliasWeepingWillow · 20/11/2012 12:11

Medication obviously not working. We went through all of them before finding Nexium. Also I suggest a step down medicine regime not step up. That means you start at max dose and reduce if it works, not waste time calibrating dose upwards while baby gets more distressed, more aversions and thinner.

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Blackwell453 · 21/11/2012 21:06

Thanks for replies, I took her up a & e last night she was just a nightmare & i wasnt coping very well so i wanted a 2nd opinion. they've all confirmed the same thing - reflux. They've given us a 2nd med domperidon on top of the ranitidine so will see how that goes. I suggested gaviscon he said he didn't want to try too much at the same time!? The ranitidine is on the highest dose for her weight anyway but I've no idea how I'm gonna get the association out of her, hopefully if it works she will associate it with good-ness I guess?! Thanks for the tips on white noise I haven't tried that one actually, the dream feeding I'm not sure il be able to get her to open her mouth but il give it a go! Appreciate the help xxxx

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OpheliasWeepingWillow · 22/11/2012 12:31

Good luck. Silent Reflux is the pits. x

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TessBob · 22/11/2012 12:37

I've no expertise in this, other than two boys with reflux. If she is scared of the bottle, because she associates it with pain, have you tried a sterile syringe and doing tiny amounts constantly? Obviously don't pump air in.

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Blackwell453 · 22/11/2012 16:37

I did think of that, but I thought she would prob have to be on her back or it might spill out her mouth otherwise, and all the advice says to keep them upright as much as poss! May have to resort to that soon though, she is honestly getting worse & worse since birth, I'm really struggling with her these last few weeks.
Any thoughts on weaning reflux babies earlier than 6months...?

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OpheliasWeepingWillow · 23/11/2012 12:34

I weaned at 17 weeks and all it did was add more intolerances to the mix. Including rice.

We syringe fed for ages. 20ml syringe, ml by ml

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rogersmellyonthetelly · 24/11/2012 09:19

Ds was very like this. He had reflux and colic, but would be sick rather than silent. Nothing we tried really helped. We weaned him at 11 weeks on medical advice. Within days of starting solids he refused milk of any kind, expressed, formula, whatever. He took water from a bottle quite happily. He was much better very quickly and started gaining weight. I'm pretty sure he had a lactose problem, as even at 1yo if he had more than 1 yogurt a day he would be very constipated and windy for days afterwards. I wish I had been able to try Nutramigen or similar but the gp refused to prescribe and we couldn't afford. As it is he is now a healthy strapping 8yo and has no problems with milk or dairy, but we had an awful few months of worry with him.

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