Worried about my LO

[Farie]

Nim's 8 weeks old and I'm lucky if I can get her to take 2oz per feed, occasionally 3. Sometimes she'll surprise me and take more but generally not. This seems loads less than the recommended amount? The tin says she should be taking nearly double that?
I've just done her 3am feed and she fussed and fussed just taking the 2oz but fell back to sleep in my arms.

We are just moving to FF after 8 weeks of BFing. LO is on neocate which apparently tastes bad.

Any suggestions?
How much do your 8 week olds eat?

 

[aiimee12345]

hi i cant remember how much my little girl drank at 8weeks.. but shes 5months now and still only drinks 4-5oz xx

 

[littleblonde]

Have you tried a faster or slower teat or even a different type bottle and teet. MAybe she is strugling to get some out?

 

[Worrisome]

Hi farie :wave: Millie was just like this hun, she hardly had anything at night, same really about 2oz but I think she was just getting ready to sleep through which she started doing 11-7 at around 6 weeks. Also when she wakes in the morning she would only have a few ounce.

HV said to write it down for a few days, and you will find she is probably snacking, she is basically feeding on demand on the bottle, we wrote Millies down and found she was having more as it was just very little and often.

How is she doing on the neocate reflux wise?

 

[stardust599]

Hey hun

It's probably the reflux, Macy is exactly the same (and she's on Neocate too but she's had so many different milks she couldn't care less about the taste). She's 12 weeks now and still only takes 2-3oz every 3 hours. Get her weighed regularly.

She fusses at every bottle and it's a struggle to get her to eat. Learn from my mistakes and never force a bottle though. If Nim starts to show any pain during a feed - fussing, back-arching etc. then take the bottle away and don't offer it again until she's calm. I kept trying to force the bottle on Macy and now she has a complete aversion to bottles and is frightened they'll make her tummy sore. They are quick to work out that feeding can cause reflux pain.

Also feed little and often, keeping them 3hourly just now (I go 3 hourly during the day and 4hourly at night). Do a dreamfeed as well - when your LO has gone to bed and is in a deepsleep pick her up (usually between 10-11pm) and give her a full bottle - Macy always take 4oz at this time without fussing but any other time really struggles with 2-3oz.

And keep feeds calm and happy - snuggle her into you, put some white noise and take a little wander round the room and gently tease her with the bottle, drip a couple of drops of milk onto her lips and tease her with the teat and let her smell it and get interested. When Macy's sucking I keep talking to her softly and encouraging her and if she's getting stressed I take it away and we wander round for a bit and start again.

Also DR Brown's bottles have been fab for Macy's reflux too xx

 

[Farie]

Thank you

Shes currently going 3h a night and anything from 1-3h during the day, averaging 2hs.
Thank you re the bottle aversion, I think I was coming close to pushing to hard. I'll back off and just let her snack as she wants.
She seems a little better since I upped her Losec dose and am putting brown sugar in the milk to flavour it.

If it doesn't get better I'll look into Dr Browns bottles, we currently use MAM.
I'll try the white noise, didnt think of that! Shes def better sucking if I'm walking about, its like if shes distracted the sucking becomes instinctual, rather than her thinking and getting stressed about it?
I think it will also be easier once my milks gone, its so hard on her having me leaking all over the place!

re: the dream feed, we do do one, i introduced it while still BFing, but she only ever take a couple of oz. do you think she'll start taking more as she gets used to the bigger feeds? She was always a snacker, even BFing.

 

[stardust599]

Even if she's having tiny feeds, as long as it's little and often it's fine, just try to keep track of how much she's taking every 24hours and you'll probably see good days and bad days - we have 15oz on a bad day and as much as 23oz on a good day so it all averages out. She's always taken much less than she should for her weight but she is still gaining slowly but surely (apart from a little blip last week where she had a horrendous week and lost a little) and is an alert, active, healthy looking baby so I guess it's enough for her.

Macy is having one of her "days" today where she'll only have an ounce here and there but paediatrician told me not to worry, as long as she's taking something and they keep an eye on her weight weekly. The paediatrician also got me to wean at 11 weeks so now at almost 13weeks she's on 3meals a day and she's nearly a different baby (we still have rough days but it's much better than before) and she's fattening up and much more content, when she has the meals through the day she isn't bothered by her milk so much but it's started to flare up overnight so I'm going to ask if I can add a teaspoon of baby rice to her overnight bottle to keep the milk and acid down. You'd have to ask paediatrician/GP first though as there are risks with early weaning but you have to do what's right for your LO.

Yeah, and she'll soon get used to the taste of Neocate too! Try warming it up more than recommended, Macy will only take it if it's really quite hot! I think it's all a case of trial and error and seeing what works for each baby!

She might also get a bit better now that the LOSEC is back up to 20mg. Our paed will only prescribe 5mg for Macy but it doesn't work so I have to give her 10mg, not sure what I'll do as we'll run out twice as quick, will have to see if they notice when I put the repeat prescription in early!

I'm not sure about the dreamfeed :-S Macy always took to it really well but the past few days she's only been taking 2oz at it so I really have no answers!!

xxx

 

[Farie]

Yup, I've found she likes it warm too.

Not a great night tonight, she took the dream feed ok and managed 3oz, but only went 2.5h before waking again and now we've just had an awful feed, she seemed really hungry, gobbled and gulped and just didn't seem to feed 'well' (no calm sucking all string frantic gulps, then breaking the latch and the air glugged into the bottle, then gulping again) she only took 2oz and then power chucked when I burped her. Refused more after that too.
She went back to sleep nicely tho?!?

Seriously considering the Dr Browns bottles - just not sure if they will help or its just her being 'special'

 

[Ang1873]

around nim's age, Sarah went through snacking - she's only take 2oz at a time bit feed every 2.5 hours at most.

now at 4 months she takes 4/5oz every 3/4 hours(5 bottles a day)

 

[Nessicle]

Hi farie :wave: Millie was just like this hun, she hardly had anything at night, same really about 2oz but I think she was just getting ready to sleep through which she started doing 11-7 at around 6 weeks. Also when she wakes in the morning she would only have a few ounce.

HV said to write it down for a few days, and you will find she is probably snacking, she is basically feeding on demand on the bottle, we wrote Millies down and found she was having more as it was just very little and often.

How is she doing on the neocate reflux wise?

Ava is exactly like this I'm relieved to read this hun! I was really worried! She takes about 2oz every 2 hours as she feeds on demand, she wont go long enough to try and give her more and we cant get her to take more than 2oz, sometimes she'll take 3oz but not often!

Wish she'd take 3-4oz and go a bit longer between feeds I'm knackered and cant get anything done! She'll go longer when we're out cos she falls asleep whenever we go out

 

[Nessicle]

oh and Ava will only have her bottles quite warm, above the recommended temp anyway - too cold for her otherwise and she throws a right tantrum if its not warm enough lol that doesnt help with her feeds either cos it goes cold quite quickly x

 

[AimeeM]

At that age Nathan had no more than 2-3 oz a feed due to reflux and MPI. Once the Neocate kicked in he did better but he only managed to get from 5 to 7 oz a couple of months ago. Neocate is fantastic stuff!