4.5month old off his feeds in the day - any ideas?

[Womble]

DS is 19 weeks, bottle fed on Neocate LCP and seems to go through phases where he just isn't interested.  He's on 4 hour EASY (well, as close to EASY as we can get at the moment but often EASASAE or similar..) he's a big boy, 16.5lbs 3 weeks ago and had been taking a good 6/7oz per feed, but last couple of days he's taken only 3 or 4oz for at least 2 of his daytime bottles.  Yesterday he had 6oz for his 3am night feed, then 3oz at 7am, 5oz at 10.30 (he seemed hungry and as he'd had so little at 7am I fed him early) 3oz at 2.30pm and 5oz at 6.15pm.  He's messing around a lot when he feeds too, with lots of sucking noises.

He's definitely feeding better at night (no messing), past 2 nights his 2 night feeds he's taken a full 6oz each time, just seems to be in the day he's not keen.  He went through a phase like this a couple of weeks ago then was back up to normal feeds again for a while, and now starting again. 

I am wondering whether he's teething as he's gone very chompy on everything (including my chin this morning!) and drooling loads.  He'll often double over and bite his fist really hard at times with a grunt which looks and sounds to me like discomfort.  I've tried calpol and I think it makes a little bit of a difference but hard to be sure.  Teething powders have done nothing (I've tried Weleda and a liquid one called Camilia - he can't have the others as they contain lactose and he's CMPI)

We use MAM anti colic bottles with size 2 teats.  I had also wondered if the teat was too slow but then wouldn't it still be a problem for the night feeds?  I tried going up to size 3 but he just coughed and spluttered and milk went everywhere.

I doubt he's going to waste away but I worry he won't be getting enough nutrients.  Yesterday he had 28oz in 24hours, according to a calculation I read somewhere it said they need around 2.5oz per lb of bodyweight so if I guess he's around 17lbs now he should be having between 34 and 42oz per day so 6-7oz every 4 hours.

Any ideas?

[Lolly]

If he is CMPI does he have reflux too? If he does I would guess that the teething is making the reflux flare up which is why he isn't eating as much.

It may be that this will pass in a couple of days as teething does seem to come in spurts for a few days and then settles a bit. Check the ingredients of the other teething powders with a pharmacist as I'm pretty sure that the lactose in them is very broken down through the way it is produced that it shouldn't cause any problems. You could try teething gel on his gums just before a feed to see if that helps.

If it continues much longer I would get him checked by the Dr. That said, 28oz isn't that bad an amount in 24 hours, the recs are usually 2-2.5oz per lb of body weight but babies are very good at self regulating. My chunky DD stuck to the 91st centile like glue on a max of 25oz a day!

Laura

[macsmum]

I could right your post dd is the same, same age as your lo but 20 lbs 😝 dd has mspi  and reflux too, she was sleeping through the night but now is waking up taking a full 7 oz bottle dribbling all the time and fussy during day feeds, this has been going on for over a week, reflux meds have been increased.....

I started to introduce some solid foods today and she loved it, no idea if it will help but as I just started back at work I really don't want these wake ups now 😢

[Womble]

He did have reflux but since the change to neocate he's pretty much been fine.  He spits up but isn't screaming with it, and doesn't have the silent reflux type symptoms at night.  The other teething powders have same ingredients pretty much as the ones I've got (basically camomilla(sp) I think)

He's very unsettled tonight, usually the past couple of weeks when he's gone down he's down until his first night feed but he's been fidgeting and restless and I've had to go and resettle him once.

Thought of something else - I've got a terrible cold so he might be coming down with it, he started coughing when I put him to bed and he's been sneezing quite a bit today.

Funny about the self regulating thing as I've been adding his total daily intake up every day for the past 7 days and only a couple of times has he actually taken the minimum amount he's supposed to have, rest of the time he's consistently a few oz under... would ask my HV but she's useless!

[Lolly]

He could well be coming down with a cold. If not then the reflux is a likely culprit, my two both started going off their milk/ food before any obvious symptoms appeared when they were having a flare up or their meds needed increasing.

Funny about the self regulating thing as I've been adding his total daily intake up every day for the past 7 days and only a couple of times has he actually taken the minimum amount he's supposed to have

The trouble with babies is that they don't seem to get the memo about what they are "supposed" to do

Laura