Fussy and sleepy feeds

[hannah13]

Hi,

Can anybody help? My LO is 20 weeks old but born at 26 weeks gestation so only 7 weeks adjusted. She is regularly fussy with her bottle - we hold her sat upright to feed as we think she may suffer with reflux but pushes back until she is being fed almost horizontally. She often pulls on and off the bottle and is a real struggle. When she is not fussy with feeds she falls asleep on the bottle again making it difficult to get her to finish a feed. She's on 3 hourly feeds of roughly 3-4 ounces and is following the 25th percentile. Any suggestions,

Thanks

[ZacsMumme]

Hugs. What milk is she on? What teat?
Any medication for reflux ATM?

Does feeding in a dark room or while gently moving help at all?

[hannah13]

Hiya,

She is on expressed breast milk and uses nuk latex teats. We have been given infant gaviscon but haven't started her on it yet as we want to be sure it is reflux first.

At night we just have a dim lamp. She used to like being fed whilst walking around but we haven't tried that for a while.

[ZacsMumme]

What do you mean want to be sure re reflux? did a dr prescribe it? If so I would try it. It's not a medication that stays in their system or anything. It just works for the feed, helping thicken the milk in the tummy.

Here is some reflux info.
Reflux checklist for parents and Drs
Reflux 101 - General reflux information
Does my LO have food intolerances?

Does she bf at all? - or all EBM? Xx

[hannah13]

I heard that gaviscon can cause constipation and one of the first lines in the instructions say about not using it with premature babies (unless under medical supervision). The GP said it sounded like reflux (from my description) but that it was up to me if I wanted to medicalise it as all babies get a degree of reflux, premature babies especially.

She doesn't breast feed at all no, just EBM.

[ZacsMumme]

That is true. Did you dr offer or dis us Zantac/ranitidine with you? Not sure if its different for prems too but it's a 1st line treatment med for reflux. I personally found gaviscon did nothing for my boys, ranitidine was much more effective and didn't affect their poops.

Any food intolerance symptoms? - the bottle behaviour does sound like discomfort...Has tongue tie been checked?