4 month old (FF) refusing the bottle

[smileygurl85]

We started Buzz on solids last week. He's loving them which is great (we started at 4 months because I'm convinced he's got reflux, the pediatrician won't give me anything for it but agreed that if LO is uncomfortable that trying solids might help the bottles stay down better.)

Anyway, the whole solids keeping the formula down is working great - but mostly because the baby won't take much of his bottles. I'm not overfeeding him solids (just 4 tsps a day - which is less than an ounce) and only about an hour after a mid-day (usually late-afternoon) bottle - so as not to spoil his appetite for his other bottles.

Even still - we offer him 180ml (about 6oz) 5 times a day (that's every 3 hours or so.) According to his weight he should be drinking 900ml/day. As things stand - he sometimes skips a bottle entirely (due to whacked out napping schedule) and when we offer him bottles he takes a few sucks then pushes it out and cries. A this point we're throwing out like 3 oz of milk at every feed! It's been super-hot here recently so I've caved to giving him cool water in a cup (since he won't take formula and he also won't take the sippy cup - but seems to get a kick out of sipping from a regular cup - most of it even goes into him. So at least he's not dehydrating.)

What do I do? (Besides for mixing some formula with cereal and switching teats to a faster flow.)

 

[Bernie16]

My son is 4 1/2 months old and has been on solids for a while. The 2 main reasons for this are he suffers from reflux and is a nightmare with milk. He is on prescription formula for a milk protein intolerance not tha that makes any difference. I make 5 5oz bottles a day, but he only takes 2-3 oz out of each bottle on most occasions, on rare occasions it is 4oz and half the time doesn't have them all. Today for example he has had 3 bottles with a total of around 7oz of milk and only has one more bottle to go before bed. I try to give him as much solid as he will take to try and bulk things out while I am waiting for our next doctors appointment to come through. Without hs solids he would definitely be losing weight. I would sa he has anwhere from 1-3 tbsns 2-3 times a day. He also has up to 4 oz of water (or flavoured baby water) a day, although sometimes he has no water at all, depending on how he feels. He has been having water since about 7 weeks.

Guidelines say he should be having 25-30 oz of milk a day, and I have no chance of that, 15-16 oz is the best I can do on a good day!

I won't encourage you to increase solids as everybody has different opinions but it is the only thing that is putting weight on James, and he absolutely loves his food. I mix his milk with baby rice to help up his intake, and also on advice have added a couple of scoops of powder to fruit puree (but I'm not sure if you can do that with normal formula although I can't see what difference it makes).

All that bothers me is that he is not getting enough of the nutrients he should have from his milk so incomparision your son is doing much beter than ours!

Go with your gut instinct and see how it goes, sorry I can't offer any real advice but at least you can get an idea of another child the same age with the same problem! x