Newbie with feeding issues :)

[Willow]

Hi there!  This is the first time I’m posting on these boards so let me introduce myself     I’m Vickie and I live in Cape Town, South Africa.  I have a (almost) 4 month old daughter, Jenna.
I have some feeding issues and I wanted to see if anyone has any comments/suggestions.

Some background: It started from birth when Jenna had problems latching properly.  We sorted that out but then she started vomiting a lot.  I was told that it was more of a laundry problem for me than a health problem for her  :wink:   She has gained weight fine and she vomits very rarely now.  About 2 months ago she started screaming whenever I tried to feed her.  As soon as I put her into the feeding position she would start screaming.  On the advice of a lactation consultant I tried feeding her in different positions (standing up etc).  This worked for a little while but then it went back to how it was before.  She has improved in that she will feed well now, but only when she wants to!!  If I try and feed her before she has decided that she’s hungry she complains! 

The latest issue, and the one I really need advice on, is that recently I’ve gotten into the habit of feeding her before she goes down to sleep.  This seems to be the only time she will relax enough to take a good feed and she tends to fall asleep on the breast.  If I try and feed her when she’s just woken up (even in a darkened room) she is far too distracted and won’t feed well.  This is not a habit I wanted to get into as I’m afraid she’ll become dependant on the feed to go to sleep but I’m not sure what else to do.  I’ve been told by a few friends that are mums to “do what works” but I’m worried that I’m doing her (and myself) a disservice by continuing this. 

Anyway, if you’ve got this far, thanks for reading     Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Vickie

[Luke-n-Me]

Vickie,

Try reading my post under the bottle feeding forum "dysphagia/fussy feeders" it's also on the colic forum.  My oldest had this and now I'm finally surrendering to the fact that my DD (2 mos.) has the same issue.  I am also breast feeding this time around, so it will make thing a bit different, but it sounds like your problem is bad enough that you may need to make some changes now.  Please see if this helps and if you have more questions for me, let me know.

[GraceKellysmom]

She may just not be hungry when she wakes, as you suggest. 4 months old is the peak of "I am too distracted to eat". You could try offering the feed in the middle of activity period AEASY, when you know she is hungry. Some babies like a break in the action.

As long as you don't regularly feed her TO sleep, where she requires you to feed her TO sleep or to get sleepy enough to sleep, you should be ok feeding her AEASY. You could even feed her, play quietly in her room for 5-10 min, and then nap. This way you aren't the sleep prop.