8 month old refusing bottle

[kenakit]

This issue has been plaguing me for almost two months, I am just an emotional and frustrated mess about it.  My 8mo daughter resists her bottle now, it is an epic struggle every day to get 20oz in her.  She drinks 1oz from her morning bottle and then refuses the rest of it. I try to feed the rest of the formula to her in oatmeal at breakfast but she's been refusing that lately, too.  At every other feeding she'll take 3oz and then sharply turn her head away, like her mouth is in pain. I try to get her to take the rest and she just cries & resists me, pushing the bottle away.  The other morning I resorted to giving her the rest of her bottle with an oral syringe, but she absolutely hated it and it only half-worked.  She will take her 6oz dreamfeed bottle no problem, and sometimes will take a 6oz one flawlessly before bed. But the rest of the day is just HORRIBLE.  She had been eating solids well until this Wednesday where she started disliking those, too, clamping her mouth shut when I bring the spoon up to her and wincing when I put the spoon in her mouth.  She has been super fussy lately and on Monday cut her first tooth.  I have tried Ibuprofen and infant oragel but it doesn't seem to make a difference when it comes to taking the bottle

Could this all be a really, really bad case of teething? She doesn't have a fever and is healthy, 20lbs and definitely not dehydrated.  We even visited the doctor about this three weeks ago and they chalked it up to teething.  My mother told me my brother & I were both very bad teethers, but I didn't know teething could be this awful.  I'm trying to get her back on a 4hr EASY after months of just "winging it", but I'm worried about continuing a schedule with her if she is taking so little from her bottle. I just feel like everything is a mess, the other mothers I know from church who do EASY never had bad teethers so they really didn't have any advice for me. 

Maybe somebody here has input on this? I would so, so, so, so appreciate it!

Kendra

[*Kara*]

Hugs Kendra!  We have the exact same issues here.  Bad teething for sure.  Meds make little difference to DD's eating some days.  I know how scary and frustrating it can be... all I can really say is that she won't starve   Try not to stress about it yourself, she will sense it and only makes things worse for both of you.  There are days that I feel like I have a newborn all over again because I give her 8 or so bottles since she won't take much at any one time!  It annoys her that I offer it that often but there really isn't another choice some days. 

And, there are days that I will even feed to sleep if need be.  I find that sitting in her room right before a nap, in the dark, will calm her enough to get her to take a few more ozs.

Know that you are not alone!  Incidentally, mine took 1 oz of her bottle this morning and has refused the rest.  Gonna try again soon

[kenakit]

Kara, thank you so much for your input!  Seriously, just knowing that there are other moms in the same boat eases my heart. 

I will definitely try feeding her in a darkened room right before nap more often, that seems to have worked well in the past for us, too.  I've been going nuts trying to keep her on a typical EASY routine, but I think right now where we are I'll need to offer her a bottle when she gets up and before she goes to bed, she doesn't seem to have issues putting herself to sleep even if I feed her to sleep a couple times a day. 

Again, thank you! Totally appreciate you sharing your experience

Kendra

[billysmummy]

HI,
We are having the same problem with our 8.5mo. Doing great with solids. Was on 4 bottles a day - generally taking 200-220ml in morning (rest on cereal), then around 120-180 for other three. Self reduced milk from lunch feed (11-11.30ish) and then little interest in milk at 3. So, a week or so ago I dropped the milk at the lunch feed, thinking she would then take more at 3pm. Didn't really change anything??

She eats her solids very well, in fact, gets cranky if we don't get them in quick enough. Am wondering if I am giving her too much. I guess its around 100g on average. Sometimes a little more. Eating a huge variety of veg, fruit and protein so no worries there.

She has been up 2 of the last 3 nights, quite unsettled. Assumed teething. Used Ibuprofen. Still unsettled an hour later. In the end I have offered a small bottle and both times she took it all (90ml first time - then settled for the night, 150ml second time, settled for an hour then back up again). 

Generally, she is a very easy, contented baby. Day sleeps are good. Nights are 7 to 7 or thereabouts. Has been a bit off colour of late. Blamed teething to start and also has a cold requiring antibiotics which wouldn't help.

So, I am wondering if
1. that's too much solids (1 x weetbix, and 2x 100-150g veg etc), thus affecting milk intake?
2. should I re-introduce the lunchtime milk?
3. is it just due to teething?

After reading the above posts, maybe it is just teething. My DS is only 2.5 but I can't remember when we swapped his feeds around, let alone what happened with his initial teething!!

Any feedback appreciated. Meanwhile, off to bed in case I am up again all night!!

[*Kara*]

How is it going Kendra? 

My DD has been cleared by the doctor but she is getting worse   I don't know what to do anymore... I am crying every time I think about feeding her... it's just so heart wrenching.

Billysmummy - I would cut back a bit on the solids if she is taking less than 20 ozs a day.

[billysmummy]

Hi Kara & Kendra

How are you guys going - are you having any improvement??
Our DD has at least been sleeping through again. Have fiddled around with cutting back solids but is making no difference to her milk intake. Mornings are around 120ml, afternoons 160ml and then lucky if she takes 80ml for her evening feed. I sneak a bit more into her solids and since she is generally happy, content and sleeping well I am just going to try to not worry about it. Difficult when everything you read says they still need 500-600ml milk a day at this stage!

Hope things are on the up for you.

[kenakit]

Hi ladies!

I took my DD to the doctor this Wednesday because I just couldn't stand the stress of worrying about her formula intake anymore.  She has actually gained a pound since the time I took her in last month and is completely healthy (I asked her doctor to check her ears and throat, they even swabbed her for strep because that has been going around).  I guess it really is just teething, and the doctor said that babies go through phases where they are less hungry than "usual." She basically told me just to make sure she's having enough wet diapers and she said to keep giving her solids (she actually seemed really encouraged that my DD is taking solids well, she didn't tell me to cut back on solids like I thought she might).  She said yogurt is a good solid right now because it has the dairy and liquid in it.  But anyway, that was the doctor's take on the whole situation. 

It's still stressful for me when she won't eat much, yesterday was a particularly long day (she only took 1oz for her morning feed and wasn't interested in breakfast, though she was doing a lot better at her evening feeds).  And I just want to pull my hair out because it just seems impossible to keep her on a consistent EASY schedule when I'm always worried she isn't getting enough.  This morning she took at 5oz bottle when she woke up (first time in weeks!), so I'm hoping that will set the tone for the rest of the day. Since she's been proclaimed healthy I think I am just going to get her back on an EASY routine (we are totallllllly off track right now) and stop worrying about forcing her bottle on her sporadically throughout the day. 

Kara, I'm sorry your DD is still not taking her bottles well   My DD definitely isn't doing fantastic either, and I have no idea when her next teeth will come in ahhhh! Nobody ever told me teething would be this bad, but from what I can tell it's way more common than I thought.  I hope things start looking up for all of us very soon!

[*Kara*]

I have a crazy update!  Alexandra started to refuse everything yesterday morning and then started to get really cranky... by lunch time, it was starting to really scare me... I couldn't calm her for more than a few minutes and the cry wasn't a typical frustrated or bored cry... it told me something was wrong.  I called DH at work and he came home right away.  We took her to emerg and the doctor checked her over, ordered a belly x-ray and found that she was terribly constipated, even though she was still pooping normally!  She actually pooped that morning!  Gave her an enema and OMG!  Lets say it was ugly

She has to have a suppository each day for the next 3 as well as increased fibre (pears, apples, prunes). 

She ate an entire 8.5 oz bottle at bedtime last night and then another 6 this morning plus 4 ozs of fruit!  She is sooooo much better!

Moral of the story - if you feel that something isn't right and your baby is not him/herself, do not stop until you get an answer.

[billysmummy]

HI again

Kara - WOW - yuck!! Our nappies are bad enough without that!! But great news about the milk intake. (BTW, that's our daughters' name too!!)

Kenakit - 5oz is good. Its hard not to worry about it, isn't it? We have been giving DD lots of yoghurt and I have actually been mixing some in with her veg which she loves!

We have just finished a tin of formula and I have a different brand to tomorrow just in case its a taste thing. Not sure it will help but figure its worth a go. (BTW Kara, don't forget some formulas are more constipating too, if your little Alexandra is bottle fed)

Here is a great breakfast recipe I made this morning - tastes great, took about 5 minutes and she loved it - in fact I would eat if for breakky. Plus, has milk in it!!

15g oats
150ml  milk
6 dried apricots chopped up
1 pear, chopped and diced

Throw oats, milk and apricots into a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 minutes. Add the pear and puree. Done!
I actually have frozen pureed pear in the freezer so just threw in a few cubes with the other stuff.
Supposed to be two portions.

I have read some for "smoothie" type things to which I will dig out and try.

Happy feeding!!

[*Kara*]

BTW Kara, don't forget some formulas are more constipating too, if your little Alexandra is bottle fed)

She is formula fed... she was on Good Start but we changed her to Enfamil during all of the food strike business... maybe I should switch her back??

[kenakit]

Oh my goodness Kara! Ahh! Well I'm so glad they were able to "clean her out" and things are better for you now You trusted your mommy senses and you were right that something was up!

My LO is doing better I think, she popped another tooth through and has been eating 5oz bottles every four hours pretty consistently, plus solids. She's been sleeping better, too!  I'm so hoping this is near the end of this bottle craziness. It's hard on a Mama's heart! 

[*Kara*]

I have switched her back to Good Start and she is eating more now   Happy momma!!

Glad that your LO seems to be on the mend too - we haven't got any teeth yet!

[quddlefish]

This is an old post, but I found it when I was searching for help, so I thought I'd reply here with how I handled my 8 month old who suddenly refused taking her bottle.

My 8 month old suddenly refused the bottle when we started introducing formula. At first we thought she simply hated the taste of formula, so I would add it to her solid foods. She went for it, so we tried giving her the formula in a bottle again. No dice. Went back to offering formula with food with some success, but not in the volume we needed her to take.

The major breakthrough was two-fold: we got faster flow nipples AND let her take the bottle, with warm formula, in an upright, seated position.

She used to be in a reclined position when she bottle-fed (typical 45deg). But with a faster flow, she was essentially drowning. In an upright, seated position, she can turn her head away from the bottle to give herself a break. She turns back to the bottle when she's ready for more.

She needed a few bottle-feedings (just 3 sessions) to get used to the new position and the new flow, but now she's not turning away as often and can better control her own intake. Hope this helps!