My gorgeous daughter is 3 and a half months old and we have been having big issues with feeding.
I was breast feeding but after baby started not gaining weight and was very unsettled we realised she had problems with a poor suck - as a result my supplies dropped. We ended up having to feed expressed milk (I am on domperidone three times a day to keep up my supplies) with a bottle and a fast flow teat. This improved things and better weight gain for a while but her weight gain is still not ideal and the last few days things have got worse again.
At the moment she will only take between 70 and 90 ml (5-6 times a day) - and she is meant to be having about 750 ml in total each day given her current weight of about 5 kg. I have tried lots of different bottles and teats. It seems after the 70-90 ml she is just not hungry and she cries and pushes bottle away. If I try to feed her more frequently she will take in even less. I try topping her up after a play following a feed but this doesn't seem to work either. We are adding polyjoule to her feeds to increase calorie content.
I have not given her any formula - all expressed breast milk - but am wondering if I should try formula - maybe she doesn't like taste of breast milk?
would love any ideas as finding I am getting pretty stressed, and feeding is becoming unpleasant for us both . She has had blood tests and ultrasound of head and paediatrician visits and nothing except poor suck has been picked up.
My DS had a poor suck too. It's really hard work to get them to feed properly. I ended up topping him up with EBM via a supply line or a newborn slow flow teat. This meant he had to suck strongly to get his milk. A fast let down or fast flow teats make it easy for them to not have to suck as hard. Talk to the ABA and a good LC for advice on suck training and using a supply line.
The supply line was great because it kept up the breast stimulation needed to increase my supply. I also took Motilium and fenugreek.
I was crap at expressing though and soon my EBM ran out and I had to top up with formula but after a few months we were back fully breastfeeding.
Hi babymiracles,
A few questions
Are you still breastfeeding or only feeding ebm?
What have the weight gains been like? You mentinoed improvement then not so good again - it's normal for gains to slow down after the 12-week mark.
Plenty of wet & dirty nappies?
I doubt she'd dislike the taste of breastmilk. (What's the polyjoule stuff? maybe that tastes bad)
I'm no expert, but hopefully someone who knows more can give you some advice. I guess you've seen an LC? Have you called the ABA for support?
It must be very stressful for you. It sounds like you're working really hard to do your best by our little girl. Hope things improve for you guys soon
Last edited by onthefly; January 17th, 2010 at 03:48 PM.
Thanks Elund and Marcellus for replying so quickly.
We have seen LC and haven't found ABA helpful with this problem. We actually spent 4 days at a place called Torren's house which is in adelaide for babies with sleep or feeding issue. Supply line was considered but not thought to be an option in our case. I have a fast let down and we all decided on fast flow teat just to ensure she doesn't get too tired and is able to get a decent amount of feed.
For your questions Marcellus - I am almost completely doing bottle with Expressed breast milk - only occaisonally on the breast now (for comfort really - but rarely) - mainly because with bottle we can see what she is actually taking wherease with breast we don't know and given her poor weight gain this seemed important. Am doing well with expressing and now with domperidone making more milk than she is taking so freezing quite a bit too (although it is a pain to have to express 6 times a day!)
Last time she was weighed she had gained 230 g in two weeks. Paediatrician said this wasn't enough but I didn't know about the smaller weight gains after 12 weeks so thanks for that info. In her early weeks she averaged only 125 g per week until we ran into trouble when she was 10 weeks old and then had practically no weight gain.
Since bottle feeding she has a lot more wet nappies and a dirty nappy once every one to two days.
The polyjoule is supposedly tasteless - it is just a carbohydrate to add in more calories - recommended by paediatrician.
Thanks again ladies for your quick replies and support
Hi Babymiracles,
You are having a tough time of it. Truth is, your little one is doing pretty well - just about a tablespoon a week below what you would expect (usually aroud 150 + in the first weeks) and then she's doing "fine" in the last couple of weeks. After 12 wkd it is normal for babies to gain 80 -130g per wk.
The secret is in feeding her (ideally from the breast) more often. Imagine having to get 750 ml into a jug -but you've got to do it by filling a port glass (the size of baby's stomach) and then tipping it into a jug. You are going to have to fill that port glass a lot of times. She needs to feed at least 8 -up to 12 times per day. Even though she takes less at each feed she will take more over a 24hr period.
Thanks so much Barb - that is reasurring re the amount of weight gain after 12 weeks - I didn't know that.
I think I might give the feeding on the breast another go (especially now I know my supplies are okay again) - and will feed her more often. One problem is that she doesn't seem to demand food very often anymore - do you think I should just feed her 3 hourly if she isn't asking for food?
Hi again,
Well, those weight gains actually sound pretty good to me!
I asked about bf just because if she is still having some from the breast, that might partly account for why she doesn't seem to have much from a bottle (ie, maybe she gets a lot during those feeds).
I would aim for 2-3 hourly during the day and (hopefully) longer breaks overnight. But I guess it just depends what works for the both of you.
Yes,I think feeding every 3 hours would be a great idea. Many mothers are surprised to find that while their baby seems uninterested initially - the more they get the
ore they really want. Things just get better and better.
Please help - baby who won't drink enough!
. She has had blood tests and ultrasound of head and paediatrician visits and nothing except poor suck has been picked up.
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