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

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!!

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

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...

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).

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...

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

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.

Hmmmm do naturopaths do homeopathic remedies?

I don't think she did check his ears. Maybe I can ask her to next week. Thanks for your suggestions everyone. I really feel like I reached the end of the list of possibilities, but here are a few other things to try.

Thanks!!

I'm glad I found this thread. Your DS sounds just like my DS, although my DS does usually get close to finishing each bottle after his break (Usually after about 60ml & breaks for about 10 mins). Alot of the time he's only having around 170ml, supposed to be 240ml, & I get worried because not only does it look like he's in pain but also because he goes usually 14 hours through the night without ant feeds at all so what he can get down through the day is all he gets!

I will be taking him to see ECHN hopefully next week. I was leaning towards silent reflux too but he doesn't brink up his milk very often....

It's all so confusing!!!

Good luck finding whats wrong with your DS, I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone has any more advice on this problem.

sounds like reflux to me !! please get a 2nd opinion ... Silent reflux sucks.. and so does the spitting up reflux.. dd was like you bub in the beegging .. now her sqealiung ha settled down but still spits up bout 15 times a day (its getting much better on meds infact i have her losec in my hand now !!

hope you and bub get some releif soon .. i really feel for you , been in tha position not too long ago xx

sounds like silet reflux to me.

My DS was arching back and screaming at breast and chucking lots, Dr diagnosed reflux and put him on Losec. I also took him to an osteopath one or both helped.

I have since stopped meds and he is now a happy chucker!!!

Good luck get a 2nd opinion and i recommend trying osteopath

Would you consider trying another doctor to get a second opinion? Your daughter sounds very much like my DS was at a very early age. We saw two doctors who just said not reflux but no other suggestions. I was at my wits ends - it was obvious that something was wrong. I took him to another doctor that dignosed reflux straight away as he had a son with reflux and recognised the symptoms straight away regardless of age.

DS was put straight onto Losec and after about 1and half/2 weeks he was a different baby. He did become very chucky for a long time, that wasn't because of the Losec though (didn't stop vomiting until he was about 13months) but he was no longer in pain. We also took him to a chiropractor which helped a bit too.
Good luck

I reread all the symptoms for silent reflux and he has nearly all of them.

I will get a second opinion I think.

How effective are the meds for it??

Should I perservere and try to get him to eat more? I just tried another bottle and he's had only 45ml this time

:(

I just realised I called your DS your daughter in my answer - sorry :redface:.
In our case, Losec was extremly effective. In regards to trying to get him to feed more, just remember he's probably in a bit of pain so try to not to force it. As long as he is getting something for the moment should be ok I think but some of the other girls might be better at answering that question. Maybe small amounts frequently?

Hi everyone, on the way to visit relos so typing on my phone- sorry for any typos!

Saw another doc this morning and he diagnosed silent reflux and gave us a referral to our paed. Not happy it is SR, but at least we know what we're dealing with and can hopefully stop the pain.

He has put DS on losec.

I hope it helps! For those of you who are taking losec, what dose is your bubs on and how long did it take to see results? Anything I should know about it ?

I am so glad I got a second opinion. Now let's just hope it helps!

For those of you who are having similar issues to us, go and see your doc. Trust me, you will feel a thousand times better. I hope you also get some answers and solutions!

Oh and thanks for all your advice and suggestions. I am so very grateful to you all!!

:)

a word of advice with losec the disolving (no crushing) half a tablet and giving it is very hard, if you can get to a compounding pharmacy they can make a solution for you much easier to give.

solution i had was 2mg in a ml and give 2 and 1/2 mls (5mg dose)

Hiya,

DS is on 5mg/ml - 1ml twice a day. Yep it's the compound stuff. God I hope it works. Don't know what i'll do if it doesn't!!

How long until you saw some improvement? Was it gradual and got better over time or did you notice that it happened all of a sudden one feed?

was gradual thing but obvious he stopped having obvious pain. Over time thought (we started at 5 weeks) it got to be a huge fight to get Losec into him so i cut down to once a day and after a few weeks stopped all together and is fine now, stopped at about 4 and 1/2 months. He still chucks but is now a happy chucker.

Good luck, its distressing to see them in pain and not able to help them, Hugs