4.5 month old difficult to feed, hitting bottle away. Help??

[tripleccc]

The past few days, my 4.5 month old has been difficult to feed. She acts hungry, but will just hit the bottle away. She will suck on a cold teething toy no problem and chew/suck on everything else, she just doesn't want her bottle!
I initially was thinking teething, because she's been having other symptoms (pulling left ear, fussy, low temp, drooling lots, chewing EVERYTHING, grabbing fingers and biting down)...but I'm wondering if maybe it's time to start water? She tries to suck on my water bottle, but still refuses her bottle. Any suggestions?

 

[sil]

I would not start water, especially if she is refusing the bottle. You don't want her to fill up on water and not milk and get malnourished.

 

[MrsButterfly]

Could she need to go up a flow size? May be frustrated by speed it's coming out?

 

[tripleccc]

She just went up to level 2 last month. I feel like level 3 would be too fast because it's 6+ months? I'm a ftm, so I don't know lol

 

[noon_child]

Its very common to go off feeding when teething. It would be quite early for teeth, but some babies are born with them so you just can't tell...it might be time for hers to come through.

 

[ClairAye]

My kids did this when teething or needing a faster flow teat.

 

[MindUtopia]

We had this around that time too. I suspected it might have been teething and a little tooth bud oddly appeared on one of her top teeth, and then all symptoms disappeared and the tooth itself seemed to recede. She didn't get her first tooth until 6.5 months (teething symptoms really badly from 6 months for 2 weeks before it fully popped through). I also found we tended to get this just before a growth spurt. And I think that's what a lot of the refusal was about, almost like she was developing too much to eat, and then suddenly she started to eat more and grew loads. Just one of those things I guess. It eventually settled down. I would just keep offering small amounts little and often. I wouldn't offer water because that fills up their tummies and makes them think they aren't hungry, but actually when they are otherwise not eating much, they really need those nutrients and calories when they do show an interest.

 

[hopefullys]

Yeh my baby went through this somedays n I never knew why really only could guess it was her teeth as she had her first two bottom teeth at 5 months and now has 8 teeth at 9 months old! I do believe when they go through a growth spurt thru go off there milk a little as there tummys can change. It's best just to carry on offering feeds as normal I would say x

 

[staceylou]

My 4.5 month old is starting to do the same, last time she did it i upped her teat size (8 weeks) and it worked, so i'll be trying that now. Could be teeth though, my 4 year old started teething at 12 weeks x