Not hungry Babies

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Eliah

Registered User
Hi All

I'm struggling to feed (bottle feeding) my 4 months old baby. She has been feeding badly since she was 2 months old and it is getting worst now. She is on Zantac for reflux and on Friso Comfort milk, but I think she is just in little pain (as she stops crying when i pull the bottle away) and overall she doesn't want to feed. I'm getting frustrated. Does/did anyone of you have the same experience and do you know any good paed/feed specialist we can see to overcome this issue (gosh, she has to feed more as she is feeding less and less now). Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Thank you,
E
 
I had a hard time feeding my second little one since she was 2 months old as well,most of the time she would cry a few seconds after starting the bottle, and it took a lot of rocking, shushing and singing to get her to take her milk. At 4 months she was managing something like 70mls of breast milk per meal. I had to give her more frequent meals to make up for it.

My paed was quite confident for months it was teething pain, although there was no teeth to be seen until she was 6 months. He said they can get teething pain months before the teeth appear, esp if they cry as soon as they start feeding. He told me if it's really bad to try one dose of Panadol and if it makes the world of difference then it's definitely teething pain. I also breastfed more to help ease the pain (bit like a cushioning effect), and changed to a softer teat, but I am not sure if it made a huge difference.

How is her weight going? Despite eating less than what she should, her weight stayed on the curve. If that's the case you probably don't have a lot to worry about. Somehow we made it through 4-5 months of this and it just gradually got better.
 
Thank you Gemma. It is weird because she sometimes starts crying before actually feeding, at the only sight of the bottle, or she feeds a few mls and then cries. Either way, as soon as I pull the bottle out, she stops crying and seems relieved. I thought of teething pain as well (though she is happy with her dummy) and I will mention it again to the paed. I just really don't know what is going on with her and I am frustrated. She is gaining a bit of weight, though not much as she is stuck in the lower spectrum of the chart (she was born at 37w and very small), but so far that hasn't been a concern for the paed. Tough!
 
Sounds like teething pain then if she doesn't even like the sight of the bottle. And yes, my little one would stop crying as soon as I took the bottle out, but usually would seem eager to take it, only to start crying after a few sucks. If she gets through a few minutes of crying, sometimes she would settle and drink 70ml. The paed said its because she got used to the pain.

I used to be sceptical as i thought you Need to see teeth buddig for it to be painful but he was adamant. He even said," you might not see the teeth, but they are still there!!" :)
 
Same here (behaviour wise) - I will speak again to the paed - poor little things already getting used to pain! Thank you Gemma. Hope I will find a way to make it through her feeds...
 
try using a different brand of bottle. my daughter was the same, and i tried about 4 different types before finding one that she liked and then she was fine. (i tried all the expensive ones, but it ended up being the cheap pigeon ones from watsons that she preferred!) it may also be that the flow is too fast/too slow, so maybe experiment with that?

Another suggestion is to try gripe water (available from pharmacies). It may be that she has a gassy tum!

good luck!
 
Remember from prebirth classes attended with my wife that some babies dislike the suckling motion from a bottle. The nurse suggested feeding from a cup placed above the lower lip so the tongue extends to take the fluid in a lapping motion.

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Thank you Marie - yeah, I'm experiencing different bottles and teats (and ended up having an entire collection of different brands), as well with different flow. It works for some days and then we are back to square 1. I haven't tried the gripe water though.
 
You could definitely try a few different feeding methods to see whether it's the milk itself or the teat/bottle method of delivery that is causing the distress.

As Ken suggests, you could try cup-feeding your baby. Another suggestion is the Medela soft cup feeder (it's like a tube with a soft cup-like spout at the end). Or you could use 20ml syringes and syringe the milk into baby's mouth (you clean your finger and nail very thoroughly, get baby to suck the end of your finger as though it's a nipple, and slowly squirt/dribble milk from the syringe into the side of the baby's mouth). There are probably videos of this method on Kellymom or YouTube.

Good luck!
 
I would also suggest you to try using a cup? Since she is 4 months old, you can go and look for the training cup.. I saw some training cups are suitable for 4months old baby. If it is really teething problem, I would agree that you might want to try giving some paracetamol like an hr before you feed?
 
Thank you for your suggestions. She seems to be doing a bit better these days, not sure if it is the Zantac effect or else. If she has some teething issues, are there any other signs I should look for, e.g. Swollen/ red gums?
 
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