AnonymousI’ve seen so many posts along these lines and prayed that it would never be an issue for us, but I guess we aren’t that lucky. Ben’s eating has been getting progressively worse for about the last week or so. First he would eat fine, but would try to stuff his fingers in his mouth during the feed or would turn his face away – down, toward my hip. Then he would only eat from one side.
On Saturday morning, he had a really really hard time eating. Only ate for about 5 minutes and then would scream if I tried to offer him more. I finally got more into him by hanging my breast over his mouth while he sat in his bouncy seat!
This happened again on Sunday for the 2nd feed of the day. The other feedings on Saturday and Sunday were okay.. not great, but he did eat some.
Now today… this morning he ate okay. He didn’t eat for as long as he used to, but I was thrilled that he seemed okay. But, at his second feed, all hell broke loose. He was obviously hungry, but when I would move to put him to the breast, he would arch and scream hysterically. He latched on for maybe a second and that was it – totally refused to eat at all.
I was in tears, and my 3 year old came in the room and said, “mommy, just give him some medicine.” She handed me the Mylicon, which I gave to him. I tried again to feed him.. no luck. He was refluxing a lot and swallowing really hard throughout all of this. But I finally got him to start sucking on my finger and I just moved him to the breast and switched out the finger for my nipple. He started to suck, but wimpered the whole time like he was in pain. Once my milk let down, however, he seemed fine. He still ate for much less time than normal, but I was so glad to get something into him at least!
I just can’t figure out what is going on. He did wake up on Sunday sounding very congested. His nose doesn’t seem stuffed up though. It’s more like it’s wet in the back of his throat.
Any ideas on what’s going on and what I can do?
He isn’t teething I don’t think – at least his gums aren’t red and he’s not drooling and when he bites on things, he does it at the back of his mouth.
Also, he started biting down on my nipple a couple of days ago too. I have OAL, but he started the clamping down well into the feed, so I know it’s not him trying to slow the flow at that point.
Any thoughts you have would help. I am freaking out here.
