Difficulty with Bottle Feeding

Remember that babies are ONLY nose breathers, so if his head is stuffy, he can't drink and breathe at the same time. Also, there's no prescribed formula for how much he has to eat, and if he fights the feedings, he's probably not really hungry enough. I wish you the best of luck with your beautiful baby!

Everyone before me I agree with. However, I would also possibly try another type of bottle to go along with them. Dr. Brown are suppost to be great for kids with reflux. I have also had great luck with Platex's AirVents. Hope that helps.

Hi there, I have two sons, one 6 years old and one 16 months old. I wanted to let you know that I've been using Dr. B.'s bottles with my second son and they are wonderful - they are engineered so that there is no vacuum. I believe my 2nd son has less ear infections because of this. Also, I breastfed both boys until about 11 months. I noticed there were times when they didn't seem to want to eat much at all and it concerned me but as long as your baby is gaining weight - then you are probably okay. Try not to worry (I know easier said than done). Hang in there! I know how stressful feeding an infant can be when things don't seem to be going as expected. ~L.

My nephew that I watch fought the bottle. To get him to take it at first I would sit on one of those big excersize balls and bounce while trying to feed him. It seemed to calm and distract him enough that eventually he would take it. It was pretty tiring but now he takes the bottle with no problem (and no bouncing!). Oh, and maybe swaddling him would help with the moving so much?

One suggestion that may or may not help, is to have your infants hearing checked. My oldest when he was very young acted very strangly and we could not figure out what was wrong. Through the advice from a family friend, I had his hearing checked. Not just his ears, as the doctor said there was nothing wrong with his eardrums. It turned out that my son has so much fluid behind his eardrums that he was actually deaf in one ear! It was a case of chronic ear infections, but didn't show up on his eardrum... very strange. But if I hadn't checked his hearing with a tympanogram (sends a sound wave to the ear drum and reads what bouces back), we would have NEVER known. Sucking can make his ears feel much worse. Also look into a sinus infection... all of these can be EASILY missed by any doctor. Mine all missed them!

Have you tried different types of nipples? My son is five weeks old also and he has a hard time with the bottle if too much comes out of the nipple at once. He does best with ones that you have to squeeze the nipple when the bottles upside down to get anything out. The soothie and the avent bottles have worked best for us. You have to check the nipples often because sometimes washing will distort them and make the holes larger. Good luck.

your little one sounds like mine at two weeks aside from the switching formula part since i nursed her. She has severe reflux. my suggestion is to get a referal and get into a ped. Gi as soon as possible. YOu may need to up or switch her meds. Many are safe for little ones. my daughter started at two weeks. My daughter is now almost two and is on an adult dose of prevacid to keep her comfortable. she also has milk issues so we have to do soy, which she is ok with. there is a condition called(cant think of what it is called....ill think on it a bit)that is spacific body movemets babies due that is kind of caused from the pain associated with GERD. Reflux babies are typically cranky from the discomfort, sleep little and eat even less. small freqent meals are much better then larger less often meals. Also keeping them as upright as possible will help.
But my main suggestion to you is stop all the switching and see a ped. GI
good luck
J.
-And to those of you who say it is bad for a baby this young to have meds or surgery....you do not know what it is like to have a baby like this. meds make a world of differnce to them and without stoping the acid it will destroy their esophagus(sp) and stomach not to mention the many other possible bad things that may result.. Please dont say things when you dont know!(oh and my nephew had to have surgery because he had refux so had they had no other option. he had it at about 1.5m and it has been a life changing surgery for him!)

Hi~ Infants can be so hard to understand. My son (second child) was very challanging... it sounds similar. I would suggest you go to a pediatric allergist. We saw a local allergy center with several office but ultimately decided to go to National Jewish. NJ has so many more resources and the cutting edge information. They did a couple of simple skin tests on my son and immediately determined that be may be allergic then they took a little blood(it was amazing how they made sure to apply a topical numbing lotion so that the needle didn't hurt). They blood helped them determine just how allergic he was. It is only a prick on the skin and certianly more difficult for Mom than child. If he doesn't react, then at least you know it isn't allergies and pursue other options.

The doctors might frown on this, but do some research on the internet and see if you agree. I have heard that goats milk was a better solution than formula. They say it is closest to mothers milk. It does sound like the formula is not agreeing with him. I gave one of my sons formula part of the time and have since discovered that may not have been my best choice. Is it a soy formula? You might want to research the effects of soy formula on babies also...

Is he having regular bowel movements and wetting his diaper often?

Is he content inbetween feedings?

Does he have bright eyes?

Is he responsive to you?

Depending on your answers, he may need a different solution than formula. :)

he probably can not breath while he is eating because of his nose. Try little noses saline drops. you can get it in the pharmacy section and it comes with a nose suction. Do that before he eats. All of my 3 children had reactions to regular formulas. The one that worked really well with my daughter was soy formula. I bought it in a generic target brand. It was half the price of the regular soy and it comes in a huge container. If that does not work than try nutramagen. It is quite pricey but if your baby is really bad it will work. My little boy had to be on this one because he also would not eat and was vomiting the others across the room. Ask your pediatrician for samples of this. My Dr. gave me samples of it to try and it seemed to work. If it does than target also has a generic called gentle ease. I hope one of these works for you. Good luck!!!

Hi, Please change doctors. Your baby needs a complete medical work up to find why this is happing. Is he gaining weight. I had a son who threw his entire bottle up all the time because he was allergic to milk. What you are going through is not normal. I am a mother of 4 children and grandmother of 11. Good luck!

Hi LM- Your baby is trying to tell you something- The formula is not right. I would highly recommend talking to a "Holistic" practitioner that can help you with some other options- Is there any chance of breastfeeding? There are so many concerns with formulas, especially allergies. I can recommend an amazing Doctor who has six kids of his own= Let me know if you are interested-He does phone consultations.
Also, I was told that my little girls stuffy nose was very normal during this season- She had a stuffy nose( always worse at night) for the 1st 8 weeks of life. They have such a short nasal passage and when the become even slightly sniffly, it sounds much worse. Do you have a warm mist humidifier- They work wonders!! Let me know if you would like any more info or the Doctors name and number. Best Wishes to you and your new precious bundle!
SM

Dear LM, I'm a 58 yr.old Nana (Grandma). It sounds like an allergic reaction to what ever the formula you have tried. You might want to seek the help of a doctor that deals with babies and feeding problems, SOON. My experience is once one food allergy pops up and is not handled another one pops up.Most babies digestive system are not fully developed till they are 5 to 6 months, I have found the longer you can put of baby food the less reaction baby will have to food. I know you will do fine with this. I know it's not easy. Your not alone.

Best Wishes,
Nana P.

humdifier is a great thing for kids with colds since they are so young and no real good meds are made for litle ones. So i would invest in one and put it near the babies crib. Do you have his mattress elevated. If you have him in the crib then put a pillow under his crib mattress and then make sure his is snug with a wedge and take an extra blanket and wrap it around his so he doesnt slip and it makes him feel like hes being held by you.if he had reflux then lying on his back and not levitated is very painful. So humidifier for stuffy nose, elevated for acid reflux, and if you really really concerned go to your doctor and get a scheduled appointment and study witha G doctor. They have a special test to see if your baby is having a tough time swallowing and they can better measure what kind of medical problem your little one has. My son has problems with swallowing. He has acid reflux too. It got so bad that it cause a ulser. this might be a small matter later on in life but he is so young that I would be afraid that it would effect his eating in the long run. See to it by your family practioner. ASAP.

ALSO

It could be the bottle, position oreven a annoying detergent you use on your clothes. My son didnt like the color white for the longest time, everytime he did he threw up on it but the instant I wore any other color he would still throw up but not as much. It was weird. Perfumes, clognes daddy wears, baby soap, even household cleaning supplies and left over dust. 70% of dust is dead skin cells. amongst everything that is left in the air because of it being winter. Even winter you need to air out the house some times. My daughter was a week old when she had trouble breathing and we had to go to the hospital. They told me she was to young for allergies but i didnt get a chance to clean before she came. I had to go on two months bedrest. come to find out that my bathroom had mold and dust in it. we bought a humidifier and cleaned eveywhere. the following three days her breathing was iffy here and there but the air cleared (window opening) and she was fine after that. Then the acid reflux hit lol...so yea ive been in your shoes before.Questions or just want to chat drop me an email.

This sounds similar to my friends situation. Her daughter had such bad reflux since birth and had to have a nissen fundoplication. She is now 6 mos old and they are still tube feeding her since the bottle makes her gag the pediatrician is hoping she will go straight from the tube feeding to the sippy cup. He may have some issues with gagging from the bottle.

Hope that helps,

J. (mother of 3 month old)

I agree with everybody before me to use the saline solution on his nose. Use the cold, unless you are in a cold part of town, then I would suggest using the hot (keeping it far enough away from the little guy so he can't burn himself) humidifier.

But I would add that you need to have him tested in a sleep study. He may need his adenoids and tonsils removed to give more breathing room.

Usually when a child that young fights drinking so much and also has a stuffy nose, he is refusing the bottle because he has to breath out of his mouth (if nose is stuffy). Given the choice of breathing and drinking, breathing will always win out! If you try to force the bottle when he can't get enough air, of course he will fight. I don't know if that's what's going on with your child, but it is certainly common. Do the bottles he fights correspond with times when he is most stuffy (like you said it is worse in the morning)? Can you suction him out with a bulb syringe/nasal aspirator before his feedings? That might help.

Just realized you had other responses and a hopeful solution with the bottle - yea! Here is my post anyhow:
I had very similar problems with my youngest(now 18m). She would writh and puke ounces at a time and lose weight. After quitting breastfeeding, trying regular formula, then soy formula, she was finally happy with Alluvium by similac - the purple one. So expensive, but so worth her not writhing in pain and losing weight from not eating. I tried a different brand of the protein sensitivity formula and she was not having it. Only the alluvium worked. Also, I have always used Doctor Browns bottle with my kids - they are a pain to clean but seem to work well (though since that is all I have used, I have nothing to compare it to). She stayed on it until almost a year then adjust fairly easily to whole milk and was off her prevacid by 9 months. You may have already tried this.
p.s. the taste and smell of alluvium is awful. My doc said most kids might need it introduced slowly over a week, though my daughter had a full bottle, straight up, the first time. Also, your pediatricians office may have samples they can give you too - we would get five at at time sometimes :-)
Best of luck - it will get better I promise.

I agree with the last mom on all. In addition to the nose drops, you might let them sit for a minute or two to soften up the stuffiness and then clean his nose out with a bub syringe. It's pretty hard to swallow when your nose is stuffy. That might help him. He seems awfully young to have already changed formulas several times. When we switched for colic, we were told to try it for 3-4 weeks at a time since baby's system is so immature and it takes time to adjust. I also did some natural things for our colicy guy. If you're interested I could give you more info.

This sounds a lot like my nephew. It would take his mom 2 hours to get him to drink 4 oz. because he would suck for a minute and then start crying. She took him to a gastrointerologist who gave her a couple of antacid medicines and acid reduction medication. Basically they concluded that he had reflux that stayed in his espohagus all the time. So when he ate it burned. She does use Nutramagin (sp?) formula and he has done really well on that. However I would suggest taking him to a gastrointerologist.

First of all I would get a second opinion on the colic. You might also want to check the flow of the nipple on the bottle. If it is slower then it may be that he is getting frustrated because it is not coming out fast enough. Or if the flow is faster it could be coming out too fast for him. I am currently breast feeding my 4 month old and he will do the same thing you are describing - large body movements, not all the time though. I think it could have something to do with the milk flow. As far as the stuffy noses, I'm not sure where you are in the country, but winter's are usually really dry and that causes the airways to swell a little bit. His little airways are so small anyway and the dry air doesn't help. My four month old is having the same difficulty. I would give him the saline nose drops in the morning and at night and put a cool air humidifier in his bedroom. This seems to have helped my son.

Hi! My son had a horible time with reflux, we had to try 4 different meds before we found one that worked with him, which was prilosec. Our Ped also said that it would take approx 3 weeks before full effect of the med would be seen. As for the bottle, try thickening with rice cereal and wait at least 30 min before putting him down after a feed. For us, the thickened milk worked very well. Also, keep the head of his crib elevated slightly or even use a bouncy seat so the reflux cannot stay in his esophagus which can burn.
Have you tried a vaporizer in his room at night? Try that and hopefully that will help the stuffiness--you can get them at walgreens for under 20.00. I hope this helps some as it did with our little guy. Reflux is though on everyone!! Goodluck!
CK