Bottle Aversion

[faith72]

Ok, DS (17 weeks old) has had a bottle aversion for weeks now and the only time we seem to be able to feed him is late afternoon (after he is desperate from having nothing all day) and in the evenings while he is sleeping.

He doesn't appear to be in any pain and we tested the theory out by increasing his Losec from 10mg to 15mg - it made no difference whatsoever and he still hates the bottle and clams up when he sees it and starts gagging on it if you keep the teat in his mouth.

It's so exhausting for us with 2-3 hourly feeds at night time. I've given him some rice cereal and he is good at eating from a spoon and enjoys it - however after about 8 teaspoons he's had enough so can't get that many calories into him that way.

Any suggestions? Anyone else had a baby who has gone weeks and weeks of not eating even after the pain side of things has gone?

[hakuna matata]

My bub won't have the bottle anymore except dream feed (20weeks old) but he is bf and eats solids like a machine, but it still drives me bonkers!! Hope he pulls his socks up!

[TripleTime]

Yes & he still does it at almost 14 months.

They associate pain with being fed. You may find that the pain isnt gone, its just not what it used to be. You can give mylanta for pain before a feed just make sure its at least an hour before after losec.

We waited it out & fed him as much as possible while sleeping.

[chickenfoot83]

Dont know if you have tried it but maybe try cup feeding when my bub was born he had no interest in sucking but would drink from a medicine cup.

[Sarahg]

My DS2 wouldn't suck from day one and had no sucking reflex, we had a speech pathologist come to our house and give us some finger stimulation tips to help him - make sure your fingernails are really really short! We also changed to the pigeon brand teats, he was still pretty useless until he went onto hypoallergenic formula then he slurped it down. We could then change back to avent teats.

[faith72]

We saw speech pathologist from the Feeding Clinic at Sydney Children's Hospital - they think he is too young for it to be behavourial and is simply not eating as it is still uncomfortable for him. They watched him suck and are comfortable that he is capable (plus he is perfect eating while asleep).

The gastro guy said if the increase to 15mg of Losec doesn't work we can look at other types of medication as perhaps Losec just doesn't work for him - some babies just respond better to other brands. Losec seems to work for him for a few days (and I get all excited thinking we've cracked it), and then things go backwards again.