Lauren,
Does he still have bad breath? How’s his sleep? Maybe he needs more time for the Prevacid to start working. (You just started him back on it, right?).
I’ll tell you about Myles and the bottle.
Myles was pain free on Prevacid and eating well from 5 months of age until 7 months. He never loved his bottle and it was never a source of comfort to him. He ate what he needed and that was that. At 7 months he began to refuse the bottle again. I was worried that he had outgrown his Prevacid dose, but according to marci-kids his dose was still fine for his age and weight. And he showed no signs of being in pain. He was sleeping well and was not irritable. He just did not want a bottle. He’d scarf down huge bowls of oatmeal and he would let me spoon feed him his breast milk, but he would not take a bottle anymore. I still don’t know why, but my theory is that due to being in pain until 5 months of age he developed a mild feeding aversion and he just never learned to associate the bottle with comfort. Eventually he just tired of it and preferred to be spoon fed.
So, anyway from the time he was 7 months old I have spoon fed him everything except his bedtime bottle. It just wasn’t worth the battle and fighting with him to take a bottle was getting us both nowhere. (He does still take that one bedtime bottle and always has). For breakfast I’d make him very thin oatmeal so that there’d be lots of breast milk (5 ounces back then, now 7 ounces). For his other meals I’d spoon feed him the breast milk or formula and add some of it to baby foods and feed him that. (At 7 mos. I was giving him oatmeal with lots of milk twice per day). It was tricky because he didn’t learn to take anything from a cup until he was close to a year old, so I had to add fluids to everything he ate, but it worked and he has steadily gained weight and has always been very healthy. He now self feeds some finger foods and I still feed him oatmeal with lots of milk in the am, and purees for lunch and dinner. But he drinks from a cup now so I don’t have to add milk to everything anymore.
So, anyway I think I’d make sure he’s pain free above all else. Also, I’d probably have his ears checked just to make sure that’s not what’s bothering him.
Most babies don’t give up the bottle at 7 months of age, but my little guy did and he’s no worse for the wear!
I hope that helps some.
