Help, she takes an HOUR to eat her bottle!

[Shaota]

Hi, me again, sorry. I seem to always be in need of more help than I offer, unfortunately. 

Here's my latest issue. We'd been feeding Josie 4oz bottles for a while now & she recently has been able to eat all of the 4oz in a half hour & seems like she would keep going if she had more. So, a few days ago we started giving her 5oz a bottle. These new bottles are a lot bigger as there wasn't a 6oz size to graduate to, these are 8oz size. So, anyway, now it's taking her an hour to eat & sometimes it will be just a little over 4oz! I don't get it. I know in the book Tracy advises that baby will lolligag at the bottle to get in her suckling time if she doesn't get suckling time between feeds. We've tried & tried to get her to take a paci for months, but, she has only liked them for a couple weeks a while back & now always spits them out almost as soon as she has them in her mouth. It's like she can't even keep one in ever! It's weird. She does seem interrested, but, like I said it just falls out all the time, even when I tilt it to hit the roof of her mouth instead of the tongue as Tracy suggests.

Anyway, I'm not sure what I should do cause an hour is too long for her to be eating, cause then there's no time for A time, I just have to hurry and burp her, change her & start her wind down. I want to at least have a little A time for chatting or looking at black & white pictures from www dot baby dot zorger dot com I printed out, or tummy time. Also then her bed time is later, too.

Any advice? 

[Deb_in_oz]

my gut would tell me that you shoudl not let her feed for an hour. she may have increased the eating amount for a growth spurt and now it is too much for her (or she may have bigger eating days sometimes and not others).  offer the bottle and whatever she takes straight through is the feed and then stop when she slows down to just sucking and playing with it and occassionaly taking a gulp.  she can have more at the next feed.  once the feeding is more on and off and hit and miss i would assume the feed is over HTH

[Aly Mac]

what I know about bottles is only what i have read here, so this may be unfounded, but is your lo due to go up a teat size?  maybe the new bottles the teats are smaller??? just a thought...

[Shaota]

Thanks, Deb, I agree with your gut not letting her eat for an hour, but, she starts lolligaging much earlier in the bottle than ever before & I don't want her to not get enough to eat if I stop. I could coax her on for 40 min or 45 min & then stop...just to get any extra she would take? You know, I think she IS going through a growth spurt...she woke at 3am this morning to eat, and I'm pretty sure she had had enough yesterday to get her through the whole night (she ate more than she had in a LONG time & still woke!) Plus, in BW book Tracy says that at 6 weeks she should be eating at LEAST 24oz, and that's how much she had yesterday, by coincidence. Tracy says that NW's are usually because babies aren't getting enough during the day & to add more to each Eat. So, we're trying with 5oz now in case she's wanting more, and today she did eat 26oz total (including the 3am wake to Eat).

I'm just thinking she'd eat more efficiently if I could get her to suckle on a paci between feeds, but, I don't know what to do if she doesn't like her paci. I've tried different brands, cause she didn't like the one shaped like the bottle nipple, she wasn't able to keep it in her mouth. So, when she tried the Playtex orthodontic ones, she had an easier time keeping them in her mouth, & sometimes would just suck and suck at night if she ever had a NW & we gave her that. This 3 am NW, DH tried first to get her to go back to sleep, but, she wouldn't, so he tried the paci but, she spit it out & started crying her hunger cry, so he gave her a bottle & she ate 3.5 oz!

So, I don't know... I just am too tired to think straight, either.

Aleesa - LOL! I thought that was it, too, so I tried giving her a faster flowing nipple (the next size up for a 3 mo +)... BIG MISTAKE! She burped up more than a usual burp up...right down my cleavage into my bra, of course, thank you very much. Ick!

[Shaota]

BTW - I was wondering if maybe anyone has used The Haberman Feeder & if maybe you think it might help Josie eat better? I have to mention that she has ALWAYS dribbled milk down her face while eating (except when we were BFing), and maybe she just doesn't latch onto the bottle nipple efficiently? Or does all babies do that? 

[Deb_in_oz]

another thing about the teats is that if the next jump is too much and the current is too slow you can pierce the teat with a needle to widen it a tad.

not sure about the sucking though - neither of mine ever took a dummy/paci and alex who needed more sucking was BF til 13 mo so just lingered sometimes when necessary and liv was already a slow eater so probably got enough time - with her i fed for 10-20 min and then took a 10 min break and then reoffered and then called it quits.

[Shaota]

Good Morning, Deb, that's a BRILLIANT idea! I think I'll sterilize a needle & widen the slower nipple hole. 

Ya, I'm not sure about the sucking thing too much either...she's never really liked the paci too much anyway, just sometimes when she was napping or sleeping if she woke it could extend it for a bit. DH just told me that he thinks we bought the 0-3 month paci's & maybe she's ready for the next size up paci, too...the paci's manufacturer's recommended age says 0-6 mo, but the store's recommended age does say 0-3 mo...who knows? Maybe she doesn't really need a paci at all or she'd take it if she wanted it.  I'll stop by the store today & get the next age up, & see what she does.