Chewing on the bottle nipple!

[Canadian_Mom]

So DS2 has been awful to feed since his reflux has started.  Once we got his reflux under control he cries a lot less with his bottles, but does still cry during most of his bottles.  On “good” bottles he started about a month ago smiling and talking during the bottles, as well as a little bit of chewing on the nipples.  That went away for a little bit, but now the “chewing” is back and instead of drinking his bottles, after about an oz or two he just chews on the nipple.  Is this a normal stage??  I never had this issue with DS1 (he was a champ eater), so I don’t know if it is normal…

I have tried going up a size on the nipple and he still just chews on it, he also seems to have trouble drinking it as a lot spills out the sides of his mouth.  He does seem hungry, as he is doing his hunger cues, but perhaps those are changing as he gets older?  As well he is on a thickener and I want to try to decrease the amount to see if a thinner formula will make him have to put a little more effort into eating, but he currently has a cold so I don’t want to play with his thickener and make naps worse so I am going to wait a couple of days.  Any other thoughts?

I know that if he is really hungry he will eat, but it is just so frustrating as feeding seems to be a constant struggle with this little guy 

[Lolly]

How often are you feeding him - could it be that he is just not hungry enough to take a decent feed? Is he happy chewing the bottle or is he upset after an oz or 2?

What bottle types are you using, what flow teat and how thick is his feed?

Laura

[Canadian_Mom]

Hey Lolly,
Sorry about the late reply, super busy around here (way too tired to even look at the computer)!!  I really appreciate your thoughts though!  There are other things that started around the same time that are leading me to believe that it might be teething related.  He started waking every hour (yup, every hour) at night, chewing like crazy on his fingers, red cheeks, and tons of crankiness during the day.

I feed him every 3.5-4 hours unless it is a short nap, then I do 3 hours.  I only feed him maybe 2-3 times a week at night (only if he is hungry and often have nights that he isn't).  What he usually does is feed (for anywhere from 2-5oz) and then just bites down hard on the nipple for maybe 10 seconds, then again and again...It has been less now that I have been giving him pain meds...

I am using Dr Brown's bottles, Level 3 with almost Level one thickened formula.

Today he started doing the biting thing even when he didn't have the bottle in his mouth, so maybe not fully feeding related

Thanks again Lolly!!!

-Nadia