RAAAHHH!!! (bottlefeeding)

[ninjawomble]

Im going insane

The girls on speed Im sure! Not only is she constantly feeding, now shes taken to being hyper during her feeds!
She constantly wriggles, hits bottle, turns her head side to side non stop
She sounds like shes choking, but when I remove bottle, she screeches to have it back

My arms are aching from holding her whne shes like this, it takes nearly two hours to feed her, then she will reward me with a projectile vomit (incidentally shes just done as Im typing this), then screams for more food!

What am I doing wrong?? Do I need to change teats?

Im actually going mad

 

[Magic Monkey]

What size teats are you using? It does sound like that may be the problem, Ella has just started being like that again and we changed her teat and she guzzles her bottle in 2 secs flat with no fussing now.

 

[ninjawomble]

Size 1 on the Dr Browns, methinks I may go up to size 2

Although the faster flow she has, the more Ive noticed she projectile voms (she did it on nearly every feed on TT teats with faster flow)

I just dunno what to do.

Im so gutted I couldnt bf, its really getting me down now, I feel guilty every time I bottle feed her and shes in this state

I cant stop crying about it all

 

[CH0C0H0LIC]

Not relevant

 

[nori]

Im so gutted I couldnt bf, its really getting me down now, I feel guilty every time I bottle feed her and shes in this state

I cant stop crying about it all

Oh hun.. you sound like me.. anything which can be related to my lack of breastfeeding sets me off!

The size 2 DR Brown teats are for 3 months onwards i think but you could try. i changed teats with ollie but he kept choking so went back to the slow ones. He occasionally fusses but it soon passes.He is also throwing some back up but thats what they do if they take too much.. he's one pukey baby.

I'm rubbish at giving advice as im still learning too but im sure someone (sherlock) will give you some tips..

Claire x

 

[Steelgoddess]

The bottle feeding thing will get better its natural to feel this way after not being able to bf for whatever reason.


Just of of interest but how often is she feeding and how much? Reason i ask is that i found when Hayden "played" on the bottle he wasn;t actually hungry at all and I was misreading his mood for hunger.. If its taking 2 hours to feed then shes definitely not hungry. (Going from what you said with regards to her turning her head etc..) the other thing is and this is just from my experience is i would only keep trying her on the bottle for upto about half an hour. The reason I say this is that say if the feed starts at 7am in the morning and shes not hungry maybe try upto 730 and then wait until she tells you she is hungry, otherwise if she keeps having bits of milk say 2oz every half hour then she is not getting that chance for the last feed to digest hence the vomiting and the fact she is fidgeting and taking a long time to finish a feed. Its kind of like us if we eat a sandwich we finish when we are full so if there is half left we wouldn't keep trying to eat it otherwise we'd feel pretty uncomfortable...

The other thing is when you say she screech's to have it back are you sure she doesn't want to just comfort suck? i could be wrong but only going from my own experiences.

I don't know if this helps but maybe for a couple of days write down her feeds and you will most likely see where the problem lies. It's also better to take a look at the whole day rather then the bottle at the time I know sometimes hay will only have 2 or 3oz so i leave him be and then the next few feeds he will have the whole bottle...

As long as they are gaining weight, have consistant wet nappies and don't have any health problems then not finishing the bottle shouldn't be a problem (Except on our pockets. ahh the joys of formula )

 

[ninjawomble]

Thanks for your advice girls.

Sharne, I dunno bout comfort sucking as I offer her dummy...she cries and spits it out...shes "rooting" for food so I always assume she wants milk.

I'll try what you have suggested with regards to giving it half hour, hopefully it may work

 

[x Naomi x]

it sounds a little like reflux to me, when you say she wriggles, does she arch her back at all? it used to take me 2 hours to feed Macey so i totally sympathise with you, she would be desperately hungry but in pain so it was a constant battle, the vomiting is also a sign of reflux so i would suggest taking her to see your GP or have a word with your HV, we were advised to put one end of her cot higher up and it certainly helped Macey we also changed her to variflow teats which also helped her as she could get the milk out at her own pace.

 

[lea m]

Sharne, I dunno bout comfort sucking as I offer her dummy...she cries and spits it out...shes "rooting" for food so I always assume she wants milk.

Lola does this hun! But shes not hungry!
I was going to say sounds like wind! Lola occasionally has projectile vomited lol after a very wiggly feed! And its always been strapped wind! When your feeding her, when she starts to wiggle, put her on your shoulder and gentle bounch her even if she screams! Keep doing it for a few mins then try again! If she is still wiggling with the bottle, bounce her again! If you continue with the milk its highly likely the wind will come up with all the milk on top of it i.e the exorcise lol! Lo Lo mainly gets this in the morning when her tum is very empty!
I have noticed she prefers the variflow teats as Naomi said and she already has her head higher in her bed as all my children before never liked to sleep flat so put a towel rolled under her mattress before she was born lol!
If things dont get better then speak to your doc or HV

 

[lea m]

Oh and when you try the dummy, tap it! Sounds a bit mad lol but when you put it in her mouth and she tries to spit it out, gentle tap it and she may well want it then! This worked with all my 4!

 

[xmcnickyx]

Just wanted to add that a lot of what Molly does when she's hungry she also does when she's tired (helpful I know )

When I tried her with a dummy at first she just spat it out. I bought different dummies and she loves them. I'd bought the tommee tippee flat ones and got Avent big chunky ones instead. She does the rooting thing when she's tired and shakes her head from side to side when you put the dummy in her mouth, same as when she's hungry.

She did go through a similar phase to what you're describing but over the last few weeks seems to have just settled down and understood feeding time much better.

Try not to feel guilty about not BFing! I have pangs of guilt every time I'm standing at the sink, washing bottles (that and pangs of irritation that I have to do it!!) and remember that BFing would not be plain sailing either. You're doing the best you can - she will settle down!

 

[lea m]

Just wanted to add that a lot of what Molly does when she's hungry she also does when she's tired (helpful I know )

When I tried her with a dummy at first she just spat it out. I bought different dummies and she loves them. I'd bought the tommee tippee flat ones and got Avent big chunky ones instead. She does the rooting thing when she's tired and shakes her head from side to side when you put the dummy in her mouth, same as when she's hungry.

She did go through a similar phase to what you're describing but over the last few weeks seems to have just settled down and understood feeding time much better.

Try not to feel guilty about not BFing! I have pangs of guilt every time I'm standing at the sink, washing bottles (that and pangs of irritation that I have to do it!!) and remember that BFing would not be plain sailing either. You're doing the best you can - she will settle down!

Awww i forgot our babies were born on the same day!!

 

[ninjawomble]

Aww thanks girls, Lea am gonna try raising the head of her mattress tonight...how high do you raise Lolas?

Naomi, god here hoping it aint reflux, she doesnt arch her back or seem in pain..just hyperactive!

Are the variflow teats available for Dr Browns bottles? Or do I need to buy yet more bottles in another brand? This feeding battles got me skint!!

 

[lauramumof2]

The advice here is really good. I was wondering after reading the relies and your replies to them, is it the shape of teat?
Joe was a terrible bottle feeder, I had bottle after bottle. We ended up with mam teats on avent bottles. The mam one is quite flatish compared to the avent ones where the teat is quite round. I dont now what the dr browns are like, that one of the few we didnt try

 

[emmie]

ninjawomble and nori i totally understand how you feel about the not being able to breastfeed it really seriously upsets me sometimes i go to the docotrs of hospital and all i see is these breastfeeding posters and i burst out crying, i read the label on the formula tins saying breastfeeding is best and i burst out crying, and even reading some posts on here i burst out crying.

It is getting better though. i have heard some stories of people breastfeeding, feeding for 2 hours baby has a sleep for half and hour then feeds again, so i keep thinking of the positives bottle fed babies sleep longer, you can see how much they are getting and not have to worry, etc etc

Lots of hugs to your both as i totally understand what your going through its frustrating.

 

[lea m]

After I had to stop feeding Joseph it took me a good few months to stop being upset about it! I really let it get to me and its just not good! Please all try and realise sooner than I did that as long as your baby is eating, that is all the really matters! I beat myself up over it for a long time! When I had Dill a few months later (lol) I developed PND and I think that because I let the fact I couldnt BF bother me so much, it was a contributor! (along with others) Just look at your happy, healthy babies and know that it doesnt matter what they eat, as long as they eat! (well while they are babies anyways lol)


NW I just raise it a couple of inches! So shes still lay down and not sliding down, but up enough shes not lay flat kwim?

 

[xmcnickyx]

Awww i forgot our babies were born on the same day!!

Aye! How's she doing? Does she smile yet? Molly is reluctantly giving me half smiles but I have to work for it

I'm in that same 'couldn't breastfeed so feed very guilty' mode. It does bother me that I couldn't do it and I do get upset thinking about it and thinking about how I could have done things differently. I doubt it'll pass straight away but there definitly are plus sides to formula and I know Molly will be fine either way so I'm starting to get past it. I really don't want one small thing to bring me down - I want to stay positive and enjoy Molly while she's this little.

Big hugs for Nori, Ninjawomble and emmie though. I feel your pain

 

[daftscotslass]

Give changing the teats a try... the level one on the Dr Brown bottle is slooooooooow so it might be worth a shot. We moved up a teat when she was 8 weeks and it was the best decision for us - she went from playing with the teat or falling asleep at the bottle and wanting more soon after to downing a whole bottle again and being satisfied for 3 hours.

Or it could just be a dreaded growth spurt. So many places say that bottle fed babies are more settled, are satisfied for longer between feeds and you can encourage them to take more just by sticking the bottle in their mouth but this has been aaaaaanything but the case for us. Us bottle feeders really don't have it easier. They can be every bit as fussy with feeding with a bottle as they would have been with a breast.

Did you have the closer to nature bottles too? I have a couple of pretty much brand new variflow teats somewhere (one was used once, the other not at all) if you want to try them. I think the teats on the Dr Brown ones are quite universal so you could always try another brand's variflow teat with those bottles?

Hope that helps, tis all I can think of for now - FRIED POST-WORK BRAIN!

 

[lea m]

I also wanted to ask are you offering water? Most babies dont like it much lol but its worth a try! Lola happens to love the stuff!

xmcnickyx, yeh Lola is smiling now! Its so cute! She started at about 5 weeks! Shes huge too! lol Im going to get her weighed on Friday (hopefully! Keep missing the baby clinic heehee)

 

[ninjawomble]

OMG I raised the head of her mattress last night, and got FIVE hours uninteruppted kip!!

Lea I bloody love you

Mind you this was after HOURS of fussing and crying and partial feeding

Ive started infacol with evey feed to see if that helps too.

daftscotslass, I didnt know you could use different teats with Doc Browns!! Might definatley have to give changing them a try!