Hi,

My baby had problems with her feeding since birth.I pumped my milk and gave it to her for around 4 months and after that I had some health problems .I was supplementing with Enfamil formula too.Started solids with her when she was 4 months old .
Suddenly she stopped to take formula from the bottle(which she was doing fine since birth) and started to lick the bottle nipple .I had to forcefully squeeze the milk from the bottle then and this has been going on till today.She won't use the sippy cup either.Also she has been spitting almost 70% of her food be it solids or fluids during her feeding and the doctor asked me to give her PREVACID tablet to help with the reflux.I have swithed to almost all the formulas.Because I am squeezing the milk from the bottle and forcefeeding her though she spits her weight gain is decent.But I feel very tensed and frustated while feeding her because its going to end up in vomitting all the times.
Can anyone faced this kinda problem.Will there be any baby in the world who doesn't know how to suck from a bottle.

Please help me,
Worried Mom gaya3 replied. There are lots of babies who do not know how to suck frm a bottle. It may be that yr baby doesnt have good latch. So its perfectly normal. Sounds like yr baby has reflux. It takes Prevacid atleast 1-3 months to act well. And believe me it does wonders. Also kids with reflux dont have an appetite. They think all foods(solids & liquids) hurt their little tummies. Dont worry get help by seeing a team of occupational therapits and speech language pathologists. Meet up regularly with yr childs GI doctor. aparna replied. My son who is 7months old doesnt take bottle...so I first started sippy cup
with water...later I used formula in that ....remove the white plastic thing in the sippy cup that makes them easy to drink....
It took like 1month to introduce sippy cup and formula...so it takes time...Dont rush .... Kumuda replied. My son is also 9 months and same problem
except spitting up. He has been using bottle from the day he was born and lately it has been a nightmare to feed him. the dr. asked me to changed bottles, nipples, formula... nothing seems to have helped so far. your kid
definitely knows how to suck since he has sucked efficiently before. i asked the same question to my doctor and she said that kids cannot develop sucking problems unless the kid has been hospitalised with feeding tubes etc...
the dr says that kids prefer whole milk
to formula but says that i have to wait till one year to do that - until then keep trying was her message. My son has come down to 5th percentile now. btw, one of the problems could be that she is teething. my son has been teething. in may son's case the dr. feels that it is not a problem associated with teething since he has been demonstrating this for the past three months.

you mentioned that you are force feeding using the bottle. how do you do that? do you have a bottle that you can squeeze? please let me know - that would be useful for me. i tried forcefeeding using a syringe. I found that i had to be careful about this because he was probably swallowing a lot of air and so he would spit up. i solved this problem by making him sit up and burp several times during the forcefeeding. try this and it should be better.

one of the replies mentioned that forcefeeding is bad and i agree with this but at times there is no other choice when u think that the kid may be getting dehydrated.

one more tidbit - kids with ear infection will not drink well....

do let me know about how u forcefeed using the bottle

thanks

kumuda
Sandhya replied. Hi

My son is a year old and he was a regular spitter.This was inspite of the fact that I seldom gave him formula,at least till the time I breastfed him(for 10 months).

At this point,I think you should continue giving the prescribed tablets and try introducing the sippy almost daily(it doesn't take time for them to get used to it).

Last but not the least,please don't forcefeed.I found after talking to many friends and relatives that we were pretty obssessed about feeding the baby and in the process, many times forcefeed/overfeed them.Be firm and persistent when it comes to feeding but don't overdo it.

Hope this helps.
Sandhya
mommy replied. Hi mom...my son who is 20 months old now did not have reflux when he was a baby. But all of a sudden...2 weeks back, he stopped eating and throwing food everytime I feed him. It was sooooooooo very frustrating and I was almost crying. Then the Dr prescribed Prevacid and I continued for 2 weeks and it's much better. So don't worry, keep continuing to give the medicine, it will only come to effect after 2 weeks. Also, stop giving any citric food for your baby until she becomes normal, reason being it'll aggrevate her reflux. I hope this helps.