Why is my baby all of a sudden refusing the bottle?

[cvd16]

Hi All,

I have a 4 week old baby.

Normally when it came to feedings, it wasn't hard at all. She is bottle fed.

Lately, starting 1-2 days ago, she has been rejecting the bottle. She will cry when she's hungry but when I sit her down to feed, she begins to cry hysterically. I try to calm her down and then put the bottle near her mouth and she will reject it. She will shake her head with her mouth wide open (as the nipple is lightly in her mouth). Then I have to try to calm her again. It's a back and forth thing for several minutes.

It is frustrating and 2 hours ago when I fed her, it took me 15 minutes to actually get her to take the bottle! Do any of your babies do this? What does this mean? It's especially tiring in the early mornings when I'm sleep deprived Why is she all of a sudden rejecting the bottle when she's hungry?

 

[dani_tinks]

My daughter goes in and out of this. It drives me mad and the only explanation I can think of is teething. I sometimes have to change where I am feeding her, stand up rocking her singing to her, making silly noises, anything to distract her from the bottle going in the mouth. Have you found she feeds easier if she's half asleep? because that also works well for DD.

 

[Cupcake9596]

My DD also does this occasionally but she's a lot older and its a result of her teething as well as being tongue tied. Is your LO tongue tied by any chance? As a newborn, Eva would constantly latch and unlatch onto the bottle and feedings could take up to an hour

 

[cvd16]

I don't think my baby is teething.. since she's only 4 weeks old.

It happened again this morning at 6am. She was hungry but it took me 45 minutes for her to take the bottle! I was dead tired and still not used to this no sleep thing. I tried to sing to her, turn on her musical mobile etc but she would not calm down. Eventually after holding her, rocking her, and walking around the room multiple times and repeating all this a million times, she finally took the bottle. It' so exhausting and I have no idea why she's doing this all of a sudden.

A week ago she was great with the bottle. She would take it right away. Occasionally I will give her my breast if she has the hiccups. She gets the hiccups often and when I offer her my breast, after a few minutes the hiccups go away. When she wouldn't take the bottle, I tried to offer her my breast and she even refused that. Normally I think she would like the breast over bottle since usually when I try to feed her, she's always turning her head looking for my breast..but now it seems like she doesn't want anything even though she is hungry

What do you mean by tongue tied? Once my baby latches onto the bottle, she's really good about staying on. She would only come off it if I pulled it out.

I'm thinking of taking her to the doctor on Friday to see if there is anything wrong. Now I'm not sure if there is something inside her mouth that hurts?? It would make sense if that was the reason why she was refusing the bottle all of a sudden??

 

[Cupcake9596]

A tongue tie is when the frenulum which attaches the tongue to the lower jaw is too tight - it can affect latching but if she latches well then that's probably not the issue. It's not unheard of for babies to start teething quite young, some are born with teeth! Could she have trapped wind or reflex which is making her irritable?

 

[M2B83]

This sounds like my little one and he has silent reflux. Defoe see the doc to. We skipped gaviscon all together and went straight onto medicine (begins with r and I can't remember the name of it! ) and it's worked wonders. Amount is dependant on weight and have already had up the dose but then I also didn't realise he has put on 2lbs!! Baby isnalso 4 weeks old. Good luck x

 

[DandJ]

Sounds like silent reflux which my daughter used to have, but grew out of it but she wouldn't not take her bottle.

However, a month ago (3 months), she was refusing the bottle after taking 2oz's which lasted for a week. She was also sleeping a lot more than normal during that time so it may have been a growth spurt.

 

[dani_tinks]

My daughter started teething very early on, still has none! Hope you get to the bottom of the problem soon.

 

[cvd16]

I took my daughter to the doctor yesterday. It turns out she has thrush She was refusing the bottle and my breast because most likely the inside of her mouth hurts, and it hurts to suck poor thing. I got her medication for it so hopefully it clears up soon..