B
BabyBoo36
Guest
Since she hit 8 weeks, my LO (now 12 weeks) has become a nightmare to feed. She gets to 3 or 4oz, and then starts fussing, pushing the bottle out with her tongue, and generally getting upset if you try to make her take more. The most I can get down her is 5oz at a time - on a good day.
In the last month we have tried : different teats, different bottles, winding before a feed, winding during a feed, letting her drink without winding until she refuses, changing her nappy half way through, different formula, infacol, gripe water, colief, feeding sat up, feeding sat in her swing, stretching out the times between feeds so she takes more.........the things we have tried are endless. She has been to the Docs who said "Nothing wrong but she might be early teething", so we also tried teething gel, and gummy dummies. Nothing has worked. She is currently on DrBrowns bottles and dentinox, which have helped with the painful wind, but not made an ounce of difference to the fussing. She doesn't have reflux or silent reflux. The HV were rubbish and just said "She needs to take more, try to get it down her....." Oh yeah?? How, bright spark?? By force feeding her?? They advised me to go from demand feeding, to schedule feeding and trying to make her have 5oz every 3.5hours in the day.
She has dropped from 50th centile to between 25th-50th for weight. She is also on 25th for length and head size thou. This week, my friend (a nurse with adults), after witnessing yet another battle with the bottle which upset both LO and me said to me "I don't know why the HV are trying to get her to take 4x6oz bottles - she clearly doesn't want to. Have they thought that perhaps as both you and DH aren't the biggest of people, she's actually meant to be on the 25th centile?" It was the most sensible thing I've heard, so I've made a decision - I don't care what the health visitor says, we're going back onto demand feeding. She will let me know when she wants feeding, and I'll let her take what she needs. If it means 5oz x6 a day,then thats what I'll have to do. I can't try to force her any more, it's too traumatic, and forcing her to eat every 3.5 hours, when she naturally goes 4 hours, is screwing up her sleep. Obviously if she drops weight again, I'll have to re-evaluate, but for now, I'm doing it our way. Wish me luck...........
In the last month we have tried : different teats, different bottles, winding before a feed, winding during a feed, letting her drink without winding until she refuses, changing her nappy half way through, different formula, infacol, gripe water, colief, feeding sat up, feeding sat in her swing, stretching out the times between feeds so she takes more.........the things we have tried are endless. She has been to the Docs who said "Nothing wrong but she might be early teething", so we also tried teething gel, and gummy dummies. Nothing has worked. She is currently on DrBrowns bottles and dentinox, which have helped with the painful wind, but not made an ounce of difference to the fussing. She doesn't have reflux or silent reflux. The HV were rubbish and just said "She needs to take more, try to get it down her....." Oh yeah?? How, bright spark?? By force feeding her?? They advised me to go from demand feeding, to schedule feeding and trying to make her have 5oz every 3.5hours in the day.
She has dropped from 50th centile to between 25th-50th for weight. She is also on 25th for length and head size thou. This week, my friend (a nurse with adults), after witnessing yet another battle with the bottle which upset both LO and me said to me "I don't know why the HV are trying to get her to take 4x6oz bottles - she clearly doesn't want to. Have they thought that perhaps as both you and DH aren't the biggest of people, she's actually meant to be on the 25th centile?" It was the most sensible thing I've heard, so I've made a decision - I don't care what the health visitor says, we're going back onto demand feeding. She will let me know when she wants feeding, and I'll let her take what she needs. If it means 5oz x6 a day,then thats what I'll have to do. I can't try to force her any more, it's too traumatic, and forcing her to eat every 3.5 hours, when she naturally goes 4 hours, is screwing up her sleep. Obviously if she drops weight again, I'll have to re-evaluate, but for now, I'm doing it our way. Wish me luck...........
