Help! Baby refuses to drink milk

Hi Jajacha,

My baby is now 8.5 month and the battle to make him drinking his milk is not yet ceased. I stopped feeding him breastmilk since 6.5 months, since then he feed only formula and some solid. I started feeding him some rice cereal when he was 5.5 months since it was really tiring to feed him only milk.Before solid was introduced, he had only 4 feeding time a day, 7 OZ per meal. I was really collapsing since I am a full-time working mom. It took him 1-1.5 hour to finish his milk and he completely refused to drink milk after 10.30 PM and just prefer to sleep.
Now, he has 5 meals a day: milk after wake up, morning cereal with some purees, mid-day milk, afternoon rice-cereal and purees, and night milk. Feeding him solid is slightly better than feeding him milk. In order to make him drink his milk, we have to show him books and toys during feeding.
I dont know if it is a harmful practice to show toys during feeding time, but we have no choice otherwise he will not take his meal.
Even we have ever tried to just give him when he cried for it, it did not work. Unfortunately, he never seems to be hungry and prefer to play and observe around.
I wonder if you have introduced your baby some solid.
6.5 months is a right time to give him variety of solid food. He may get bored with the milk (just like my baby) and want to eat something else. Try to give him solid for 2 meals so at least you have 2 less stressful feeding time.
I gave him Nestle H.A formula before and I believe it tastes really awful for my son. I have changed his milk into Goat Milk formula and it seems there is an improvement on his feeding time. He seems like it more so he drinks faster. I hope he will not AGAIN get bored and turn to be the same as before.

Dont be disheartened. I know exactly what you feel, since I have gone through that all the time. My life now is pre-occupied with how to feed him ontime and when will I have free time for myself. Furthermore he is a very active baby and just want to do a lot of somersault during feeding time. Only strong adult can handle him.

I hope introducing solid can make your life easier. Good luck!
 
Hi limantari,

Thanks for replying. Actually I've started to feed my son solid food when he's about 5 months old with the thought that he may be fed up with just milk. But I read in books that baby before 1 years old should still rely on milk as his main source for nutrients. That's why I'm still feeding him 5 times a day out of which only 1 meal is solid. Yesterday my son acted so good that he can drink all his milk open-eyed. Just when I thought he's back to normal this morning the same old problem came back. Sigh..... I share your feeling that my life is now pre-occupied with when to feed him and how to feed him so that he can finish his milk. I'm also a working mom and I have a Filipino maid at home to take care of the baby and my mom is also there to supervise. But still I feel so tensed about his bad drinking habbit. I really hope this could end soon. At first I felt saddened and I cried a lot. Now I found myself developing this anger feeling towards my son. How do you cope with this problem emotionally? How do you stay calm over all what is happening?
 
Hi Jajacha,

I completely understand what you feel. I am now also undergoing the emotion roller-coaster every day. I phoned my mom in law few times a day to make sure that he has finished his meal on time. He just will not drink his milk after 9 PM and prefer to sleep. This also the reason that I never be able to return home late and have fun outside after works. My mother in law is just simply too tired to watch him after 9 PM. This is not like working, where we can have day-off on weekend. We can not take dayoff not taking care of him. It's simply 7 days and 24 hours of duty. I did have some anger to my son because he's wasting so much time and make our life so much more inflexible and full of anxiety. However, seeing him growing up, happy and healthy is such a blessing for me that I never imagine life without him. Seeing him smile just makes me melt and forgets all the tiredness of taking care of him. You may also try to look at thing in the more positive side. Once he grows up, eat more solid, I am sure your life will be so much easier. Being a mom is so rewarding.
Remember that you are not alone. I thought I was the only mom with difficult baby before. I consulted all my friends that have kids including my mom, and none of them have experienced this problem.
I wish you good luck and happy parenting!
 
I don't know if this would be much help, but I had the same issue with bubs too - just hates his bottle. I started him on solids when was just over 4 months, but it didn't work, I guess because he just wasn't ready at that time. But now that he is 7 months, he is finding new interest in his solids and for the first time, he willingly opens his mouth for his solids.

He still does a bit of wrestling with his bottle, but it has improved a lot from a few weeks ago. So I guess perhaps it takes time to work out.

I had the same depressed feeling when he wasn't eating well, and all I had was my helper at home ( parents only come once in a while), and I was on the verge of tears as well, but I know that being angry with him would only make things worse - babies are so sensitive . I guess we can only just let them be and as I was told again and again - ALL THIS WILL PASS
 
Hi limantari,

How are you and the little one doing? For the past month I managed to get my son drink milk while watching cartoon on TV. But still each feeding is not smooth, sometimes it takes up to an hour to finish just 7oz of milk. In these 2 days this trick seems not working, he can barely finish half of 7oz and refuses to drink the remaining. My son is going to be 8 months next week. How much milk is your son drinking the whole day? I now feed my son milk 4 times a day (4am, 8am, 3pm, 7pm) plus 1 feeding of porridge for lunch (11am). Altogether he can drink an average of 25oz of milk each day. I am thinking of dropping the 4am feed coz' he seems waking up out of thirst instead of hunger. My maid told me he doesn't really want to drink the milk but rather drinks the water. But if I am to drop this early morning feeding I'm afraid that he's not drinking enough milk for the day. It really troubles me so I'm hoping you can share with me your experience. Really hope to hear from you soon.
 
jajacha,

have you thought of getting your baby to 2 meals of solids a day instead of one? my bub, also like your baby, is going to be 8 months end of this week, and since 3 motnhs old, each milk feeding session is a battle. But now he is doing much better with the solids. He still wrestles with us during milk time, but at least he is feeding regularly at other meals. we also introduced finger foods to him ( finger biscuits with vitamins etc) and he loves it.

he doesn't drink as much milk as he should be, but I guess he will be moving on to more and more solids, and in a few more months time he will drop more of his milk feeds, so what I tell myself is that on the longer run, its more important to make each feeding session a happy experience for him, rather than to try and get as much food in him as possible now.

I don't know if this helps, but I am in your shoes and realised that I just have to let this go, otherwise I would be out of my mind totally !!!
 
Hi Konradsmom,

I am struggling over whether to feed my son one more time of solid during the day. You see if I feed him 2 times solid a day (lunch & dinner) then it only leaves him 2 times to drink milk (morning after wake-up & tea time in the afternoon). And if each milk feed he only drinks 7oz (at best) then it comes to only 14 oz of milk a day. Isn't it too little for a 8-month-old?

But thanks for your suggestion and if you don't mind could you share with me your feeding schedule for your son? Thanks.....
 
bub's schedule is like this:-

6:30 am - milk (6.5z)
9 am (wake up) - milk (as much as he could drink, usually 2-3 oz and we don't force him)
10:15 am - mashed fruit snack
12:30 solid meal ( usually pureed congee+egg yolk+vegetable)
3 pm - milk (6.5 oz)
5:00 pm - fruit snack or biscuit
7:00 pm - dinner solids

lastly, we try and give him some milk before bed time at 8:30 but usually he's not hungry enuf or sleepy enuf to drink it, and so we have to take the less desirable way - feed him at 12am.

This way we try and get hm 3 feeds a day. This scehdule was given to me by a very experienced confinement lady whom I took on for 2 weeks to act as nany for bub as he was sick before , and I find that this works quite well with him.
 
When you feed him at 12am I guess he "sleep drink" the milk right? My boy feels drowsy starting 8:30pm and by the time we make him sleep it'd be 9:00pm or a bit later. Then he can sleep until 4-5am (sometimes he wakes up at 3-4am) and that's when we feed him another milk. And recently he prefers to drink water instead of milk at this early morning feed. Since he's gonna be 8 months soon I'd rather put him on a regular sleep and feed schedule. If I am to feed him 2 times solid food a day, here's the schedule that I work out but really I'm not sure if it can be implemented smoothly:

4-5am: Feed water if he wakes up
8am: Milk
11am: Porridge
3pm: Milk
6pm: Porridge
8-9pm: Milk

I also share your thinking that eventually my son is going to rely on solid food for nutrients whereby milk is as a supplement. But all the books tell you a baby must rely on milk as the main source of nutrient until at least one year of age. Because of this I have hesitation in feeding him more porridge and less milk.
 
My son in the past 2 days refused to drink milk from the bottle even if we played the cartoon to him. He simply won't suck the nipple. I have to pour out the milk into bowl and mix it with baby rice cereal and spoon feed him. I'm not sure if this right to do and I also worry he eats too much "solid". Anyone pls share your experience.
 
Hi All,
My son is 4.5 months (20 weeks). I was breast feeding up until about 2 weeks ago. I had to give up due to too many problems..not because I wanted to. Anyway..the bottle was meant to solve all my problems and make everything easier but things are now a complete nightmare.
Every feed time is a battle. He simply will not drink. Even when I know he's hungry he won't drink. Sometimes I can sing to him or stare him in the eye and he's kind of half shocked or something and he might drink a bit. he continually turns his head away and cries when I try to put the teat back in.
The only thing that works is to wait until its his nap time..put him in his cot..wait 10mins till he's basically asleep..then get him out and feed him. This is the only way he'll suck the bottle without a fuss.
All up..in a 24 hour period I can get about 600-650mls into him. He weights 6.3kg. Is this enough?
For the first time today I tried some baby rice mixed with formuale. He tasted it and seemed like he had no idea what to do with it. He mostly pushed it out but he might have eaten a bit...
In a way I'm pleased to have found this thread as at least I know my baby boy isn't the only one to do this. But does anyone know why on earth its happening? Why does a baby not want to ever drink? I'm taking him to a doctor and to a pead this week...I've been told that perhaps he is suffering from reflux??? Silent reflux (as he doesnt' vomit all that much)..
Has anyone out there had this problem and its resolved itself?
 
Yes we had exactly the same problem and at around 4 months also. We first found she would feed if distracted - looking at the TV, outside in the pram etc., then ultimately we had to do the same thing as you, rock her til she was sleepy and give her the bottle in bed. We slowly began to try to break the cycle and feed her out of bed in a dark room in chair, rocking her, then put her down when she'd finally finished the bottle. She eventually improved over time. She's 9 months now and still needs a bit of distracting (toys in her hand, looking out the window, watches baby einstein for the night feed before bed). She is pretty good with her solids (didn't start her til 6 months though) and if she doesn't finish her morning bottle, the remainder goes into her breakfast cereal.

I know it's stressful but try to relax a bit about it. As long as your ped is happy with the babies weight I wouldn't worry (or introduce solids unless he tells you to).
 
Hi Jajacha,

I'm sorry to reply you so late.
My baby will be 11 months in 10 days. We still find difficulties to feed milk to the baby, but it has improved a lot since 6 months ago. He will drink his milk awake however we need to show him toys or book. He will normally hold the toys by himself. He takes 7 OZ per feeding 3 times a day, in addition to that we give him 2 times solid (cereal in milk and purees). I experienced the same problem with you that he sometimes just finishes 4 OZ and the rest of 3 OZ has to be mixed with cereal and feed him with spoon. It happened almost every night feeding since he gets drowsy by 9 PM and refuse to drink milk. We let him sleep until 10.15 PM, then wake him up, make him sit in front of the TV and feed him until 10.30-10.45. I know it sounds bad to wake him up in the middle of his sleeping, but if he doesnt finish his 7 OZ dosage at night, he will woke up at 4 AM and hungry. We can not afford to wake up at night since me and hubby are working full-time. He will usually sleep at 11 PM after night feeding and wakes up at 6-7AM. Once he wakes up, my husband will feed him the morning milk.
I have consulted his doctor since I worried if he took too much solid, however the doctor said there is no problem with that since he still take the same amount of milk with little addition of solid, so actually he took more that he should be. Just make sure to always feed him water after solid to avoid dehydration.
Hope this will relief you a bit.
 
Hi limantari,

My boy refused to drink almost completely in he past 3 days. We tried to "disguise" the milk into other forms like adding cocoa powder, steam the milk with egg yolk.... but still he can feel the taste of the milk and thus refused to take after a few mouthfuls. Sigh.... I dunno what to do next, can a 9-month old baby totally not take any milk? My head is going to explode....
 
Hi Jajacha,

Do not panic! Have you ever tried to put your baby in front of TV, turn on his favourite show so he'll be distracted while you feed him cereal mixed milk? I did that to my son. While he watched his favourite DVD on his high chair, he will concentrate on it and opened his mouth while we offered him food.
Have you tried to change his milk formula? I believe he may get bored. Also watch out the teat size of the bottle. 9 months old baby should use large size teat. I happened to me last time when he was still using the medium size, he found it's rather slow to suck and he got tired sucking and stop drinking in only few minutes. After we changed into the large one, it takes only 15-30 mins to finish 7-8OZ of milk.
Check with your doctor if your son is suitable to take only solid and make sure he's gaining weight normally.
Good luck.
 
welcome to my world!!!

Konradsmom said:
Actually I am in the same dire straits as jxoxo and limantari. Exactly the same story - won't feed after long hours, but each feeding is a battle. I don't want to make feeding an unpleasant experience for him but he has definitely dropped off the average weight curve. (he's on formular btw)

its clear that he's thinned but the doc says its Ok and to observe for a while, but I am still worried as this has happenhed for quite some time now ( over 1 month).

I have started to give him a bit of rice cereal to test, and at least he is interested and doesn't turn his head.

Any insights as to why this happens , or any experience to share v welcome.
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Hi there.... it's amazing that there are mum's out there going thru the same horrible experience in regards to feeding I never would have dreamed prior to having my son Harrison (6mths old) that he would not want to drink milk, some days I feel so down and frustrated with feeding him that I swear that tom will be the day that I "starve" him so that he will take a bottle awake if he is hungry enough,or so the experts say.
All started from 8wks of age started screaming post feeds refusing the breast and bottle had to express and top up with formula as milk supply was very low and harrison lost weight, it gradually got to a point that he refused feeds and the advice I was given was to get milk into him anyway I could.... lovely.... not! hence sleepy feeds started as he showed no resistance and no drama... sucked beautifully whereas if awake very uncoordinated and stressed when he has to feed, have been to a Dr .. now changed as he said well just eat for your mother and was dismissed, then to a paed who said he looks healthy and said he was fine changed Dr's who prescibed Losec for probable silent reflux and sent us to an allergy specialist for testing... results came back with nothing am at my wit's end as feeding times are such a drama as he has to get himself into a sleep like state to feed, started solids a wk ago and he seems to like cereal and fruits so that is a positive, has anyone else been thru this I need some advice on how to deal with it as this was supposed to be a wonderful experience having a baby but finding it hard because of the feeding, otherwise he is a happy baby .
 
Poor you, I know how it feels.

Seems crazy to have them feed so well in their sleep, but for it to be such a problem awake. It started at 3 months and has gradually got better for my daughter, but at 10 mos she still needs a lot of distraction to take her morning and afternoon bottles (toys in her hand etc., singing) Her evening bottle is given in front of baby einstein (bad I know, but at least it's the only TV per day). We slowly weaned off the sleepy feeds by going from actually asleep in bed, to rocking in a sleep like state in a chair in the dark bedroom to resting on a pillow actually awake in the lounge. Solids did help take the pressure off as we mixed everything with milk which she took. Oddly her milk intake improved alongside this. I still have to put the remains of her morning bottle into her breakfast cereal and make sure she gets lots of yoghurt, cheese and other forms of calcium.

Once he's more established on solids, maybe try his mid morning or afternoon milk in a sippy cup to see if he will drink that way?

You are through the worst now that solids are in the picture!
 
thanks for your reply, have tried to give him a sippy cup but he just nashes on it with his gums!!! refused his last night feed yesterday as we had our first night out in 6 mths and I think he felt put out since we tried to feed him an hr later than usual .. so was one hungry baby this am but still had to be fed in a sleepy state totally refused to take bottle fully awake but it's amazing how quickly they can get themselves into a sleepy state to feed when they are hungry!!!I call it his medatative state!!! he is one stubborn child.
 
same problem

Konradsmom said:
Same problem with me - baby is only 3 months old and he's making feeding time v difficult. On good days he'll empty the 5oz soon but more often than not, he'll turn his head to and from both sides and refusing his milk.

he was sleeping through the night for a while but has regressed back into waking at night for a feed, drink a little, go back to sleep and getting up again in the next hour for another go at the bottle. I'm not sure whether he's growing at the right pace....

Any advice on why this is?
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I have the exact situation now.. could you please advise to come over it.

Thank you
 
I am going through the same situation here....very desperate. Just found out this site last night and grateful if someone who has gone through this with success to share their experience. Is your baby now healthy and fit and big?
 
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