Cant get baby to drink

Suucee

Hi all.
Any suggestions on how to get my 4 and half month old to drink. She has always been difficult with bottles as had wind problems in the begining but was fine once that settled down. Now spoon feeding she absolutely loves her grub but is drinking less and less. We even tried changing her milk, the types of bottles the bottle teats nothing working. She cut her first tooth friday so im thinking the sucking is maybe irritating or hurting. Tried giving water and juice in a beaker but couldnt get the knack of it so even tried putting it in a bottle as was afraid she would get dehydrated. I always give her bottle before food so she is hungry but its such a struggle, she gives out, pushes it out of her mouth, pushes it away with her hands. She only drank 11oz today and 1oz of juice. was such a struggle. Heres an idea of her routine. any hints or tips would be great.

7.45 5oz (battle to get her to drink it, took 45mins)
8.30 breakfast (7 teaspoons of cereal and 14 teaspoons milk)
9.30 Nap
10.30 wake
11.00 Hungry, refuses bottle, continues to give out until i give a little custard yogurt.
12.00 Still refusing bottle but eats full fruit pot. And Drinks 1oz juice
12.15 Nap
1.45 Wake
2.00 3oz bottle (takes 1 hour to drink it, pushing it away, giving out alot)
3.00 Dinner 6 ice cubes
3.45 Nap
4.45 wake
6.15 Bath
6.30 Bottle, Dad spends half hour trying to feed her, such a battle.
7.00 Rusk mixed with 1oz milk
7.15 bed

Just to let you know she has no problems eating any of her meals. Sits in to her high chair and starts to smile, takes her only 5-10 minutes to eat her food. She is a very happy baby, doesnt cry much and isnt having much problem with teeth, only needed teetha once today. Sleeps through the night fine. But when it comes to bottle time she squirms and wiggles and cries and gives out, i feel so sorry for her when trying to get her to drink it. We have nick named it the bottle battle. I know she is eating alot but the only reason we incresed this was because we couldnt get her to drink. I always try give her bottle before giving solids. I just dont know what to do if i give her less food she is cranky but still refuses bottle.

Ms2011

Suucee I'm by no means an expert but that seems like an awful lot of soild food for a 4 & month old. J is 5 months & he is only taking 2 soild feeds a day but 35oz of formula. If he's having cereal he would have 2-3 teaspoons with some fruit puree, if he had 7 he would have no interest in his bottle.

Could you try spoon feeding some of her bottle to her on a soup spoon or similar as she seems to have a good association with spoon feeding & cut down the solid spoon feed??

Hannibal Smith

What size teat are you using?

pwurple

4 months is a bit young for juice I thought? What is in the 6 ice cubes that she eats? Is that ice, or frozen food?


Teat size might need to be increased or decreased as hannibel suggests above, or try different bottle type.

Does the temperature of the milk make any difference to her?

theLuggage

Ms2011 wrote: »

Could you try spoon feeding some of her bottle to her on a soup spoon or similar as she seems to have a good association with spoon feeding & cut down the solid spoon feed??

We had to spoon feed our daughter water for a while - she dropped bottles pretty quickly when we started solids. Spoon feeding worked a treat as she loved the spoon! We eventually transitioned back to a beaker. She was a good bit older, over 7 months at least. It was painfully slow but as ms2011 says the good association with the spoon made it work.

Suucee

Im at my wits end this morning. An hour and 15 mins to get her to drink 5oz, we both ended up in tears and her daddy had to console the 2 of us. But then when she sat into her chair to have breakfast all happy and smiley.

Ms2011 i agree that she is probably having alot of solids but what can i do, she is hungry but just wont drink the bottle. If i dont give her the solids she cries cause she is hungry. I am going to try spoon feed her the milk at her next bottle.

Hannibal she was on medium flow teats since she was 4 weeks old, we changed to fast flow about 2 weeks ago and this morning i tried medium flow again. It doesnt seem to matter which i use. She drinks juice fine no matter which bottle or teat i use.

Pwurple the juice is for 4 months plus. i only started giving that as was afraid she would get dehydrated as she will not drink water either. I only give her a small amount on days when she is not drinking enough.The ice cubes are frozen pureed veg. I have tried 4 types of bottles and 3 teats sizes. She was on Dr browns but when she got over colic we switched back to tommee tippee have tried putting her back on dr browns and makes no difference. She used to drink the bottles cold but started to heat hoping this would help, helps a bit but i still feel she is not drinking enough.

I will try spoon feeding her the milk at her next bottle and hope it works. Its like she just doesnt like the taste of it. She is on SMA but we did try aptimal and cow and gate. Made no difference. I dont know what to do. I have a month left on maternity leave. We will not have the time to spend an hour feeding her in the mornings before work and i seriously doubt her aunty is going to have the time to
do it either having 2 kids of her own. (her aunty is minding her when i return to work).
She has always had problems with her bottle. Was fine for the first 4 weeks then was colic.. I used to spend 2 hours just trying to get 3 oz into her. The she would look for more 2 hours later and it would all start again. When we started spoon feeding we tried her on baby rice first but she wouldnt take to it. When we tried different cerals etc she loved it.

elaney

You poor thing Sucee my friend has the same problem. The Phn told her Always try to give
the milk first and solids second about an hour later. You probably have tried this. If this doesnt work you will prob have to give her an extra course of something made of milk maybe yoghurt, rice pudding or cereal. Afterwards try giving her some cooled boiled water for the hydration.

Another suggestion the phn had for my friend was maybe her little one
had an intolerance to formula he was tested and ok . He still wont drink his formula but getting it as much as possible through his food.

pwurple

That's tough alright. When mine went off the bottle a bit with teeth, I tried to give mostly food with a lot of water content. Cucumber, grapes, milky porridge and yoghurt.

Ask your PHN about signs of dehydration maybe. But I'd guess she is nowhere near it if she is eating normally.

She probably can't hold a sippy cup yet.

paddyzk

beat it

Suucee

Today was much better. Wel except for this mornin.

7.45. 5oz bottle, took 1hr 15mins
9.00 breckfas
9.30 nap
10.45 wake
11.30. 3oz bottl
12.30. Lunch
12.45. Nap
1.45 wake
2.30. 5oz bottle took approx 25mins
3.30 dinner
3.45 nap
4.45 wake
5.30. 5oz bottle took 15 mins.
6.30 rusk.
Bath
6.45 2oz bottle
7.00 bed

She was strugglin a bit at the 2.30 bottle so gave her a breather to calm her and me. Left d bottle in d hot water for 2 long and it got fairly warm. She was then started givin out while i was tryin 2 cool it. Tried her with it and she drank it much better. I was shocked, it was fairly warm. So i made it warmer for her next bottle and she drank it so much better.
I hope this continues 2 work. I have been heating them for a while but never normally let them get this hot. Fingers crossed this wasnt a once off. Also i tried spoon feeding her d milk at 11.30 when strugglin. Took 3 spoons then started spitting it out.

Hannibal Smith

Delighted something worked suucee, 1.25 mins must be an absolute nightmare!