3 month old's feeding problems

ballycart

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has or is going through something similar at the moment.
My 3 mth old boy is getting very difficult to feed. He is on Cow&Gate since he was 1 mth old. He is taking 4 feeds a day for the last 4 weeks or so. He would take a 6oz's at 7:30am, 7oz's at 11:30am, 6-7oz at 3:30pm and 6-7oz's roughly around 8pm. Some days he could want 2-3oz's at about 5:30pm to go off for a nap and he would just drink 5oz's then for bed bottle. He goes to bed at 9:15pm maybe a little earlier every night.
The problem is trying to get a bottle into him. It is getting so difficult to get him to drink it. When he wakes up starving he will only drink about 2oz and at least an hour later before he'll take anymore and then its only 2oz's. I'm fighting with every feed now for the last week and its getting worse. Today is the worst so far he has only taken 13oz's all day.
Any help or suggestions would be grately appreciated.

dollybird2

When he takes less bottle does he wake up at night hungry or does he look for more at some stage?

I found with my baby that she had days where she took very little bottle and it wouldn't affect her, even though I'd be so worried about it. Then other days she guzzle all day long. I think they hit spurts at different times.

I do remember at the 4 month stage she cut right down on her bottle feeds and stayed that way until I introduced solids. By 1 she was off bottles altogether, she refused to take them. l

My mother always says that a child will only take what they need or want and not to force food/bottle on them. I still used to worry though!

One shot on kill

Why can't you get the bottle down him is he falling asleep a crying or what's happening.

Moonbeam

is the food upsetting him?
my 3 month old takes 5 x 7oz bottles a day but often needs a break for about 20 minutes half way through a bottle.
My last baby was allergic to milk so was fine being nursed but she screamed through bottles and only took enough so that she was not starving,we discovered the issue fairly fast though.
Talk to your PHN about it,he maybe getting enough but it is nice to have your nerves calmed too.

ballycart

Dollybird2 - The amount he drinks in the day isn't affecting his sleep at night. He has just been unsettled one night where I had to give him pacifier may twice during the night. He is a very good sleeper.
This is going on the last two weeks some day are worse than others before this he swallowed his bottle.

One shot on kill - He gets upset and pushes the bottle out of his mouth and keeps pushing it out with his tongue. If I try again he does the same so I leave him in bouncer or on mat and play for a while and wait til he looks for it again and then its the same thing, then after a while he is just too tired to drink. He never did this up until two wks ago.

Moonbeam - It doesn't seem to be upsetting him because yesterday evening he took 5oz in one go no bother. He could go nearly 5 hours sometimes without looking for food at all and then only takes 1-2 oz's. He is a big baby and doing well he's not loosing weight or vommitting up any bottle maybe he just doesn't want that much but 20oz a day seems very little for a 15lb 3month old who loves his sleep more than his food.
I spoke to PHN she says some babies are like that, maybe he doesn't need that much food.

Suucee

My LO used to love her bottle until she got a bit colicky around 4 weeks, we tried everything and then discovered Dr browns and then she was great again until around 3 months.
We used to try so much to get the bottle in to her. She was and still is a great sleeper and from 4 weeks would go from 12-7 at night. For so long I was constantly counting the ounces and comparing against other babies either on here or friends and relatives babies. I spoke to my gp so many times about it but her weight was fine and she was doing fine developmentally. I actually used to dread feeding her. When it was time for a bottle she would drink maybe 2oz and push it away, I would let her have a little play and try again she might drink another 1 maybe 2 and then had no interest . Just before she would go for a nap I would try again sometimes with no joy.
I could spend an hr and a half trying to get 3 or 4 oz in to her only to start again 2 hours later. And at 3 months it was normally around 18-20oz a day sometimes less.
When we started spoon feeding I relaxed a little (not much) as I knew she was getting something in to her but then she still wasn't great with bottles and would sometimes refuse all together I tried to reduce her food then to get her to drink more but she would end up crying and still wouldn't take a bottle great.
When I introduced a sippy cup with water she would drink that no problem. She seemed to be drinking water fine. This kinda confused me so we even tried different formulas thinking she just didn't like the taste of it but still no joy. We also tried switching different bottles again.
Then one afternoon around 4.5 months she was totally refusing her bottle and when I handed her her cup she drank no problem so I decided to put her milk in the cup and hey presto she drank the milk. Still wasn't drinking as much as other babies I would hear about but she was a great eater and my gp was happy with what she was getting. At 5.5months I gave up the bottles all together and would make up her milk in her bottles and poor it in to her sippy cup through out the day for her to drink it.
As I mentioned she is a great eater and I had so many conversations with my gp and phn about how little milk she would drink. She is now 11 months. Has 12oz formula a day from her cup and some juice also. She is perfectly healthy and happy. Sleeps at least 2 hours during the day and 12-13 a night.
The best thing I ever done was stopped worrying so much (I know, easier said than done). Every baby is different and we all have a very bad habbit of comparing them to each other from how much there drinking, to how much they weigh to when they said their first word, took their first steps etc. Once phn is happy and baby is happy id be happy. I found when I was more relaxed me and baby were much happier. :-)
If he was hungry you would know about it.

ballycart

Thanks Suucee for the info.

I do feel a little better about it all, I just have to accept that this is him and he is happy with 20-22 oz's a day, even though he looks like he should have a lot more. He is teething quite bad too the last few days so maybe this is his way of dealing with that.
I did change his teat up this morning and it definately seems to have helped a bit. It wasn't such a struggle today. I didn't change it sooner because he was on a number 3 avent teat for the last 3 weeks. He is only 13weeks and on a fast teat now but he has no bother with it at all.
Fingers crossed is does get a little easier cause its so frustrating to see him like this, its like he doesn't enjoy his bottle at times and I hate dreading his feeds.
I am a worrier, my first little man was 9 weeks early and this whole second pregnancy was such worry that I couldn't carry him to term and constant check up's, Thank God he got to 39 weeks. Its so different this time. So I def need to relax a little.
Thanks to all for their replys