13 week old feeding issues

[Anna_GG]

Hi,

I'm also posting for the first time and this is my first baby. My son in 13 weeks ans we are struggling the same feeding problems. He is on Formula (Enfamil) and lately he has become a terrible eater (before that he was kind of a "beast" I would say). It feels like each day he is eating less and less. We are on 3hrs EASY and today he has taken 50 ml each feeding (of course with struggling). He pushes the teat out or simply is not interested at all. If I push, there is screaming and crying, which worries me because I don't want him to have some terrifying associations with the bottle. Apart from that he seems happy, smiles a lot and communicates. I don't see any signs of an illness. However, there are several points that I have noticed:

• he started to communicate intensively last week
• he is very eager to sit, hates when I lay him down even for a while during his activity time
• I introduced DF last Thursday (10.30 pm): so far it only causes him to wake up even more often during night. It feels to me that he has lost interest in eating during the day, turning to eating at night (last night we fed him every two hours)
• I am not able to extend night sleep since there is no chance to add extra milk during the day. At good nights he was able to sleep from 9 pm to 3 am. That was our best result.

It is really frustrating!! and I belong to the stressed-parents-type so any advice or words of comfort are most welcome!

[Lolly]

Welcome to the site! I split your post off from the other one as it may help to get some more eyes on it!

The first things you can try is a faster flow teat and to feed him at a longer interval - so 3.5 or 4 hours if he can go that long. With the nightfeeds it could well be that because you are feeding him so frequently at night he is stocking up and doesn't need the day calories so much. At night you can resettle until it has been at least 3 hours between bottles, if he can go that long in the day he can at night too, it will make for a few tricky nights but it will help to push the calories back to the day. If the DF is making him wake more then I would leave it, my two were the same and were terrible at the DF so we just waited for them to wake by themselves.

Have a look at this link, see if anything looks like he could be suffering with reflux. If you suspect it could be take him to see your Dr http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=654.0

What do you think?

Laura

[Anna_GG]

Thank you so much for answering so fast! I've checked the link you suggested and I must admit that I see some of the symptoms. We're definitely going to see our pediatrician. I have Debridat at home (do you know it?), haven't used so far.

With 4 hrs EASY my concern is if he is ready for this change. So far I haven't observed longer activity times. It's more or less an hour since he wakes up and he reveals all the signs for a nap. While following Tracy's book I'm feeling a bit down (a stressed parent;-) because my baby doesn't seem to be able to sleep through the night. And as I mentioned I have the feeling that introducing DFs has only caused damage. However, we don't let him fully wake up at night. He starts to groan while still sleeping and we feed him. Yet I'm not sure if this is right. Doesn't it work the opposite way: we even enhance this night food demand? I'm convinced that the sleep problems we are having are due to feeding, however it seems tough for me to increase calories during the day at the moment.

Now since my DS seems to be not hungry at all does it make any sense to cluster feed him in the evening (even if he doesn't take much)? I know Tracy's book suggests giving up cluster feeding after 8 weeks but how am I suppose to tank my baby up?

And a faster flow teat is something I will definitely try as soon as possible. I somehow had the impression we need some change about it..

It's good to know that I'm not on my own with these problems:) I'm looking forward to hearing from moms dealing with similiar problems.

Anna

[Lolly]

Formula fed babies quite often need to go to 4 hour feeds before their A time is up to a 4 hour EASY - that's quite common and mostly because formula takes longer to digest than breastmilk. It does mean you can't really do a proper EASY until their A time catches up so it will be something like EASAES for a while. It does seem to work ok, just watch that you don't feed to sleep if an E comes right before a S!

I would see if you can resettle at night before you rush to feed, especially if it's only been 2 hours since the last feed. Don't worry too much about tanking up, not all babies need it or respond to it and definitly don't get down about your baby not sleeping through yet, he's much too little yet! It's really only a small minority of babies who can sleep without a nightfeed at this age!

I have no idea what Debridat is  - what's it for and what's in it?

Laura

[Anna_GG]

I asked if you know Debridat because I live in Poland (Pfizer produces it). I have it as a liquid and the active substance is trimebutinum. It's for babies and adults to regulate the bowel movement. We got it because my LO had some gas problems as a newborn. At that time I didn't see much improvement. I have also noticed that my son has started to dribble. I've read it's nothing surprising at this age, however do you think it might be an indication towards reflux?


I'll try EASAES you suggest. We'll see how it works. We mostly have 1.5hrs naps on good days (today it's tough;). My DS responds to EASY pretty well (after a bit of a fight for some time), so I will report on it.

Anna

[Anna_GG]

And thank you for comforting about sleeping through the night. I'm a scientific mother and I do believe in books. And then facing reality can be somewhat tricky for me:)

[Anna_GG]

I would like to continue here, however I'm not sure if this is still this thread.

I mentioned that my boy refuses to eat but seems to be happy as usual. It's been not the case since yesterday. It looked like this that apart from the naps according to the routine he screamed all the day up to 10pm. We gave him a bath but it didn't calm him down, it was very stimulating for him this time. We couldn't settle him. During the day he ate most 130 ml, 70 ml at night (somehow, we all slept fine). I thought he might have been in pain so I gave him some paracetamol, no difference.

And today he seems to be overstimulated (I have no clue why because I really care that it doesn't happen), is eating very little and looks unhappy to me. I find it very hard to comfort him. So my question is if this might be just some developmental process just to be gone through? I have the feeling like someone has exchanged my baby. I don't recognise him.

[Lolly]

I would take him to the Dr and get him checked out, a change in behaviour is always worth getting checked. You can discuss the possible reflux issue too.

Dribbling is totally normal at this age too - it's about now their salivary glands start to kick in!

Laura

[Anna_GG]

Thanks for your reply, I will definitely do that. Just trying to organise my concerns before an appointment.

Anna