puking...reflux?

sparky

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Hi Ladies

Poor Isla is still having trouble feeding, here's the background...she wouldnt latch on from day one despite trying for weeks, she had expressed colostrum and then expressed breastmilk until yesterday when i simply couldnt get enough milk out anymore just foremilk which was making her poo turn green and was getting really stressed etc.

She was only ever taking 1-2oz of ebm at each feed and most of my milk was going down the sink..4 hours a day on a pump was no fun and i was getting depressed. She was still half an oz under her birthweight when she was last weighed on Monday at 13 days old. Although she'd occassionally have days when she would demand her feeds, mostly we were waking her not letting her go for more than 3 hours without offering her something. She was very fussy spitting most of it out and occassionally throwing up a couple of times out of her nose.

We decided to stick her on formula yesterday so that she is getting norished etc and that the black dog sitting on my shoulder didnt turn into full blown pnd.

She took feeds around every 2-3 hours last night but was quite sick, her poos are still quite greeny and lumpy now she was fine-ish through the night, spitting up then a wee puke a while after her feed. Today she threw the entire contents of her tummy up an hour after feeding it was proper forced vomiting. We cleaned her up and calmed her dowm. 3 hours later she woke hungry so we only allowed her 1oz and put her down to see how she goes.

She also coughs a lot and poos almost every 3 hours.

I'm starting to get concerned about the tiny amount of food she is still having and this latest bout of vomiting. Is it just the transition to formula...we put her on sma gold or something i should worry about?

The HV is coming out to see her tomorrow, she's doesnt seem dehydrated.

Probably just being paranoid but should she be eating more by now? her appitie hasnt increased at all since day 5.

I just want my baby to eat! and feel so stressed out.
 
I would speak to your HV. Settling on new food can take a few days. We had SCHOOGE problems with Becky at the start where she would comfort suck on the bottle (but nothing else), end up taking more than would fit in her stomach and then projectile vomit it up everywhere. A little bit of puking/possetting after a feed is normal and doesn't necessarily mean reflux. Just keep an eye on it and see your GP (my HV was no help with reflux at all) if you are worried about it.

Try things like winding every oz or so in case she's bringing milk up with wind and keeping her upright after a feed for as long as possible. These tips really helped us in the early days.

I would say try and go with the flow as much as possible. Waking her up for feeds etc will probably just make things harder as she'll feed and sleep when she needs to at this stage. In my experience with Becky I did this once or twice and it just made her cranky so I stopped and went with when she wanted to eat. Remember her tum is the size of a walnut so she will take more eventually but in her own time :hug: :hug:
 
What daftscotslass said :)

Also, what bottles are you using? Most teats were too fast for Phoebe when she was little, she drank all it then it came up with wind. We switched to Dr Browns which did help as they minimise wind and the teat is a lot slower than Tommee Tippee no 1, which we were using before.

Incidently Phoebe has just been diagnosed with reflux. So who knows.

All I can say is, Mummy always knows best - you will know if something doesn't seem right, as I did. I've been telling them for months :hug: :hug:
 
Thanks ladies, we switched her onto slow flow on the TT CTN bottles, might try another bottle. Just letting her eat little and often and see if the latest hassel is the switch to formula. Think i'm feeling a bit paranoid as shes sooo wee and has not much fat to loose, plus still feeling tearful about all the BF/expressing not working out. Plus i know i shouldnt compare her to other babies but cant help but compare her to a friends baby born a week after who has already put on a tonne of weight and is feeding like a champ!
 
Don't worry. Chances are those with smiley, happy, eating well, gaining weight and sleeping through the night babies are just putting on a brave face! Please don't worry about it not working out, I spent so long beating myself up over the same thing it took me a while before I could just enjoy my wee one. :hug: :hug:
 
thanks hon, i'll feed her what she wants when she wants it...but (paranoia setting in) how long should i leave her before waking her and offering her food..she's really sleepy at times
 
daftscotslass said:
Chances are those with smiley, happy, eating well, gaining weight and sleeping through the night babies are just putting on a brave face!

For 80% of the time Evie was a smiley happy baby who has always gained well and has slept through the night since 7 weeks.... the other 20% of the time I have wanted to curl up in a corner, pull my hair out and over time it ended up developing into PND because of Evie's puking/screaming.

Since she has been diagnosed she's only been a pickle about 3% of the time! :rotfl:
 
sparky said:
thanks hon, i'll feed her what she wants when she wants it...but (paranoia setting in) how long should i leave her before waking her and offering her food..she's really sleepy at times

Don't worry... she'll wake when she's hungry. You make sure you're resting when she is!
 
You sound like me 4 months ago :hug: :hug:

She'll be ok I'm sure. Phoebe lost almost 10% of her body weight in the first 5 days. She dropped down to 6lb 6oz. You could see her ribs. It was devastating for me giving her formula, I cried buckets... I couldn't express more than 1oz.

But I look at her now 4 months later and (apart from the stupid reflux) she is thriving.

FWIW one of the bits of advice I was given for reflux is to feed little and often - so it won't hurt to try it.

Don't beat yourself up, I did for way too long, and still do in some respects, but what good does it do? Take my advice and try and forget about it and enjoy this early weeks, I feel I spent the first 4 weeks just crying about not being able to feed her - I regret missing out on enjoying her then.

Phoebe was also really sleepy, I was told to feed her at least every 4 hours. If you are doing little and often I'd try 2-3 to help build her up. Don't do what I did and let her sleep 5 hours at night - I was told this was ok :doh: It was just where she was too sleepy. I'd say she was only really properly awake from 4 weeks onwards, probably when she'd built herself back up past her birth weight :)

Why don't you join us on the bottle feeding sticky as well, there's loads of us in there who had to switch and felt guilty about it. It feels a lot better when you know you are not alone.

:hug: :hug:
 
thanks...i love her so much, just need to draw a line under the feeding issues and stop blaming myself and thinking i'm a crap mummy.

Just going to give her what she wants when she wants it, but not let her go longer than 4 hours. I'll speak to HV tomorrow and she if she has any ideas, just feel like i need a stratergy to stick to its been one thing after another, trying different things etc.

Will join you lot in the bottlefeeding support thread...hopefully my engorement will go away soon its upsetting that i'm still full of milk and leaking...esp when i cant use it
 

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