I think Ive created a snacker. Help!

[herbsgirl]

DD is 6 weeks old now and has had feeding issues. We don't know for sure if she has a tounge tie, but it is mild tounge tie if it is and possibly posterior. She has trouble latching onto bottles. I finally setteled onto Soothie medium/fast flow bottles and its best with that.

She swallows quite a bit of air, so letting her get hungry means that she swallows even more air and cant latch as good.  I offer her the bottle many many times a day.  Sometimes she takes it sometimes she doesn't. So she is eating almost every hour or more often, 1/2 oz to 1 1/2 oz at a time usually

 shes almost gained a lb a week scinc starting her on the bottle.  She is getting Breastmilk in the bottle, I  pump around 42 oz a day, but she only drinks around 23 oz per day or so.

Please help, how can I get her on a better schedule at least every 90 minutes or every 2 hours would be way better than this!!!

[*Kara*]

First, take her to either a doc or a lactation consultant to have the TT issue ruled out. 

[herbsgirl]

I have already taken her to the midwife. please share how to get her onto eating every 2 hrs

[*Kara*]

I would really suggest a lactation consultant - a midwife isn't trained to spot a TT, let alone a smaller one.

That said, the only way to get her to eat at longer intervals is to get more into her at each feed.

I would go back to a slow flow nipple first.  You mention that she is taking in a lot of air - the nipple is too fast for her and she isn't able to control the flow as well so she gulps... this will cause painful wind and quickly cause a pain/food association for her.  Don't worry though, this can be remedied with a few happy feeds.

Where are you in the world?  I may be able to suggest a better bottle for her - many do well with the Tommee Tippee brand or Dr Browns.

[herbsgirl]

We will be getting a referrel to an ENT specialist, but probably wont be able to get in for a while.  We are in United States. Ive tried many different bottles ---6 or 7 or so.  We did try Dr browns, nipple was so soft, hard for her to latch onto sometimes..

So far we are using Soothie by First  years. They no longer manufacture this bottle, but I was able to find 3 on amazon, and have 11 more coming from ebay.  That is basicly the ONLY bottle she has been able to successfully drink more milk from and latch onto the best in the last few weeks. 

I tried the slow flow nipple, but I think  she was sucking so hard before. Then we tried the Medium flow, and she didnt have to suck sooo hard, and got more milk.

She has actually been doing better with sucking on the Soothie bottles medium flow now.  She is able to drink 2 to 2 1/2 oz at a time sometimes now, so maybe some improvment! Yay!  Shes getting chunky thighs and looks healthy and good, so I think shes getting enough, just wish we could get on a better schedule.

Just need to space out the feeds a little

[*Kara*]

Shes getting chunky thighs and looks healthy and good, so I think shes getting enough

This is wonderful news!  I would just take it slowly and keep consistent with offering a bit more than she will take... to push her feeds apart a bit more, just use some good distraction to get an extra 10-15 mins out of her between feeds.  The theory is that she will take a bit more with this and then you can push her next feed a little more than the last etc.  Great work momma!