Please help!!!

[kylie80]

My DD is 7 weeks on and is on Nan Ha 1 gold she is supposed to be on 120 mls at this age but she will only take between 50-80mls each feed. She drinks the first 50 mls really well after that she starts to squirm, push the bottle out of her mouth, cries, and refuses to take anymore so I burp her and she will bring up wind, then i continue to feed her and she repeats all those things again and refuses to take anymore. Can anyone tell me why she might be doing this? I have seen my chn and she is not too happy at the amount of milk she is taking. I have put my name down for a feeding team to come outand see me but there is a waiting list. So can anyone please help me in the meantime?

Many thanks

[kateka]

Hi there, My dd2 also has this problem but the pead said as long as they are having plenty of wet nappies and are happy to settle then they are getting enough.You must remember that the ammount of mmls they suggest per age bracket is just a guide and not every baby is the same.
When your bub cries and pushes the bottle away they are just letting us know they have had enough you may also wanna try a diffrent brand of formula because alot of the gold brands are very heavy and alot harder for bub to digest as theyre is alot more added to them.
I noticed you are using a ha formula, i use karikare ha (sensicare) and its excellent its ceasin based which is alot easier diggested than whey.
Hope this helps goodluck.:thumbsup:

[alanasmum]

Hi there

My DD is on the same formula and did exactly the same thing around this age for a couple of weeks and then it stopped. It could be a number of things - wind, reflux, tiredness, or the teat size is perhaps too fast flowing for her and she's getting frustrated. How much does she weigh and how much is she drinking in a 24 hour period?

[sharvs]

The teat could also be too slow for her. She may have to work really hard to drink, then gets tired by the time shes had 50mls.

[kylie80]

hi there, I have tried her on a few formulas now, S26, SMA, Karicare goat, but i found they were all constipating her. I have found the Nan Ha easiest for her to digest.

As far as the teats go I have tried every bottle and teat under the sun and spent lots of money. I have found the Happy baby bottles and their teats to be the best for her. The teats are a steadiflow.

She feeds every 3 hours during the day and twice during the night. So she is having 7 feeds in 24 hours. and each time having between 50-80mls. I will also feed a small amount of water during the day.

She weighs 4kg at nearly 8 weeks. and my Chn says she should be at least putting on 25g a day which she hasnt been.

I just dont know if it is reflux or colic as i never had any of these problems with my DS.

[alanasmum]

My paediatrician said that babies should have about 150ml of formula per kg of body weight per day - so for a 4kg bub that's about 600 ml. Divided by 7 feeds that's about 85ml per feed. But that's only a guide. Some weeks my bub has had much more than the guide and others much less.

Perhaps your DD is getting full on a small amount and needs to work her way up slowly to drinking more each feed. Have you tried holding her off for say an extra 1/2 an hour and seeing if she will drink a bit more?

[Chanelc]

My little one is on the same formula as my brother works at Nestle that produce Nan. He mentioned recently in the past month they changed the formula so the little ones get fuller on less... so that might be why she is not drinking as much as they recommend.
I think the suggestions so far are good and I would agree try to spread the feeds to every four hours...
I used the Sounds of Silence CD too - Mozart apparently helps them to focus on feedings... and I can tell you when I played it when Chanel was fussing with feeds she stop and concentrated on sucking to her hearts content.. just another idea... the power of Mozart.
Goodluck

[Mrs Potts]

Another one here in the same situation as you, Kylie. My DD is 5 weeks, and a week ago was having close to 150mls per feed. The last few days she's doing the same as your bub and some feeds will only have 60mls.

She is content though, and still sleeping well so I'm trying not to stress about it too much. Very hard though! I'm hoping it's just one of those phases that the little darlings go through, and in a week or so we'll wonder what all the fuss was about!

One other thing we were told by our MACH nurse, is that the Gold variety of formula isn't necessary. By all accounts, the added "goodies" aren't enough to justify the added cost, and they don't really make any difference nutritionally. So we've decided to save ourselves $3 or $4 per tin and are dropping back to the standard Nan. (Which by the way is what our DS was on with no dramas at all).

[kylie80]

thankyou for everyone's replies. I will try the music when feeding her and try to drag her feeds out a bit longer and see how that goes.
Thanks for everyone's help. Most appreciated.

[Chickadee]

For a bub that age I'd suggest that you don't need to be giving her water, unless she is constipated or it's so hot out that she's sweating a lot. The water may be filling her tummy up, lessening her formula intake.

Good luck.

[Mrs Potts]

Just thought I'd let you know Kylie, that we changed down to the normal Nan from the gold. It's been a couple of days now and the fussing has stopped. DD is also finishing (or close enough to) all her bottles.

Of course, we'll never know whether it's because of the formula, or if the "phase" has just stopped, but thought I'd mention it to you anyway!

How's your bub doing?

[kylie80]

Hi Mrs Potts. iIam glad to hear your bub is doing much better. Taya is still the same no change.I have a specialised feeding team coming out on monday to assess her, so i will see what they have to say.

[Babyboy]

Hi Mrs Potts. iIam glad to hear your bub is doing much better. Taya is still the same no change.I have a specialised feeding team coming out on monday to assess her, so i will see what they have to say.

Best of luck Kylie....I have had exactly the same experience with my 2 children. My first son refused breastfeeds, then a month or two later refused bottle feeds for a couple of months before I sought help...it left me a nervouse wreck, completely depleted. You feel so helpless that they are in so much pain when they feed, and don't sleep. It's exhausting trying to find the answers...teething? reflux?

I sought help from a gp when he was 5mths, put him onto Losec (reflux medication) and he was a new boy from then on. He refused food too, but that has gotten better with age (he's now 3). He went through a stage of eating only porridge and yoghurt for 6 months!

You feel like no-one understands, and it's so terrible seeing other smiley happy babies gulping down their bottles in one go, not a burp or scream in sight!

My second son (now 5 mths) has just followed exactly the same pattern as my first. refused breast at 2 weeks, onto bottles, okay for a month or so, and for the past 2 months has gradually gotten worse and worse, to the point where he has only been having 2 bottles a day for the past month, and that is only 50ml at a time! screaming in pain, screaming all day cause he's hungry. I tried to tell myself it was teething, cause i tried him on losec a month ago and it did nothing. but then I read up on some reflux websites the dose to give them if it's moderate reflux, not minor, and he's now been on that higher dose for 3 days and he has just yesterday drunk a whole bottle in one go, and slept through the night, and eaten and eaten his solids!!!! He is a new boy, very relaxed and nowhere near as irritable. He is still teething, but no more than any other normal little bub. he even just goes to sleep in his cot with no crying!!!

I feel so guilty for not addressing this earlier, poor little guy has been in terrible pain all this time. You'd think I'd have learned from the first baby, but I think I was in denial...I so wanted this one not to have reflux, I had such a terrible experience with the first....we really thought we couldn't make it if the second had it too....

I just hope this isn't a false alarm and that in a day or two's time he'll go backwards again...that is often the case when you try new things. I don't even want to write this to you, for fear that I may jinx things. but I am so excited about my life maybe returning to normal, I need to share it with someone, and I also can't stand to hear another person going through what I have and not having anywhere to turn.

i hope this helps you just a little...maybe your little bub doesn't have reflux, but the medication is certainly worth a try. You feel terrible having to medicate your baby, but I feel that if the whole family can function better, it's worth it.

Babies also refuse feeds due to teething, but I think if it goes on longer than a week or so, it's not teething....mine went on for 2 months both times, and I really hung in there too long....fear of being seen a failure as a mother I guess....how ridiculous!!

Hang in there, write to me if you need any help or support....I hope the feeding team helps on Monday.

I really feel for you!

Karen
(mother of Zachary and Luke)

[kylie80]

Dear Karen,

Thankyou for your post. I am soory to hear you went through all that trouble with ur boys. I am glad to hear things are working out for you now (touch wood). I hope the feeding team can give me some answers if not i am off to the GP to try the Losec.

Thanks heaps.