Change in eating habits

[Jackthomsmom]

Hi-
My 6  week old son is usually a very good eater.  He normally takes 4 oz every 2-2.5 hours until about 8pm.  If I let him, he would down it in 5 minutes but we do frequent burping and try to slow him down.  Earlier this week I introduced dreamfeeding and it worked until last night.   The last two nights he has not been taking his bottles at night.  Last night it was the 8 pm feeding, tonight it's the 6 pm feeding.  He seems hungry but after taking a few gulps he pushes it away.  Last night he did not take the dream feed either.   Has anyone else experienced this?  I'm wondering if this is normal or if there might be something bothering his tummy.  Usually when he has gas he's extremely fussy and uncomfortable and he doesn't seem that way.  He is having about 2-3 bowel movements per day.  When he goes he seems a little stressed (his face turns bright red from pushing hard and he appears stressed).

[Noelle]

Sorry there hasn't been a response yet  ...how's it going now?  Sometimes they go through little phases....

 

[Doj]

Hi

The same thing is happening to my lo who is 8 weeks old. Yesterday it all begin when I fed her. Usually she takes about 4 oz every 3 hours or so. I burp her half way through her bottle and then she will take the rest after she has burped. Now once I have started to feed her if I stop to burp her she will not take the rest of the of the bottle and cries hysterically. I just started a new jar of formula so i thought that maybe it was bad. I just went out and bought a new one and i am going to see what happens if she still reacts like this. i will keep you updated.

[dawnz]

I had the exact same problem with my son when he was 6 weeks old.  It started when we upped his ozs from 3 to 4 per feeding.  He did great for about a week and then began crying after only eating about 2 ozs and wouldn't finish his bottle for anything!  We were afraid to stop to burp him, too!  We thought maybe he had a dairy intolerance or perhaps we were using the wrong bottles...bad gas, etc. etc.   I tried every bottle/nipple combo you can imagine and it didn't help.  (For the mom who mentioned her baby downing the bottle in 5 mins I would suggest trying a slower nipple since they really should take at least 15 mins). 

I got concerned that his daily intake was low for 3 or 4 days in a row, (~18 ozs instead of 20-25) and took him to see his Pediatrician.  He suggested trying Zantac 2x a day and I was surprised, since I thought reflux meant that he needed to be spitting up, which he wasn't.  I spent a while searching on the internet and found that he had most of the symptoms for "silent reflux". (http://www.infantrefluxdisease.com was the most useful site I found).  What happens is that the formula splashes up into the baby's esophagus when they eat because of an underdeveloped sphincter muscle in the stomach. Some MD's will recommend adding rice cereal to help "hold down" the food, but mine didn't advise this.  I had pretty good success with Good Start formula because it digests quickly (emptying the stomach quickly can also help alleviate the amount of reflux).  Some milk allergies will manifest themselves as reflux, so it's good to get some help from your MD to figure out the cause if the change in eating habits/fussiness persists.

The zantac definitely helped him eat more, but I felt that it was always a perpetual struggle to get him to eat enough.  My advice is to get an MD opinion and hang in there!  The good news is they DO outgrow it.   

[kezzi78]

I had this problem with my daughter it turned out to be reflux, does he just push the bottle away or does he arch his back?

[Doj]

Well i think that I have come to the conclusion that my lo is having a constipation problem. She normally goes 1x a day. Since last wed she has only gone 1x on Friday. She has not gone this entire weekend. The poor thing is in some pain. I was told that they there is nothing really that you can do for an 8 week old. I am just tyring to ensure that she is getting the same amount of fluid whether it be in formula or water. She is a little dehydrated right now.
Anyone experience this?