Taking ages to drink bottles

[x-kirsty-x]

Ryan has had feeding problems since he was born, he's just really slow to take his bottles. He was only taking 40ml every 4 hours at first which the hospital said was just enough for us to be able to bring him home.

Anyway, since we got him home he's improved and has started drinking full bottles (roughly 3oz) every 4 hours. The problem is he has about half and then doesnt want any more for about half an hour, after which he'll drink the rest. What I mean is it takes him anywhere up to an hour to finish a 3oz bottle cos he stops and starts all the time.

Im pleased he's actually taking milk now but the way he's doing it isn't really ideal, especially during the night

Can anyone give me some advice??

 

[Strangeness]

Awww hun I'm not sure what advice to give as I have never experienced this but maybe if he's happy doing it that way you might have to bear with him a bit. I know you must be exhausted but I'm sure it won't be long before he's guzzling the lot! I hope things are going well

 

[Gemma & Jake]

Have you tried winding him and then trying him with the bottle again? Jake used to stop half way through a bottle sometimes because he had a bit of wind and after belching he would drink the rest.

 

[jennywren]

hey - oran does/did this. He is much better now and only takes about 30min for a 6oz bottle however in his first week on the bottle (expressing) he was taking about 1.5 hours for 3 oz, he then got it down to an hour, he upped to 4oz and took and hours - now most of the time he will drink 4-6oz in 30min but sometimes still take and hour, I found at the beginning winding him after every oz, made him drink a little quicker

all I can say mate is it will get better and he will drink quicker when he is a bit bigger - well oran did anyway so I hope Ryan is the same!

try not to worry hun, however I know that the nights are hard - they will get better

 

[rach]

i used to get this with christopher when he was first born sometimes it would be so bad with winding and nappy change 1 feed would almost run into the next in the end the hv advised that we put him on faster teats which he took a little while to get used to he was coughing and spluttering a bit at first till he got used to the faster flow but within 2-3 days he was taking 3oz in 20-30 mins hv said the aim was for 3oz in 20 mins since then we havent looked back and hes doing fab xxxxxxxxx

 

[x-kirsty-x]

Aww thank you ladies, I didnt expect any replies cos I didnt think anyone else would've had this problem.

We wind him every few ounces and when he actually manages to burp he takes a bit more milk but sometimes he just wont bring it up. Im giving him infacol now so we'll see how that goes.

I tried him on a faster teat yesterday and he was dribbling alot of milk and sort of spluttering so i assumed it was too fast. Might stick with it though and see if he gets used to it.

I just feel under so much pressure from the midwife and health visitor to get him to take milk the way they want him to, not how I want him to. If it were up to me I could put up with him taking longer than normal, at least he's drinking it

 

[jennywren]

sorry I should have said we gave oran infacol and dr brown bottles and he winds really easy - thats we we did it after every oz or so. We moved to stage 2 teats at 6 weeks and this speeded it up even more - took about 2 days for him to get used to them, he was a bit sickly at first.

see chick its all good - dont let the HV and MW pressure you!

 

[rach]

dont worry hun he will find his own routine soon enough dont feel pressured by anyone HV and midwives all tend to think all babies should be doing the same but we are all different do whatever you feel comfortable with
christopher also had trouble bringing wind up which was another reason he was taking so long to feed we tried infacol but nothing worked in the end we gave up trying to wind him too regular and only did it when he stopped feeding otherwise he would lose interest in his bottle

oh 1 other thing we had been feeding him bottles at room temperature ever since he was born and when down o/h mums 1 day she gave him a botlle warmed up and he wolfed it down been warming them up ever since and he loves it and drinks much more than he used to if its room temp he messes with it and takes much longer to feed
just thought might be something else you could try xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

[x-kirsty-x]

dont worry hun he will find his own routine soon enough dont feel pressured by anyone HV and midwives all tend to think all babies should be doing the same but we are all different do whatever you feel comfortable with
christopher also had trouble bringing wind up which was another reason he was taking so long to feed we tried infacol but nothing worked in the end we gave up trying to wind him too regular and only did it when he stopped feeding otherwise he would lose interest in his bottle

oh 1 other thing we had been feeding him bottles at room temperature ever since he was born and when down o/h mums 1 day she gave him a botlle warmed up and he wolfed it down been warming them up ever since and he loves it and drinks much more than he used to if its room temp he messes with it and takes much longer to feed
just thought might be something else you could try xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yes I think I'll definitely try that, thanks hun

 

[jennywren]

oh 1 other thing we had been feeding him bottles at room temperature ever since he was born and when down o/h mums 1 day she gave him a botlle warmed up and he wolfed it down been warming them up ever since and he loves it and drinks much more than he used to if its room temp he messes with it and takes much longer to feed
just thought might be something else you could try xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

yeah Oran is like this to, he drinks room temp ok but wolfs it down whenits rather warm! so I warm them all the time now!