Sleep feeding and poor weight gain Qs

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I posted a couple of mths back expressing frustration over Emily’s feeding struggles and I’m sad to say that things have not improved. She is currently on Prevacid (15mg – likely too low, asking for increase to 30mg) and Domperidone (20ml/day), but she is still extremely fussy during feedings. She is 7mths old and only weighs 14.5 lbs and has not gained weight in the past mth. Per our nutritionist’s advice, we are concentrating her soy formula (1.5 scoops/2 oz), but I have removed the rice cereal.

She will rarely take the bottle without a fight when awake, even if it has been 4 to 5 hrs since her last feeding. Most of the time, I have to wait for her to get sleepy before I can get her to finish 4oz to 5oz. The morning feedings are toughest even though she should be hungry then.

I know that sleep feeding is a bad habit to get into, but it seems that that is the only way for her to take her bottle. Even through sleep feeding, she only consumes about 16oz to 20oz. On some days, it’s only 12oz. Sometimes, it can take up to 1 hr to feed her 4oz. Sleep feeding has also become a hit and miss. Some days, she will completely fall asleep and refuse no more than 3oz. Sometimes, she won’t nap and I won’t be able to feed her. The sad thing is that I’m at a point where I’m willing to accept that sleep feeding may be the only way to feed her. I’m just so concerned about her poor or lack of weight gain that I’ll do the sleep feeding if it means that it will help her to gain weight.

Can you share some success stories or advice on the following:

– How did you avoid sleep feeding?

– How did you get your baby to finish the bottle without taking a whole hour to do so?

– If you slept fed your baby for an extended period of time, how did you wean your babies to awake feedings?

– Are there any other distraction methods you use to get your babies to eat and eventually gain weight?

– Seeing how Emily is so fussy with the bottle, should I try to emphasize solids more and not worry so much about formula intake? My family always suggest that I fill her up with solids instead, but I’m fraid that she will not get the nutrition required from solids. BTW – her solids intake is very very poor as well.

It is so frustrating when something so basic has become such a struggle.

Thanks for listening!

Sarah

[Anonymous]

I can’t answer all of your questions, but my son gave up the bottle
completely (except his one bedtime bottle) at 7 months of age. I don’t
know exactly why but I suspect it has something to do with the months
he was not treated properly for his reflux and he never formed an
attachement to his bottle. Anyway, I have been spoon feeding him since
then. It’s not as hard as it sounds. I thought it would be impossible,
but it’s worked quite well. I mix his breast milk or formula with just
a little cereal (usually 5 ounces milk with 1/4 cup of cereal) to give
it a little thickness, but it’s still mostly liquid. He has always
accepted spoon feedings even when he flatly refused a bottle.

Myles almost became a sleep feeder. He would only take a bottle when
sleepy until we got him on the right dose of Prevacid at around 5
months. Then he took his bottles fine while awake, but he never really
loved his bottle and just stopped wanting them at 7 months. I’m not
saying this will happen to your baby; all babies are different, but I
do think you need to push as hard as you can for a higher dose of
Prevacid. Have you shown the marci-kids info to her doctor? That did
help to sway Myles’ doctor.

You’re so right; it shouldn’t be this way. A baby should enjoy eating.
It should not be a struggle. I know how hard it is and I hope it gets
better soon. Good luck.

[hellbennt]

sorry if you’d said this elsewhere, but why soy?

about 50% of babies who cannot tolerate milk proteins have the same difficulties with soy proteins…

it might be time for alimentum or nutrimigen?

i hope someone else will chime in here…

[Anonymous]

Laura,

Emily had been on dairy formula for about 2 mths. I wanted to try soy to see if there is an improvement before moving onto Alimentum. She is extremely fussy with different tastes, so I’m also afraid that she won’t accept the Alimentum.

She has been on soy for 1 wk and I would like to continue for another week to see if there is any improvement. Since introducing soy, she appears to be less gassy, but this could also be because her system is used to the Prevacid now (she has been on Prevacid for about 3 wks now). However, she is constipated now, likely due to concentration.

Sarah

[Anonymous]

Well, I have faxed the ped demanding he authorize an increase in the Prevacid dosage. I would like to try 24mg/day per the dosage chart reommendations.

However, I wonder if the Prevacid (15mg/day) is doing anything for Emily at all. She still refuses the first bottle that I give after the Prevacid. Shouldn’t she be willing to drink the first bottle? I wait at least 30min to 1 hr before giving the bottle. Granted though, she doesn’t often finish 6oz as required.

Do you think Prevacid is not working for her at all?

BTW – the last 2 days, almost all bottles have been slept-fed. She refused every single bottle while awake. This is bad!!! At first, I wondered whether it was teething because she is cutting her first 2 teeth, but when I give her water, she will take that. If she is experiencing teething pain, won’t she refuse all bottles regardless of whether it is filled with water or formula?

This is all so confusing. Never have I felt so lost and frustrated.

[Anonymous]

When Myles was on a too low dose of Prevacid he would not eat either.
Even the bottle right after his dose. It just wasn’t enough and it did
not help. As soon as he was on the high dose that marci-kids recommends
he started eating. (Within 3 days he was eating a little better and by
about the 1oth day he was greatly improved).

Maybe the water is more soothing for her reflux discomfort? I would think if it was teething she’d refuse all bottles, but I don’t know for sure.

Good luck with your fax and request. I sure hope the doctor writes her a script for the higher dose.

[Anonymous]

I hope the doc. increases the dose. I had to take things into my own hands and up the dose myself to see if it helped her, because dd developed feeding aversions. We started feeding therapy when she was 3 months old. Her ped. referred us to a speech pathologist and an OT for an evaluation. The techniques they used really helped her and we used them at home as well. If you do a search you can find some valuable information that other mom’s have shared from their feeding therapy experiences too. Good luck!

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