Hi,
I have a healthy and happy 5 1/2 month old daughter. She's an absolute joy...except when it comes to taking her bottles! It's like she is never hungry/thirsty, because she wants nothing to do with her bottles - she fusses or screams at them and wriggles all over the place. When she does finally take them, she slowly sucks away at them, wanting to stop after taking only about 3 or 4 oz, and it can take her up to 45 minutes just to do that!
She started doing this around 3 months of age - it seems to be because she is distracted and too interested in everything else going on around her. My daycare is having the same issue with her. The doctor says she's fine - growing and in the 50th % for both weight and height - so we're not concerned about any health issues...but I am wondering - is anyone else experiencing this? If so, do you have any ideas on why she would do this and maybe some suggestions to improve it?
Thanks for any advice!
K.
Thank you everyone for your suggestions - and empathy! If nothing else, I at least know I'm not the only one who's experienced this. I can relate to the comment "it was the most painful few months of my life".
We are feeding her cereal once a day and vegetables and fruits once a day, too. She does very well with those...which makes me wonder if it is the formula or if she is simply not liking something about the bottle/nipple now, as suggested. Thanks for the ideas and I will be trying some of them out. I'll let you know if we have any luck!
try her on solids also it might be time to introduce a sippy cup.(no is not to early)
I'm a mother of 2 children and also an infant/toddler teacher.
Hi K., I have a son who is now 10 months old and he went through the exact same thing. It was the most painful few months of my life. We spoke to our doctor about it and he recommended maybe trying a bigger nipple on the bottle and if the flow is too fast add a little rice cereal. He told us to start out with a couple of teaspoons full of rice with his 6oz. bottle, then work your way to a teaspoon per oz. of fluid in the bottle. It worked immediately. His feedings used to take atleast an hour and he wouldn't even come close to finishing the bottle but when we tried the doctors suggestion he ate that bottle (the whole bottle) within 15 minutes. I really feel for you and if this doesn't work for you be patient it should pass with time.
Have you tried a faster flow nipple? When my daughter had to be bottle fed it often took 45 minutes to an hour but once we got faster flow nipples it cut feeding time down to 10 to 15 minutes.
Maybe you have already tried this, but I thought I'd throw it out there none the less.
Kate
Make the hole bigger in the nipple. Try a spoonful of baby cerealin her bottles too.
I went through this with my youngest. It seemed like it took forever for her to eat. I thought she wasn't hungry or didn't like the formula too. Turned out she wasn't getting enough formula for her liking and lost interest because it would take so long.
Sometimes it's something that simple.
Nanc
hi kelly,
i have a 2 1/2 month old and when she was born, we were feeding her the powdered formula, well it took her like an hour to eat! this was esecially frustrating, because by the time she would finish a bottle, it felt like she was ready for another one so soon after! we mentioned it to the dr and the nurse kinda laughed at us and joked that our baby was "running the show" and that it should only take 20 mins to finish a bottle, they said that it was taking that long because she did not like the formula! we switched to the liquid concentrate form and it was like night and day! she inhales the bottles now! :) have you tried a different form?
try feeding her away from every one
K.,
I had the same problem with my daughter, who is now almost 2 years old. My doctor suggested starting her on baby food. She did much better with that. He also had us introduce the sippy cup and she seemed to like it after about a month or so. At 10 months she was completely off the bottle. she is very healthy, she just never seemed too interested in the bottle. I quess some are like that. Have you talked with your pediatrician about foods yet? Maybe that would help your daughter as well.
I hope this helps.
C.
hi i would try putting a sterilized pin in the whole to make it slighter larger or possible try a med or fast flow nipple. just becareful, b\c w the fast flow nipple she might get too much and gag a little.
K.,
maybe it's time to up the nipple level she is on. also she is old enough to try a sippy cup, can't hurt to try
I had that problem with my daughter. It turns out the nipples I was using were too slow for her. She would drink about 4 ounces and get bored with the bottle. So I went out and bought some Playtex Ventaire bottles with the stage 2 nipples. It is a much faster flow, so she was getting more into her in a shorter amount of time. Then she just started sucking down her bottles. Good Luck!
I know this may be near impossible, but when you feed her at home, is there any way you can go into a room alone with just her and no distractions whatsoever? If it works then you know she is overstimulated while trying to eat. I don't know how much the day care can cooperate with that but atleast you'll know why she does what she does. Keep us posted. GOOD LUCK :)
My only question to you is what brand of bottle are you using and what level nipple are you using?? MY daughter did the same thing with her bottle and it turned out that the nipple was too small and she had to suck twice as hard to get anything out of it. Which in turn made her drink less and fall asleep drinking it because it would take her forever. You could try either changing the size of the nipple or possibly even changing the brand of bottle itself. She may not like the way it feels in her mouth. She could also be teething and it hurts her to have the bottle touch her gums. and thats why she fusses and has just gotten used to not drinking as much. Drinking 3-4 ounces is normal. My daughter has never taken more than 5 ounces at a time and her GI says that she has even bigger babies that never take more than that either. ( my daughter is very small), Your main concern now is not to get her to drink more but to make drinking in itself more comfortable for her.. Good luck, Feel free to email me.
T.
Have you tried other nipples. The ones I used had different flow levels so that the milk was either dispensed fast or slow. Try that.
My son went through this same thing when he was just a little younger than your daughter. I, too, thought it might be that he was distracted and just couldn't bring himself to sit still to eat a bottle. However, I started playing around with different things and I think it had more to do with his teeth than anything. It started around the time he started teething and would come and go (more come than go, though!) He went through spurts where I think it just hurt too much to suck on his bottle so he'd wriggle and fuss. I had been making his bottles with warm water so I switched to cold water or fed them straight from the fridge and it did the trick. Again, this might not be the problem with your daughter, but it sounds similar and this is what worked for us. It might be worth a shot!
Another suggestion (if you haven't already done this) is to switch the nipple to a faster flow nipple. If you're still using the slow flow ones she might just be frustrated that she's not getting it fast enough and therefore showing her impatience! Good luck! Let us know how you make out!
Hi K.,
Have you tried either switching the nipples on her bottles, or even switching to a different type of bottle? We had to switch bottles and types of nipples several times with our youngest before we found one that she was comfortable with. It could also just be the flow level of the nipple. We didn't have any troubles with our older 2 children, but with the youngest, she took a long time to finish her bottles.
J.
