Crying and fussing after 20mls

DD2 for the past week, after about 10-20mls starts screwing up her face and crying/fussing/whimpering, kicking her legs, moving her arms etc on the bottle. She continues this if she continues to feed, she will pull off and jump back on. Sometimes gets to the point shes that hysterical she wont continue to feed. She is fully formula fed. I have tried burping her.. sometimes she will let me, others she will continue her little fit and stiffen her body. Ive tried going up teat flow, no difference, if anything the higher you go, the sooner the fussing will start. So shes back on no 1 teat. Tried thickening her feed tonight (as per CHN wondering she may have silent reflux - DD1 had reflux) and she just went hysterical with that. Only thing that stops her is to give her a dummy and she will calm down on that. We then over the next hour or so we try to get as much feed into her we can but it always ended like this. This is now happening every feed unless shes tired and falls asleep on the bottle.

We're using Avent bottles and the CHN said today to try some old skinny style bottles which i have ready for her next feed, but wondering if anyone has ever experienced this with their baby? Its really starting to take its toll on me :(

hugs hon, we did have this issue with Tara, we switched to Tommee Tippee Closer to nature and she was a lot better. I dont know what it was though.. sorry cant be of more help, hope your beautiful girl will feed better soon xxx

Sounds like what kelti was like - and she had silent reflux.

Oh ok thanks Belle.
what did you do for her Arimeh?

Hi Shooting Star, my DD2 did EXACTLY this same thing since 9 wks old - absolutely word for word what you have written. She was diagnosed with silent reflux, and even went to hospy due to oesophagitis from the reflux.

She was started on Losec, but the dose was low, the paed put it up to 10mg twice a day. I didn't think it was working, it turned out It wasn't working because I wasn't waiting at least 20min after giving the Losec, to feed her.

Since starting to doing this, she hasn't refused a single feed in 2 weeks, and has gone from drinking around 300ml a day, to 900ml a day + solids. Honestly, We have gone from constant tears & screaming for up to an hour each feed, to enjoying every single feed time.

I truly would get bub to a GP/paed asap, and either get reflux eliminated as a cause, or get her started on meds. I feel so awful that we (especially DD2) suffered for sooo long. Good luck, I truly hope you get it sorted

Bec xo


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My DD2 was like this she had reflux too, meds helped. We also switched over to the closer to nature bottles after trying heaps of different ones :) hope she gets better soon :hug:

Oh gee thanks so much Beckels. My only problem is i took her to a GP on Tuesday who said shes too young to do anything for yet and to monitor it, even though i stressed to her that she looks in pain, is that right, doctor said shes too young she wont do anything yet. I then mensioned it briefly to my other GP yesterday when i went to see her and she said the same, we dont do anything for it yet as all babies have a form of reflux at this age. So im at my wits end with the GPs. I guess next thing would be to find a pediatrician.. but will they just tell me the same? monitor it for another few weeks..

Hi SS,

my DD2 was 9wks old when the reflux symptoms started. I'm not sure what age they can start Losec, but I do know without a doubt, GP's are VERY conservative when it comes to prescribing meds for infants.

My GP started DD2 on Losec @ 5mg a day (@ 12wks old), when I saw a paed, he bumped it to 20mg on the spot, & said "we don't mess about with these things, we go high from the start, then work our way down once the symptoms are under control"

You see the reflux can cause oesophagitis, which burns bub's oesophagus, (which is what happened to my DD2) and it can take weeks to heal - which compounds the problem of the reflux, so it make the whole thing worse.

I would definitely be seeing a paed ASAP - you will need to get a referral from your GP to see one. I phoned the Paed we are seeing for an appt back in Jan, and couldn't get in until May :o I thought, well we aren't waiting that long - so I took her to the Emergency Dept of the hospy, and we were admitted & seeing the said Paed within 2hrs! And had a follow up appt after discharge for 2 wks later, so basically we just went in the back door IYKWIM.

My DS1 was a sickly lil fella his whole crummy life - but I learnt from that, NEVER to doubt my mother's instinct. I will do ANYTHING to ensure my concerns are investigated. You sound like a mumma exactly like me, with your instinct warning you that there is a major problem.

I really would think a paed would be way more confident prescribing meds than a GP.. Our paed is fantastic with his reflux knowledge. I hope there is a great one near you that can get your gorgeous lil DD2 sorted. :pray:

Oh, i just thought to add: another way I knew it was silent reflux (besides the screaming/refusing at feeds & constant hiccups) was the smell of milky vomit on her breath, and after one awful day of feed refusals - in desperation i offered a bottle of cooled boiled water - she drank it like a dying man in the desert - it near broke my heart to see her sucking so madly at it. I'm still not sure why the water doesn't induce the same screaming as the formula - but some days during these bad months, its all she would drink.

Honestly, it has been hell these past months, but now we have reached the so called light at the end of the tunnel, its just bliss! i truly believe that it would have been sorted alot quicker if 1. we had started the high dose straight off & 2. I had of followed the instructions of WAITING the min 20min after giving it..

Gosh, sorry for all the rambling, it's just been such a rough trot, and i hate the thought of any bubba suffering the same way. I am also a registered nurse, so I have some good medical experience, but nothing is more accurate than a mother's intuition...ever! Good luck hun, & as I said please feel free to contact me for any advice/support :hug:

my boy was exactly the same! it was sooo frustrating. he would start the bottle ok, then go mental about half way through. we went up to teat 2 and also changed to NAN ha1 formula. he was on s26. he is now much better. if he stops half way through, instead of trying to force him to drink it, we just leave him alone for half an hour and he usually finishes it then.

Beckels.. thanks so much for all your information, not ramble at all. Its really made me so happy actually to know what may be the reason behind it. I cant get to the doctor until monday but will definitely be going for that referral and hopefully we can get in asap. No way do i want to just wait and monitor it for things to get worse.. i know theres a problem now and its not fair on the poor little thing to be put through that pain just for us to sit back and watch it.

Mummajj.. thats what we have been doing too.. having to stop and come back to the rest of the bottle later. Its nice, well not nice but you know what i mean, to know others have experienced the same thing.

ETA.. a friend has just told me about a child doctor in the area which i have an appointment to see tomorrow morning! So hopefully he can give us some answers and if not will get a referral.

could it be that she has a milk protien allergy??? have you tried to express some milk and see what the reaction is?? (even if you just did it a few times)

Olive.. i dont think i have any milk left to express unfort.. not much anyways.

Well just wanted to let you know.. went to see the child doctor today and he was lovely. Put her on a low dose (0.5ml) of Zantac twice a day to see if it helps as shes only 3 weeks. Said we should see a difference in 1-2 days and if it does help to go back and see him after 2 weeks to reassess. The chemist said if after 5 days its not made much of an improvement to go back to the doctor as its either not strong enough or reflux isnt the problem. But i really think it is the problem so *hopefully* we'll be on the right track now.

Just want to thank you all for your help especially Beckels xx

Hi SS,

Wow! So happy you have seen a good Dr, that's awesome. Fingers crossed you see an improvement :) I'm not sure if the Dr or pharmacist mentioned the wait time after giving the losec, but I strongly recommend waiting 20 min before giving a feed. We saw a difference within 2 days, from doing this, as opposed to the previous 2 months of giving it straight before a feed. Oh wishing you the best of luck Hun :hug:

Bec xo


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Thanks hun. Ya know, im so glad you replied to my post Beckels because it made me listen to my instincts and get another opinion. Really hoping it helps.
Not sure if its different to Losec in when to give it/doasages, but shes on Zantac. They just said to give twice a day. But will make sure its not right before a feed just incase. He did explain to me the difference between Zantac and Losec and that Losec is a bit stronger.. but ill guess we'll see if the Zantec and dosage is strong enough, otherwise will just go back and see him. Thanks and big hugs again :)

DD used to get a lot of wind on the Avent bottles so the bowed back and such would start. We changed her to nuk bottles because she was a prem and her jaw muscles tired too easy. I liked the fact they were glass too and seemed a lot cleaner. We found out at about 8 weeks old she had silent reflux but she still had issues when she had to suck hard to get her milk.

Oops, silly me didn't read your post properly! Good luck with the Zantac, I'm not familiar with using that, so not sure if there is a wait time, I wouldn't have thought so if it doesn't say on the pack. My fingers are crossed that it works for your beautiful bubba :)

Bec xo


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oh yay. really hoping it works for you!!! i will check the thread in a couple of days to see. :) i just know how frustrating it can be and how much easier life would be if they would "just drink the bottle" lol. i said that phrase way too many times to remember. but it did pass. fingers crossed for you hun.

How did you go with the Zantac? DS was EXACTLY the same as you described, and Zantac turned him into a different baby.

Just know that as your DD puts on weight, the dosage needs to be increased... we found that every 2 weeks he would start to get niggly again because we needed to up his dosage.

Good Luck!

Thanks Connie, i will keep that in mind! Um.. it took a few days (about 4) to see any effects but i definately think its made a difference. She still cries and squirms towards the end of the bottle. I have an appointment tomorrow morning with the GP again to maybe get her dosage upped, but she also has a yellow tongue since taking the Zantac, like instead of the white milk tongue. Im guessing its biol as she doesnt eat anything other than formula and thats white. Also notice 1 white dot on one of her gums so wondering if she now also has oral thrush. So will get him to look at that tomorrow too. But at least we're on the right track though i think.
Thanks for asking :)

Hi SS,

Been thinking about you guys. I'm sooo glad to hear bub is doing better! Fantastic! It sounds as though it will be great as long as the dose goes up with her weight. That's no good about the possible thrush though, hopefully it gets sorted soon :) Aww I'm just so happy for you, I really hate reflux, its so unfair for bubbas (& mummas too)

Bec xo


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Thanks so much Bec. Saw the doc today and she just has a cyst on her gum. He said its normal for babies so thats a plus. And has put her dosage up a little, but we're definately seeing results from it. She hasnt cried any of her bottles today! And shes actually finishing the 100mls which is awesome! This time 2 weeks ago we were fighting to get 60mls into her. We've actually noticed the hiccups have reduced too, prob only twice a day now if that, and she was getting them between each feed before.
Im so so glad you stressed to me to get another opinion! She is a completely different baby now. She actually enjoys being awake now! So i am so so thankful to you and everyone for their thoughts and help. Love to you all!! xx