Feeding problems with my 9 week old

[lonedad]

Hi all. Just recently, lets say the last week, my little girl has given me major problems when feeding her. Shes a really good girl, has always slept through the night, never cries much, sleeps through the day and never gave me any problems or concerns. But lately when its feeding time, she struggles and thrashes around and even chokes when drinking. Ive tried different teats but she only likes the ones I used to give her. She is hungry because when i take the bottle away she cries for it, and she cant be full of wind because i wind her well and also she is given infacol to help with it. She only breast fed for a week after she was born and had no problems putting her on bottle feeds. In fact, she took to it better than breast feeding. Any suggestions?

[lorri24601]

have you tried changing the temp a little, maybe she would like it a little cooler or warmer, my friends daughter would only drink a bottle if it was really really warm, i would of said it was way too hot personally but i had watched her and if she took a while feeding and the temp dropped she would refuse to continue feeding till it was warmed up again,used to scare the life out of me lol

[lorri24601]

continued lol..............sorry hit post before i had finished , can i add, im not recommending a really really hot bottle ,was just an example of some little ones having preferences, my daughther would only drink hers at room temperature

[lonedad]

I thought of that and have tried different temperatures but to no avail.

[lonedad]

The teats she likes are the ones that she has to work at to get milk out. Ive had a go on them (this was after she fed and i didnt re-use the teat till after if was cleaned and sterilised) and you have to suck to get anything out of it dont come out too quickly. Ive tried natural, medium and quick flow teats. Ive tried different shapes and sizes but she always cries and refuses when i have them teats on the bottle. She just likes the ones she started on. Theyre TommeeTippee ones with the bobbles around the teat. I'm very puzzled at all this. It used to take her 15 to 20 minutes to feed but now it can take up to an hour.

[tigwig]

Have you tried Dr Brown bottles? these have a valve thing in the middle and the idea is the milk flows freely without resulting in any air bubbles. My daughter was exactly the same and when I bought these bottles I couldn't believe the difference it made. I used Cow & Gate omneo comfort milk as well.

[subzero5000]

hi my little girl is ten weeks u never know how much to give them as the tin is only a guide every baby is different. i started on sma gold normal baby milk but she was always crying after feeds and would never go the four hours . she has been taking sma white for hungrey babies since three weeks has been alot better i give her 60z bottles every 4 hours give or take 30 mins she seems happy. according to the tin should only be 40z bottles but your baby knows when hungrey. i give her cool boiled water every day in between feeds. if your baby is chokingwhen drinking the teat must be the problem can i ask what bottles u use and what milk how many ozs does she take

[lonedad]

Hi sub. Yes. shes on sma gold and she has tommee tippee medium flow teats. shes had these since she stopped breastfeeding and wont take any other kind of teat. shes always satisfied after her feeds and usually sleeps straight after

[Psychick]

Have you considered changing the milk? I know she would feed fine before but now maybe it isnt suiting her? Another thing you could try is holding her at different positions to see if shes gettting uncomfortable or not during feeding.

I would also recommend having a chat with your health visitor as well, see what they can suggest.

Good luck!

[Ice-Maiden]

By the time my eldest child was 3 month's old, we were going frantic because of his feeding habits. He was barely taking 2oz. of milk at a time, and refused almost every teat I could find. In desperation, I used some descaler to clean out the steam steriliser, although it looked perfectly clean - and was horrified to see a greyish residue form on top of the water. I just KNEW I'd found the problem, and as soon as I reverted to the old-fashioned method of heating the bottles up in a pan of boiling water and scrubbing them, my son duly drank all his feeds. I wrote to the makers of the steriliser, & had to send the item back for testing. Although they wouldn't admit liability, they refunded the cost of the item and sent me a vouched for �250. I told other mums who'd had sicky/poor-feeding babies, & they also found that once they'd reverted to boiling their bottles, the problems disappeared. Don't know if this'd help in your case.

[lonedad]

Ice maiden, I may try that out. How do I boil the bottles and how long does this need to be done. I may also put the sterisliser in the microwave. Its suitable for both steam sterilising and cold water
Pyschick, I dont think the milks the problem cause she always finishes a bottle and seems satisfied afterwards. I am planning to see the health visitor but when i saw her last wednesday, she didnt seem concerned

[redcrx]

Id also recommend the Dr Brown bottles bu they can be very expensive.

Do Tommee Tippee do a variflow teat that you could try?

Also dont give her the infacol for a few days. I found that with my son and a few other children i know it made things worse and actually gave then stomach aches (in case you dont know a baby will pull legs right up to tummy when they have a tummy ache and also green poo can be a sign of trapped wind too)

[sense4all]

My eldest prefered the funny shaped bobble tops she just had a little mouth.She was not very good at breastfeeding either. Do you think that where you live the water is very hard? you could try mixing the feed with a cheap bottled (still boiled etc ) water from somewhere like Lidls to see if that helps. Does your kettle need to be descaled by using the inexpensive cheap bottle of vinegar in it overnight , make sure you boil and chuck a couple of kettles full first before using it to make up lil' uns feeds. The pulling up of the knees is a classic colic indication ( well called Red. ) look out for that before you go to your midwife, so she is aware that you know what you are talking about - not just a 'worrier' .