Not hungry or trying to feed too often

[Anonymous]

Hi ladies,

My son is having some really bad bottle aversion. He is strictly formula

fed and is on Alimentum and rice cereal. He has MSPI and silent reflux. He

has never really told me that he’s hungry except for the in the middle of

the night when he’ll down 5oz laying down in his crib. I would never feed

him that way typically but he guzzles it down and for a baby with eating

aversions, I’ll take it.

I find that when I try to feed him 4 hrs later when he gets up in the

morning that he doesn’t want to eat. He fights the bottle for at least a half

hour before he’ll eat just an ounce or two. That goes on for the next

feeding as well typically. He eats great in his sleep but I can’t always get

him the food when he’s out.

I’ve never really given him a chance to tell me that he’s hungry because

the doctor said to feed him every 3-4 hours. Do you think it’s possible

that maybe he’d like to eat every 5 hours and I’m just pushing food down

him too often??

The second he sees the bottle he starts screaming…unless he’s asleep.

Any thoughts?

We have an appt. with Georgetown Hospital’s GI doctors next week.

He’s on 15mg Prevacid and 1.5mg AXID with Alimentum and 12tsp rice

cereal/5oz bottle…it’s the only way he’ll drink it.

Janet

[Anonymous]

My son was the same way until he was on a higher dose of Prevacid. He needed the high dose that researchers at http://www.marci-kids.com recommend. Before that every feeding was a battle unless he was sleeping or about to fall asleep. I tried waiting 5 hours and still he would not eat unless he was tired enough to fall asleep while eating. You can try waiting five hours, but my guess is he needs a higher dose of Prevacid.

[Anonymous]

Christine,

Ya know everyone on this site says that once you have the right dosage of

meds and formula combo that everything falls into place. It seems that

the larger dose of Prevacid works for my son for a week or two and then

his weight increases enough that he has breakthrough pain. I really hope

that our appt. next week at Gtown will help. Thanks for your response!!

I’m glad your little ones have grown out of this.

Janet

[Anonymous]

scubawoman,
youre son hasnt been on the marci kids recommended prevacid dose yet, correct? that is probably why he is not feeling relieved. 15 mg of prevacid doesnt seem like it would do much in my opinion. you may have raised his dose before but until you get to the marci kids recommendations there is a good chance he wont be relieved.
also, if he is MSPI he may still require something comepletely milk free like neocate. my son was on the marci kids dose and still having pain, and when i switched to neocate along with the marci kids dose, he became 100% better.

[Anonymous]

also, make sure you space the axid 4 hours apart from the PPI otherwise it intereferes with it.

[Anonymous]

Janet, I don’t know if this makes you feel better or not, but I know how you feel. Hailey had a terrible bottle aversion and we found the same thing. She had no damage and her meds were working, but we still had a feeding aversion. I hope that your new appointment helps to turn things around for you. Some babies have been able to turn things around this way. I hope your son is one of them.

Also, I don’t mean to offend anyone with this, but I feel that this needs to be said- a feeding aversion is not always preventable just by going with the marci-kids dosing for PPIs. There are some kids who will develop feeding aversions even though their acid is being controlled, and there are other kids who will have esophagitis and not develop feeding problems. It really depends on the child.

[Anonymous]

Goodluck at your appointment Janet. I hope they have some ideas for you and your little one.

[hellbennt]

lori:

you don’t offend by providing helpful information! we need to hear from everyone to get a better understanding of all angles (can’t think of better word this a.m.) involved

[Anonymous]

My eldest Alexis had horrible bottle aversion as well, even though she was on the right amount of medications, the only way I could feed her was sleep feeds as well. In the daytime awake she would do the same pushing the bottle away, and never hungry as well. I too thought I never gave her a chance to be hungry so one day I let her tell me, but she never did. We ended up putting on a schedule like you do every 3-4 hours. We ended up sleep feeding her until she was 9 months old, I know you are not suppose to do this, but this was our only option for her. She would take 6-7oz bottles at night every 4 hours or so and in the daytime with a lot of fighting 3 oz. Hopefully you can get some help from you appt. I know Lori has had a lot of luck sleep feeding Hailey, now she is having issues trying to wean her from the sleep feeds. With Alexis the sleep feeds help to put weight on her and we fortunately did not have problems with weaning. Good Luck! Alexis’s mom2007-1-19 12:15:17

[Anonymous]

Thank you for ALL of the great feedback. I talked with an Occupational

Therapist today and she said that my son has a short pallette and that the

nipple I’m using is long and it might be aiding in his gag reflex. She

suggested that we either switch to a new nipple or offer him the nipple

until he sucks it in ON HIS OWN. Right now we’ve been putting the bottle

in his mouth and holding it there till he sucks. She said that he’s scared

because he doesn’t have a choice that way. Her suggestion was to offer

the nipple half way into his mouth so he can feel it. From there he can

choose to take it into his mouth by sucking. She also said to take a nipple

and offer it to him as a pacifer without a bottle attached. This is to get

him used to sucking on this shaped nipple and hopefully more

comfortable with it.

Also since he’s having oral aversions that we need to get our fingers in

his mouth and get him comfortable with things in his mouth again. She

said to try it with the pacifier, nipple, and fingers.

She also said that the more my son is on his tummy the more his

esophagus stretches and therefore develops. He hates tummy time but

I’m willing to try anything at this point.

For now we’re going to stick with sleepfeeding as nothing else is really

working when he’s awake.

Thanks for ALL of your feedback.

Janet

[Anonymous]

Hi Janet, its great that you have some explanation and a plan. I hope these things make a difference for Dylan really soon. And, with the sleep feeding, you need to do what you need to do (thats the main thing I have learnt being a 1st time mum). Go with what you feel is best. Goodluck and I hope to hear soon that things are heading in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

Hi Janet,

Glad to hear that your OT gave you a plan. I’m not sure if you had a one-shot consultation of if you’re seeing her again, but I would suggest to plan for some follow up visits to make sure that things are on track, and if not, to allow for more problem solving.

As for the sleep-feeding, I believe you do what you have to do. But it’s definitely a personal choice and also a choice that you need to make in consultation with your child’s doctor. Our ped thought that it was fine, but I know that Thais’ GI in Spain was against it. As Sue mentioned, she didn’t have any problems with Alexis weaning, but we’ve had terrible problems weaning Hailey and getting her to eat normally. Sleep feeding was the only way that we could get the calories into her that she needed to grow without getting a tube, but it still wasn’t easy- she fought even when she was asleep and it was a long drawn out process. Only now at 20 months, does she finally open her mouth willingly and ask for her bottle, but it has to be in a sleep situation, even though she’s awake (like before she goes to bed, if she wakes at night, etc). Sleep feeding made her unbelievable rigid about bottle feeding. I think that as a short term solution you do what you have to, but I’d try to make sure that you’re also offering the bottle during the day when he’s awake. Honestly, if I could go back in time and do things differently, I don’t think I would have made the same choices in the long term. But hopefully the help that your OT gave you, along with the meds he’s on, or a higher dose if you go that route, will be enough to fix things. Good luck. Hang in there. If things persist, I would consider asking for additional testing just to make sure that there’s no damage.

s&h’s mum2007-1-20 15:38:47

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