Irregular intake

[KR2105]

Hi. My 16 week old one wouldn't feed very well. He is exclusively breast fed. He seems to have a lot of gas. Poops only on alternate days. He takes ages to finish a bottle of 5oz. He used to finish that amount quite quickly in the past but not anymore. He now takes about 2hrs to finish that. Although he seems fine. Not cranky as such but keeps trying hard to poop. I heard it's normal for breastfed babies to not poop for few days so I am not worried about that but I am worried about his decreasing appetite. I use the dr browns bottle to feed him. I make sure he burps after every 1-2oz. I don't know what else to do. All GPs do, is check his weight. If thats growing they aren't concerned. But I don't understand how to get rid of his wind (which I assume is the reason for loss in his appetite). Any suggestions xx

[hac82]

Babies have gas up until about 3-4 months. How often do you feed him? Maybe he's not getting on with the bottles or he needs a faster flow teat on the bottle. My newborn was taking ages to feed then I realised he couldn't get much out so I bought bigger flow teats. Just a thought. Yes don't worry about the pooping as long as it's soft. Make sure he's wetting plenty of nappies a day then he should be hydrated Enough. But it might be worth keeping a diary of his feeds how much and how often and ask health visitor or gp and see if they think it's ok. You know your baby more than anyone if your concerned go back to gp

[KR2105 in reply to hac82]

Thanks hac82. Yes we too changed the teat with a hope he might drink comfortably but that made no difference. He still keeps pushing the bottle away. As if he doesn't like the taste.

He has been taking bottled expressed milk for many weeks now.

[hac82 in reply to KR2105]

If he's not feeding well and he's loSing out on a lot of milk. I would get another opinion from

Midwife, health visitor or gp. If he's not feeding he may get dehydrated. That's not good.

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Bottles in general give babies more gas than BF. Can you avoid using a bottle for a while? Does he eat more if he is breast fed?

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Is he tongue tied? That can make bottle and breast feeding more difficult as they can't use their tongue properly to remove the milk from the bottle/breast. Saying that, if he's been doing it OK for 16 weeks seems unlikely, just thought I'd mention it.

Lots of burping in between feeding? My second wouldn't open his mouth wide enough to latch onto me if he had wind, so I knew I needed to burp him and then he'd feed beautifully again! You know your baby, trust your instincts and keep asking "professionals" for advice until you find the answer.