What would you do?

Two of our girls are SUPER hard to feed right now. They both used to be our easiest but now it's a chore to get them to eat. They are both getting around 5oz in each bottle, but as of the last week they won't eat more than a couple oz out of the gate, and then it takes a whole hour to get them to finish the rest. They are 6mos adjusted (approx), their weights have stabilized and are making little gain. They get very uhm...agitated after the initial ounces and I don't want to make a drama of getting them fed but I don't want them to go without either. We're still doing two 'solids' a day (an ounce at most)...so I don't think it's a too much solid thing...Emma had been on reflux meds but we weened her a few weeks ago and was fine...but now this. Abby was never on any meds and for the longest time would guzzle the bottle but now it's an Olympic event to get her to finish.

Ryan & Megan
GGG Born 8/9/10 28 weeks 5 days
Lily Ann 2lbs 12oz. 54 days in NICU
Emma Grace 2lbs 6oz. 55 days in NICU
Abigail Rose 2lbs 7oz. 55 days in NICU
http://thesmithfamilytriplets.blogspot.com/

Oh Mommy I am right there with you. We are 4 mths adjusted (7 mths actual). I called my Ped today and we played phone tag.

I don't think they are ready for solids, but we are going to try. My husband also wants to try moving off the 22 cal formula. They had just started drinking 5-6 oz really well and now they do just 1 or 2 ounces and seem full.

I hate to say it, but our schedule kind of flew out the window. We offer them all milk at the same time still, but it's more of an on demand thing. Sometimes it's after 2 hours sometimes 4.

I hope this stage passes quickly. Also looking forward to more replies. Maybe someone knows the magic trick.

Christina

Daughter born 1/4/09
BBB born 9/9/10 @ 27w 5d
Daughter born 8/14/12
http://schroeters.blogspot.com/

One of our has always been a hard feeder (milk) - we've struggled with her from the start. She's now one year (10 months adjusted) and we're still having "issues".

From the start, she was put on a higher calorie milk -- EBM with neosure fortified to a calorie count of 27 -- she's still on this formulation. Her weights have been good despite her fluctuation in intake. Up until the past 3 months or so, we would work with her, changing positions, patting her bum -- in order to encourage her to take as much milk as possible. Now, we still encourage her however, we have relaxed a bit on how much we try and push her. She often leaves over an ounce - lately 2-3 (but she has a sore throat). We try not to stress about it as long as she is keeping her weight up.

Now we use toys as distractions - she loves to bang a toy on her bottle while she's drinking. She also loves it when we read to her while feeding her milk.

Some other thoughts that I had...have you considered a sore throat or ear ache -- if they've had colds recently, this could be a factor that would affect their interest in sucking - might be too painful. Another thought, is the flow of nipple -- if you're not using a "fast" nipple, you may want to try that now.

hope that helps somewhat!
good luck

Janet
G - 12/07 35 weeks
GGG-04/10 30 weeks

I feel for you. Mine are 9 months old and all went through this phase-some more than once. It can be so frustrating, and feeding-especially for multiples and preemies-is one of the hardest problems to try and solve! You can try a few things, but the only thing that really worked for me was gritting my teeth and praying every day for the "phase" to pass soon! One thing I tried was a faster flow nipple. This helped a lot. Another thing I did was set a time limit and minimum number of oz. for them to feed. For example, after 20-30 minutes, I gave up. I found after that much time, the additional amount they ate was minimal, and my temper was maximum. I also figured out a number of oz. that I felt okay stopping at if they were difficult. For example, if I offered 5-6 and they took at least 3-4, I had to see that as good enough. Really, anything is better than nothing. I actually caused more problems when I tried too hard to "coax" my most difficult feeder to eat more-she started squirming and crying the minute she saw the bottle. I had to learn to let it go...but believe me it was HARD! As long as they are relatively healthy weights-they will be fine. It drove me crazy when people told me this-but I found out it is true-"they'll eat what they want when they want"! Hang in there-this too shall pass!
Trish

BBG triplets
Born 6/20/10
32 weeks 5 days

We are going thru the SAME THING. Seems like our babies are still growing together. We do 7am bottle, 8am cereal, 11am bottle, 12pm fruit/veggie, then 3pm bottle, 7pm bottle. I notice after the solids the babies don't want their bottles nearly as much, especially the 3pm. I would fight them, make them finish, and then they would puke it back up on me. Now I do what a previous poster said. I give them a 30 minute time limit and then they are done. When they start fighting me I give them some breaks and then try again but after the time limit I stop. They seem to be just as happy and are sleeping just as well. I am happier too because I don't get puked on every day!


Melissa
GBB

We were also in the same boat not to long ago. I have 2 guys that just did not want to eat. I tried all the suggestions many of the other moms did. Nothing really worked until they got hungry. I think I was stressing so much they would end up not eating just because they were reacting to my stress level. Then one day one of the two just started to cry for the bottle and now is eating fine. The other guy is smaller and just can not eat as much as my other guys. The solids are probably not the issue either we tried cutting solids to see if they drank more and it did not work.

If they are on formula your pediatrician may want to fortify. We had a rough 1st year and our boys went through many cycles so don't panic.

Good Luck
Nikki
BBB 4/5/10

So funny Melissa...I could have written this post a few weeks ago! How old are your babies? My pediatrician finally gave us the all clear to drop the 3pm bottle...things have been SO much better since. Just curious if that is an option for you? Good luck!
Trish

BBG triplets
Born 6/20/10
32 weeks 5 days

What does your pediatrician say? I didn't talk to mine specifically about feeding, but she did mention offhand that between 6-9 months she sees a lot of babies not gain much or even lose weight. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Adele isn't eating very well right now, either. It sounds like a lot of our kids are going through this at this age. Do you think it signals a change in their schedule coming up? Or possibly teething?

I don't have any advice, I'm just interested in reading what everyone else says.

Joey

http://berubebabies.blogspot.com/

My babies are almost 9 months actual, 6.5 months corrected. They weight between 14.5 - 18 lbs but all show the same behavior. I will ask my pedi about this at our next appointment because soon we are going to add a third solid in the evenings so they will be wanting bottles even less!

I am also going to see if we can stop the NeoSure. My one son is 18 lbs, he is on the growth chart for a full term baby!

Ok this comment was amazing! "after that much time, the additional amount they ate was minimal, and my temper was maximum."

Love it.

I did talk to our Pedi the other day and they weren't very helpful. They said not to change formula because formula tastes bad and if that's it changing won't help. She thinks it just a distractable phase, but said to put a little rice in their last bottle of the day to see it if helps them sleep longer. They wake 1-3 times a night depending.

One of guys, Micah, is CRANKY at night too. I think he might be having teething pain or gas if he's the one to wake up because he is ticked when I get him out of bed. Then he cries and fusses for about 5 minutes before I can get him to eat. If someone else wakes up first and I can feed them quietly without waking Micah I'm not even going to feed him at night. He's just so mad. Only time he gets ticked. Must be like me, I like my sleep.

Good luck to everyone. If you find something that works let us know. I want to try another formula too, just can't decide what to try.

Christina

Daughter born 1/4/09
BBB born 9/9/10 @ 27w 5d
Daughter born 8/14/12
http://schroeters.blogspot.com/

First of all how long after feeding solids do you give formula?

We went through a bit of what you are going through.

Mine were eating 7 oz 4 or 5 times a day when we started solids. We started with cereal in the morning and then added fruit. When they were eating a good amount, we added dinner. After doing well at that meal we added lunch.

When mine started solids they went from 7 oz feedings to 5 oz feedings. My Ped actually said if they are eating 3 meals he likes them to be down to 16-18 oz of formula per day.

I always tried to wait 1-1 1/2 hours after feeding solids to offer a bottle.

this is our schedule and we have been on it since 7 months actual

7 am bottle
8 am solids
11 am bottle
nap
1230 solids
2 pm bottle
nap
430 solids
6 or 630 bottle
7 pm bed

We had at least one of ours waking for a feed and the ped said they didn't need it. I have for a month or so just let them talk or cry a bit and 9 out of 10 times they are back to sleep in 3 or 4 minutes.

Ours also stopped gaining weight as rapid but I guess that is pretty normal.

Good Luck
Lisa/bbg