Suddenly refusing to feed

[DizzyKershaw]

Hi everyone, my LO is 12 weeks old today and over the past week has started to refuse feeds.  He has been bottle fed since 12 days old and has always been a good feeder.  We have put him up to the medium size teat for Tommee tippee at the weekend as he was struggling to get enough milk before he was asleep.  He took to the new teat really well and you don't find much milk leaking out so I think this is the right size for him.

Now, he might have 30ml before he starts arching his back and crying, we wind him (we have been giving him infacol since this started with EVERY feed) and he might bring up some wind but then refuses to have any more milk.  if we put the bottle near him he cries and just pushes the teat out of his mouth and wriggles around.  He will eventually take maybe half his feed if I just keep letting him chill for a bit and then trying to force the bottle into his mouth, but its not pleasant for either of us and this might take up to an hour.

Yesterday we resorted to feeding him lying down flat on the floor and he took the whole feed!!  I am worried that this is not a suitable way to feed him and it is not helping with whatever is upsetting him.

Our health visitor recommended trying Infacol for a few more days (which we have and no improvement) and then to try colief and if that doesn't work to try aptamil comfort milk.

Can anyone offer any advice?
Thank you in advance 

[Lolly]

Did the HV suggest it could be reflux? Both my babies started to have significant reflux issues around the 10/11 week mark.

Have a look at this link Reflux 101 - General reflux information

If you think that could be the issue I would print out a list of symptoms and take it to your Dr and see what they can offer.

What do you think?

Laura

[DizzyKershaw]

Thanks for your reply Laura. I didn't think about reflux as my niece had that and she couldn't keep a feed down at all. Harry isn't sick and doesn't bring any milk back up. It's rare that he has any posseting.  From that list the only thing he really suffers from is the refusing to eat and arching back etc.
I did ask the health visitor if it could be lactose intolerance as I suffer from that but she reckoned we'd have seen it earlier than this. I am going to see if the colief works as that says it reduces the lactose in the milk and if that makes a difference I'll see the doctor about being lactose intolerant.

I just assumed that reflux would be from birth.  What helped your little ones?

Thanks, Liz.

[Lolly]

Reflux is from birth really, but often the symptoms do start to get worse from about 2 months or so and the refusing to feed and back arching is a very common symptom. Silent refluxers very rarely spill any milk, so just because he isn't a sicky baby doesn't mean you can rule reflux out.

Hopefully the colief will help, the comfort formula is considerable lower in lactose than the regular formula so I think I might be tempted to switch to that rather than faff about with colief (I'm all about the easy option ). It's also a thicker formula so if he is refluxing it could help that too. 

My two both ended up on reflux formula (Enfamil AR) and ranitidine. Both were on the meds and formula until they were 18 months/2 and DS is still having flare ups at 7 .

Laura

[ukrainochka.ua]

My baby is 18 weeks and started refusing feeds at around 12 weeks also. I don't know why, but i found what works for us to get her to eat. I know she wanted to eat because she would scream hungry.
So first thing is that i swaddle her before feeding, this way her arms aren't constantly  hitting the bottle.
Second is she has to be in her bed, in the dark room with minimum visual stimulation, also flat on her back.
Third, is she eats best if i feed her to sleep, ( i know thats not how its supposed to be done, but she takes 2x more milk that way), and surprisingly she is not dependent on a bottle to go  to sleep, she would sleep without it if I put her down, as long as she is not hungry.
Also, the MOST important thing that helped her eat, is that I took away the pacifier. She used to suck on her pacifier, but refused the milk, and once it was gone, now she drinks everything that i offer her!! That is a huge change, as I was throwing away 2/3 of the milk i pumped.
This is just what worked for us.. Hope this helps

[Lolly]

Second is she has to be in her bed, in the dark room with minimum visual stimulation, also flat on her back.

I'm glad you have found something that worked, but want to caution against feeding a baby lying flat. It's not advisable as they can choke really easily lying flat, it can also cause ear infections as milk is able to get into the passages that link the ears to the back of the throat. If you are feeding her in her bed you should really have the mattress on an incline.

Laura

[Laboroditsky]

Hi DizzyKershaw:

NO expert here, but also the FTM of a LO with god awful silent reflux, AS WELL as a milk protein intolerance.
What you described is exactly what happened to us....and it started at about 8/9 weeks, and just got worse until we saw the doc at about 10 weeks. From what he told us, reflux often gets worse when they get to be around 2/3 months. She was always a bit of a light eater, but she was not fussy. Suddenly she didn't want to eat, was fussy at the bottle, arms flailing, feet kicking, back arching and finally it got so bad that she would cry every time we fed her.

She was on ranitidine (Zantac) - things got better, but not very much. She went to a semi elemental formula/breast milk (With me on a milk/soy free diet) for a bit. Then we removed the breast milk. This worked for about 3 weeks. Then it got bad again. They changed her meds to Omeprazole (Prilosec) and moved her to a fully elemental formula. Since then she is WAY better. She is still a very light eater, and we still have to feed her while drowsy, but she is gaining weight steadily, is a happy little girl and it is not a nightmare to feed her anymore!

[Bababoo]

My DD was a little colicky up to @ 3 months old but once that had passed she went through stages of refusing the bottle - she'd take a few oz but once I'd winded her she'd refuse to take the bottle again - even though I knew she was hungry.
I used to feed her nestled into my arm - sitting up more and more as she got older - tried different ways of holding her and one that worked was to let her lie back on the couch, propped up by cushions and I'd sit beside her and give her the bottle and it usually worked. This might go on for a few days and then she'd be ok again back in my arms....no idea why it would suddenly start or why she'd then be happy again to curl up into my arms and feed - as she got older (she's 14 months now) she would go through stages of refusing to do something that she had happily done before (like me feeding her!) and I think for her it was developmental - letting me know that she had her own ideas now. So it might be medical (reflux etc) or a little developmental jump!
Does he have a dummy? Sometimes if she was refusing to take the bottle I'd give her the dummy for maybe 30 secs and then swap the dummy for the bottle very quickly - didn't always work but might be worth a try!