7 month old refusing bottles

[izemmom]

For the last week or so, Emily has been refusing bottles. She used to take 4-5 eight ounce bottles in a day, no problem, but now we are fighting to get 4 ounces in three or four times a day. She will take her solids a bit better, but even that is not like it was last week.

She may be teething, although I can't see or feel a tooth yet. (I know that the symptoms of teething appear long before a tooth does.) She's been very active, rolling aroung the house and very happy, unless we're trying to make her eat.

She just seems to have very little appetite. Out nutritionist at the cf clinic suggested cutting out the solids to let Emily know that if she's going to get somethig to eat it has to be the bottle. But, it doesn't seem to work, she still doesn't want the bottle, and without the solids she gets cranky as all get out!

We've tried changing the temp of the bottle, putting the formula in a sippy cup, getting her to hold the bottle...everything we can think of! Nothing works consistently.

Is this just a stage? Any tricks to get more formula in her? HELP!!!

 

[candiebar76]

She could be getting sick of the formula. Is your daughter on special formula for CF? I don't know what routine is for babies as my son is 6 and they are just now looking into CF, however, he had to do nutritional supplements as a baby due to Failure to thrive. My yongest child had the formula problem, even though she does not have CF. What worked for us is Rice Dream. They sell it at most stores and Walmart (make sure you get Organic it has more nutrients.) We made the bottles half formula half Rice Dream (vanilla flavor) then let her have just the Rice Dream for about 2 weeks then added formula back in and then back to just formula. It worked great. Even now that she is drinking whole milk we switch them out when she seems to be getting tired of milk.

Candace

 

[anonymous]

When DS had similar problems it was one of three things -- ear infection, constipation or just to drive me insane <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">

Around 6 months we'd started introducing foods to him. Fruits and veggies, stage 2 meats, so I felt a little better. I think a few times we increased the powder to water ratio with his formula, using a recipe from the dietician. Liza

 

[anonymous]

I have been there. Except my daughter (diagnosed with cf at one months old) was three months old when she refused to eat and vomited a few times daily as well. We were so desperate to get her to take the bottle. She was taking about 10-12 ounces a day and not on solids yet. She ended up on a feeding tube and diagnosed at 7 months old with a milk allergy. The milk allergy is why she stopped eating and vomited a bunch. After we switched her to another formula, she started taking bottles again. BUT we have paid the price for forcing bottles and taking control of her eating. My daughter is almost five and still does not like to feed herself. When my second child was born he was also diagnosed with cf. I focused on feeding like I would a child without cf. If he didn't eat - fine, he would just eat later in the day. At three, he has always had a pretty good appetite and feeds himself. This is an enormous blessing after the struggles with my daughter.

I doubt your daughter has a milk allergy since it just started last week. I would recommend you to not highly encourage her to drink or to come up with all different ways to get her to eat. Keep up with offering bottles and food as you normally would. It is probably not a good idea to introduce sippy cups now. Don't let her sense any frustration on your part. She is just starting to get at an age where she wants to experiment with some solid foods (fruit pieces, cheerios, etc). It is important that she learns that she is control, otherwise you could face more feeding issues later on. I think the best advice I could offer you is to feed her like you did your other daughter, just offer more high calorie foods. A good book to read is "Child of Mine" by Ellyn Satter. You can buy it on line at Amazon.

The nutritionists at my children's clinic really had some silly advice looking back. I think it should be a requirement for them to have children before they tell us how to feed our babies and children. If it doesn't make a lot of sense and doesn't work for your child, ignore their advice. I wish I had, but as a new mom I thought they knew everything. They didn't. A few of things I was told was to stop breastfeeding, limit fruits and veggies, instead feed my kids cheetos and candy. Silly.

I think it is probably just a phase your daughter is going through. But my son would refuse to eat when he was baby when he had thrush in the mouth. So that is an idea to check for.
Sharon, mom of Sophia, almost 5 and Jack, almost 3 both with cf

 

[julie]

Yikes, your nutritionnist at the CF clinic suggested cutting out the solids to kind of "teach" emily a lesson. I'm sorry, I know a 7 month old baby can understand a lot more than we give them credit for but I don't think this is the time, or the lesson in which to teach her, "who is boss". I'm in no way suggesting you are thinking that, I am just shocked that the CF nutritionist would suggest that....

Is it the bottle itself she is refusing or is it just when it has forumla in it (maybe try to give her a bottle with juice or with water and see how she does). If she's a very observant baby and has older siblings that are eating solids, that could be another reason for the bottle refusal.

I would stick to what she is most happy at eating, which seems to be solids right now. So maybe mix in some powder forumla with the baby food/yogurt.... and see if she will just stick to the solids that way.

Best of luck Tami

 

[anonymous]

I would get so nervous because when DS was in the NICU, because nurse ratchet would make a comment about how DS was slow, that they should get a therapist up to work with him/feed him because he had a poor suck reflux... I knew it wasn't the case because prior to finding out he had CF -- he didn't have any problems with the bottle. Ate very well. Nurse and the dietician would whisper about us in the corner while we frantically tried to get ds to eat. Gotta get so many ounces down him within x number of minutes. Stress, stresss stress.

Well, first of all -- he hated pregistimil and secondly, he picked up 3!! infections in the NICU which required iv antibiotics. Every time we'd turn the corner, he'd get sick and start throwing up -- they referred to it as spit up, but it was full blown projectile vomiting.

When we finally got home, the dietician at the local hospital kept telling us how much volume-wise ds should be drinking. He wasn't anywhere close to that amount, so I'd panic again. I'd sleep feed the poor kid in the middle of the night, frantic that he wasn't getting enough to eat. Looking at videos and pictures -- the kid has ROLLS of fat on his legs. He was in the 50-75th percentile, but the dietician just kept railing on me. And the gastro doctor was the other extreme -- he'll eat when he's hungry -- not the case with our child. He had no interest in eating, just wasn't his thing.

You gotta go with your instincts. Could be teething. Some babies go thru a bottle aversion -- associate eating with pain -- possibly from an ear infection, teething, stomach bug. Good luck. Liza aka ratatosk

 

[JRPandTJP]

It sounds like teething and developmental burst combined. I know other moms who have reported both refusal of nursing and/or bottles when teething or when they are doing new motor skills. I know wiht nursing you are suppose to offer breast first before solids at each meal because at this age they still need most calories from milk. But denying food to teach a lesson...I don't think that is appropriate every and especially an infant.

Her gums may hurt enough that this isn't comfortable. Try massaging her gums first before her bottle and/or a cool clean cloth to chew. Then offer it and see if she will suck a little longer. Then massage and offer it again...it may take longer but she may get through the whole thing. A dark quiet spot in the house may also help her focus a bit if she seems distracted. I use to have to take my kids to a quiet spot at around this age and again around 1 to get them to nurse or take a bottle at all.

I know my daughter did stuff like this too but since she didn't have CF I didn't freak out (she was in the 90% for weight so I'd joke that she could live off her thighs for days;-) It was much harder to let Ben go through those normal baby eating distrubances because of how much pressure we feel we are under with the weight thing. Try not to freak out too much and trust that she will come back to it as things even out or her tooth breaks through. If she is loosing weight or truly not eating then you would investigate it further but it doesn't sound like that's what you are descibing. If she is more interested in spoon feeding you can try spoon feeding her formula and/or adding more formula to her food temporarily until she goes back to bottle or transitions to sippy.

Hope this helps...

Jody