Crying and pulling off the bottle while feeding - HELP!!

[Murtle*The*Turtle]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping someone here can help me as no-one so far has any answers and I'm at my wit's end!

My DS is 10 weeks old and now exclusively bottle fed. I wasn't able to sustain Breast feeding due to supply issues.

Once I started bottle feeding he would always feed every 3-4 hours. Then about 6 weeks ago we noticed he would get a bit cranky half way through his bottle and pull off. I found if I gave him a short break he would eventually take the rest of his bottle. The pattern was always the same, drink 60ml of a 140ml bottle then stop and have a break then (usually) drink the rest or most of it.

The last 3 weeks have been terrible. Now he pulls away and screams as if in pain. He'll cough and splutter milk out if I try and give him more, even after a break. He continually pushes out the bottle and refuses anymore. Now I'm lucky if he takes 60-80ml total each feed (8 feeds a day). Today has been the worst and he's only been having 50ml each feed. What's worse is that his sleeps have been deteriorating particularly through the day and sometimes he'll sleep for only 20mins during the day. He's better at night generally, but lately even his night sleeps are getting worse.

I've tried:

1. Frequent winding (every 30ml) - this helped somewhat, but still not nearly enough.
2. Added Infacol to his bottles - this helped a little initially, but again only a little. Now it has no effect.
3. Given him Infants friend before each bottle - results as per infacol
4. Feeding him upright - no real change
5. Changing teat from newborn to 3-month - a slight improvement but now back to the same old thing

In desperation I went to the doctor to see if he maybe had silent reflux or colic - or even both. she ruled out all of these and suggested going to an even faster flow teat (6-month) and trying a different formula - he's currently on Nan HA gold. I've given him a few bottles of the S26 Gold but that hasn't done anything. I'm not convinced it is the teat.

I'm getting really desperate as he's having less and less and sleeping less and less. He appears to be in pain and it is breaking my heart.

I don't know what to do now. Please help me!!

[mel_cur]

I am having the same thing with my 9w old. When I went to the GP he said she had slight tongue thrush (her tongue is white and the white is slightly raised which is different from milk tongue). I now give her some drops (Nilstat 1ml , 4 times a day) on her tongue in the hope it will go away. She has only been on the drops for a day now but I am hoping that it will help! She used to drink up to 150ml now is down to between 50-90mls a feed and screaming after she gets burped and we try and give her some more.

Maybe that’s it? Hope DS settles down soon

[Murtle*The*Turtle]

Hi mel_cur,

No don't think it's that for us. DS has a pink tongue and the doc checked his mouth out fully the other day.

Completely at a loss!?

I hope the drops help your little one...

[*PinkLilly*]

Can I ask why the dr rulled out reflux? This sounds exactly like my DD who was diagnosed with reflux at 3 months. She was always a happy chucker tho (just turned into a not so happy chucker).

[Murtle*The*Turtle]

I think she ruled out reflux because he wasn't vomiting and it started happening either much before or much after reflux normally presents. She didn't go into much detail- she just said that and was pretty certain it wasn't reflux or colic

Personally my gut instinct is silent reflux.

What treatment is your DD receiving for reflux?

I think I will go back next week even though she said to wait a few weeks. I'm so worried about my little guy. But you know the strangest thing? He just drank nearly an entire bottle and only pulled away and cried very briefly once. Not sure if he was just starving because he hardly ate at all during the day or if it is some other reason entirely...

[Floweryfields]

Did the doc check his ears? An earache can be really painful when sucking. Just a thought.

[Arimeh]

Sounds like what my DD was doing. She was diagnosed with silent reflux. We took her to the homeopath and got some drops. Completely different child.

Now just recently, 3 months later, she has horrid constipation and is turning into a chucker.

Homeopath suspects a dairy intolerance so now we are on soy formula. Oh and we are on the newborn teat still otherwise milk spills out everywhere and she splutters and chokes on it.