9 week old stopped taking bottle

awec

Hi all,

Our little girl is breastfed, but has been topped up by bottle with both breastmilk and formula from day one. We had no issues with this, she has been a brilliant feeder on both.

Yesterday, out of the blue, she suddenly started to refuse taking the bottle. Her mum fed her yesterday morning with a bottle just fine, but about 15 minutes later I tried to give her one and she just started to cry.

I thought maybe she was full at the time, but she's done it now with every bottle since. Sometimes she'll cry for a minute and then start taking it, other times she just won't settle into the rhythm of feeding and gets hysterical. When she does take it she is fidgety and will push the bottle around her mouth rather than suck it at times.

I think she's also taking it slower than she used to.

She also has started to push it out of her mouth with her tongue, she never did this before. It's not that she's full either, cause she'll push it out and keep crying until she can go on the boob and will feed there no problem.

Anyone else experienced this? Any ideas?

iamwhoiam

awec wrote: »

Hi all,

Our little girl is breastfed, but has been topped up by bottle with both breastmilk and formula from day one. We had no issues with this, she has been a brilliant feeder on both.

Yesterday, out of the blue, she suddenly started to refuse taking the bottle. Her mum fed her yesterday morning with a bottle just fine, but about 15 minutes later I tried to give her one and she just started to cry.

I thought maybe she was full at the time, but she's done it now with every bottle since. Sometimes she'll cry for a minute and then start taking it, other times she just won't settle into the rhythm of feeding When she does take it she is fidgety and will push the bottle around her mouth rather than suck it at times.

I think she's also taking it slower than she used to.

She also has started to push it out of her mouth with her tongue, she never did this before. It's not that she's full either, cause she'll push it out and keep crying until she can go on the boob and will feed there no problem.

Anyone else experienced this? Any ideas?

Is she arching her back and crying and pushing away from the bottle ?

awec

iamwhoiam wrote: »

Is she arching her back and crying and pushing away from the bottle ?

Yea she does that, she pushes the bottle out with her tongue then tries to push her entire self away from it.

iamwhoiam

awec wrote: »

Yea she does that, she pushes the bottle out with her tongue then tries to push her entire self away from it.

It may be a sign of reflux . A baby often arches back from the bottle despite being hungry .They want to feed but its causing pain with reflux and they try to pull away from the source of pain . Its also around the age that they can get reflux so my suggestion is to have a word with the GP .
Babies with reflux also tend to cry in the car seat as the position can cause the acid to flow into the oesophagus
Worth thinking about .

awec

iamwhoiam wrote: »

It may be a sign of reflux . A baby often arches back from the bottle despite being hungry .They want to feed but its causing pain with reflux and they try to pull away from the source of pain . Its also around the age that they can get reflux so my suggestion is to have a word with the GP .
Babies with reflux also tend to cry in the car seat as the position can cause the acid to flow into the oesophagus
Worth thinking about .

Wouldn't that affect her breastfeeding as well? She feeds directly on the boob with no issue.

iamwhoiam

awec wrote: »

Wouldn't that affect her breastfeeding as well? She feeds directly on the boob with no issue.

Not necessarily , the formula taken from a bottle might be lighter and refluxing back up .
Not saying it is reflux but its worth watching for as the arching is fairly typical of it

cornflake1

awec wrote: »

Hi all,

Our little girl is breastfed, but has been topped up by bottle with both breastmilk and formula from day one. We had no issues with this, she has been a brilliant feeder on both.

Yesterday, out of the blue, she suddenly started to refuse taking the bottle. Her mum fed her yesterday morning with a bottle just fine, but about 15 minutes later I tried to give her one and she just started to cry.

I thought maybe she was full at the time, but she's done it now with every bottle since. Sometimes she'll cry for a minute and then start taking it, other times she just won't settle into the rhythm of feeding and gets hysterical. When she does take it she is fidgety and will push the bottle around her mouth rather than suck it at times.

I think she's also taking it slower than she used to.

She also has started to push it out of her mouth with her tongue, she never did this before. It's not that she's full either, cause she'll push it out and keep crying until she can go on the boob and will feed there no problem.

Anyone else experienced this? Any ideas?

My little girl did the same at the same age. She just realised that she preferred the breast! If she is only crying when you give her the bottle it is because she can smell something better. Can you get someone else to give her the bottle while you stay out of the room? Also Google paced bottle feeding. Try different types of bottles. Unfortunately we didn't really figure it out. My lg refused the bottle from everyone. Tried lots. Around six months she took to the bottle again.

Merak

Could she have thrush? My son got this when he was about six weeks old and did not want to feed. It shows up as a thick white coating on the tongue. Also check her lips/tongue for cuts or sores.

awec

cornflake1 wrote: »

My little girl did the same at the same age. She just realised that she preferred the breast! If she is only crying when you give her the bottle it is because she can smell something better. Can you get someone else to give her the bottle while you stay out of the room? Also Google paced bottle feeding. Try different types of bottles. Unfortunately we didn't really figure it out. My lg refused the bottle from everyone. Tried lots. Around six months she took to the bottle again.

I'm the dad.

I did try take her into another room last night and feed her, she did her screaming but took it eventually for a while and then stopped. Her mum was away out today and she took a bottle from me with less screaming than we've seen, but still not as good as she was.

She has been pace bottle fed from the start cause of the breastfeeding. She gets pumped milk and formula in the bottles, so it's not like every bottle is formula.

We use Nuby bottles, I was wondering if we should go to the next teat up cause maybe she is getting frustrated with how slow these ones are. But then I wouldn't expect her to scream before the bottle even hits her mouth.

cornflake1

awec wrote: »

I'm the dad.

I did try take her into another room last night and feed her, she did her screaming but took it eventually for a while and then stopped. Her mum was away out today and she took a bottle from me with less screaming than we've seen, but still not as good as she was.

She has been pace bottle fed from the start cause of the breastfeeding. She gets pumped milk and formula in the bottles, so it's not like every bottle is formula.

We use Nuby bottles, I was wondering if we should go to the next teat up cause maybe she is getting frustrated with how slow these ones are. But then I wouldn't expect her to scream before the bottle even hits her mouth.

Oops! I read your post wrong, thought it said my mum as in granny not baby's mum! My partner found it very frustrating. Our lg would get so upset that he started to feel like he was torturing her. She would arch her back and turn away from the bottle as soon as she realised what was going on. We also topped up with breast milk and formula due to slow weight gain. It is worth trying the faster teats and different bottles. Although like I said we never really figured it out, although she would take the odd bottle. Read somewhere that it is baby making one of their first decisions!

awec

cornflake1 wrote: »

Oops! I read your post wrong, thought it said my mum as in granny not baby's mum! My partner found it very frustrating. Our lg would get so upset that he started to feel like he was torturing her. She would arch her back and turn away from the bottle as soon as she realised what was going on. We also topped up with breast milk and formula due to slow weight gain. It is worth trying the faster teats and different bottles. Although like I said we never really figured it out, although she would take the odd bottle. Read somewhere that it is baby making one of their first decisions!

This sounds a lot like us.

I used to rub the teat on her lips and she'd open wide and suck like there was no tomorrow. We had to be really careful with the paced feeding as she'd eat way too fast otherwise. Now she barely opens her mouth, and once I put the teat in she'll cry.

cornflake1

awec wrote: »

This sounds a lot like us.

I used to rub the teat on her lips and she'd open wide and suck like there was no tomorrow. We had to be really careful with the paced feeding as she'd eat way too fast otherwise. Now she barely opens her mouth, and once I put the teat in she'll cry.

You could try contacting your local cuidiu group for help. They support all types of feeding, not just breast. A tip a lactation consultant gave me was to distract baby, like shaking keys in front of her. It really did stress us out as the PHN was on my back about her weight. It all turned out fine in the end though. At 18 months now she is long finished bottles and is simply just a slow weight gainer. Good luck!

ggg16

We had this at 3 months. It was when I left him too long for a funeral. Has never taken one since.

TheValeyard

We had this with my little one. Was silent reflux. Theres a dropper that can help, will try find name. But we never got him back on bottles again.

mojesius

My daughter is mostly breastfed but takes a bottle of breast milk no problem. Have you tried different bottles? We find the Tommy tippee ones work for us.

Also arched back could signify trapped wind. My daughter was bad at that age for it but is growing out of it now. Infacol and baby massages helped calm this down.

However, i think a lot of breast fed babies associate the boob with comfort (naturally!), esp when so young! Good luck

ThunbergsAreGo

awec wrote: »

I'm the dad.

I did try take her into another room last night and feed her, she did her screaming but took it eventually for a while and then stopped. Her mum was away out today and she took a bottle from me with less screaming than we've seen, but still not as good as she was.

She has been pace bottle fed from the start cause of the breastfeeding. She gets pumped milk and formula in the bottles, so it's not like every bottle is formula.

We use Nuby bottles, I was wondering if we should go to the next teat up cause maybe she is getting frustrated with how slow these ones are. But then I wouldn't expect her to scream before the bottle even hits her mouth.

Definitly try a new teat or try a different bottle? (we swapped to MAM after a few months)

Its really frustrating but I think they all do it at some stage and the only thing you can do is keep trying and stay calm about it.

Looking back I think the worst thing we did was try to "force" into onto our little one, as we got more relaxed so did he and the drinknig got better