Suspecting some eating aversion issues

After some research I am thinking my boys may have some eating aversion issues. I am awaiting testing for the boys, but I remember some people here talking about this issue, and so I a curious to hear your stories.

Our issues are not severe, but they do make our days difficult.

I could write a 300 page book about our feeding troubles over the past 5 months, but here is the general overview:

1. Began breastfeeding within minutes after birth...but latch was always not so great. Exclusively breastfed until two months old when problems began to increase.
2. Poor weight gain led us to work with a LC who felt the boys had weak mouth muscles. After being weighed after a feeding we realized they were not removing the milk properly. They were fussing at the breast, STILL falling asleep all the time (at almost two months), and a host of other problems including sometimes all out REFUSING to nurse. We suspected this was a nursing problem and I began to use bottles in addition to the breast. We continued to have good and bad nursing sessions. The bottles initially seemed to work fine.
3. At first bottles seemed to help...weight gain DID increase. I continued to breastfeed, pump, and bottlefeed with some formula supplements.
4. However, now they are now beginning to have problems with the bottle. They fuss, pull away, cry, and sometimes seem as if they have no idea how to eat or they are afraid to eat or something. It's as if the breastfeeding problems are beginning all over again. A few minutes after refusing the bottle they REALLY want the bottle, take a few drinks, and freak out again.
5. Sometimes they finish their bottles and sometimes they don't. I think they are getting enough to eat. I had an appointment with the Growth and Development Clinic last week, and their weights are good. It's more a question of how difficult the feedings are. When it comes time for them to eat I think all three of us are just so stressed and tense. Sometimes it can take SO long for them to eat. And in between they are crying and arching their backs and having these very sad meltdowns. Plus, they really seem to agitate one another, and the crying can really escalate and make things so much worse. And it seems as they days go by they are eating less rather than more. They don't finish their bottles like they used to. This does not happen every feeding, but does happen often.
5. The really weird thing is that sometimes they eat without a single problem. I have tried to observe if there is an underlying pattern of when they do and don't take the bottle well, but I have yet to notice a pattern. It seems random. I will say however that they seem to never have any problems at night before bed. It's usually a day-time only problem.

Other important info:
* They have chronic congestion and they were born only slightly premature (36 weeks, 6 days).

I had suspected reflux in the past, but my pedi did not seem to think this was the case. However, a new pedi seems to think this is part of the problem. He gave them a prescription for Zantac, which I think might be helping some. I'm not really sure. It has seems to help with the congestion in the evening. Usually they snored really loudly, and they don't seem to be doing that any more. They have been examined, and they are healthy.
So the next step is to get testing with a speech pathologist. This should happen next week if they can get me in.

I have not started solids yet, and am not in any hurry. They seem to be curious about adult food these days, but I don't plan to start introducing it before around 6 months unless they really start to show that they want adult food. haha. Because they had weight gain problems in the past I think making sure they get as much breastmilk as possible is my main goal for a few more months.

Do these problems sound familiar to anyone?

If you had LOs with food aversion issues how did you address them? How were they diagnosed?

Any thoughts are much appreciated. TIA.
Forgive me for the typos. I am soooo tired...

 

It does sound like reflux. My boys had tons of feeding difficulties and I think that one has reflux but its not consistant so they wont treat him

We did do sessions with SLP and one of my boys has very poor oral muscles so he sounds congested a lot too. They sent us for swallowing studies to see if they were aspirating but the studies were all good!

They gave us a few good tricks to help increase his oral muscle ability to get him to clear his food better and they do work but the other guy still throws up randomly and we think its a texture thing. We still haven't been completely sucessful with the puking but we are working on it.

Hang in there, I know how frustrating it can be. I have dealt with similar situations since my boys were born but it will get better and hopefully the meds and SLP will help.

 

I think that one of my girls has had reflux from the beginning, but my ped said that as long as she is gaining weight...no meds. ugh!!!! It is not really serious...just mild.

That same LO has nursing issues - shallow latch, etc. When she eats sometimes she will stop and start crying, then want the bottle again and then cry, and so on. I have figured out that she sometimes need to burp in the middle of eating. Once she burps...she is happy and eats again happily. Sometimes she needs to do a couple of times in a feeding, sometimes not at all.

Maybe it seems like a very simple solution, and maybe it won't help. Just thought I'd offer my story to try.

Good luck.

Niki

 

Totally sounds like uncontrolled reflux to me. If the Zantac has been in use for 5-7 days and they aren't much better, I would consider switiching meds to give another one a try. Zantac did nothing for my boys. But once on Prevacid they were new babies in about 24 hours.

Have you eliminated dairy from your diet while breastfeeding? If not, I would do that and put them on a hypoallergenic formula like Alimentum or Nutramigen. Per our Ped GI (and I would totally recommend you see one based on the symptoms) most babies with reflux also have a milk protein intolerance and soy intolerance as well.

I hope they feel better soon. GL. :hug: Reflux caused a lot of refusing to eat and crying on the bottle in our house. But once under control, mealtime wasn't such a challenge anymore.

 

Definitely agree. Sounds like reflux issues, and if the Zantac isn't working as well as you would like, then ask your pedi to try them on Prevacid or Prilosec. Prevacid worked well for our boys for about 4 months, then it lost it's effectiveness. We then had to switch to Prilosec. That worked great until we were able to stop all reflux meds several weeks ago :woohoo:

And before trying a hypoallergenic formula, I would suggest trying a formula like Gentlease first...only because the hypoallergenic formulas can be soooo expensive. Plus our boys had a very bad reaction to the Nutramigen. Good luck!

 

First of all, you are incredible...you must be exhausted...I bow down to you. I wonder if it could be dairy, hard for little digestive systems to break down. I had to go dairy-free for a few months for my one LO. She had the arching back, refusing to nurse or bottle feed, crying in pain. It was random also. But when the screams started her poor little tummy was so rock hard with cramps. Hugs to you and hope this gets figured out.

 

Thanks so much for your responses, everyone. I really appreciate the suggestions!! I will look into those formulas.

5280babies--aw, thanks for the kind words. You are too kind. I am exhausted. It has started to catch up with me just this past week.

A few people have been mentioning that I might need to go dairy free. I think you all are right. It's sure worth a try. That's going to take some serious will power. I don't think there is anything I love more than ice cream, cheese, and whole milk. haha!

I got to talk to the speech language pathologist on the phone today (we will have the tests done next week), and she too said it sounds like reflux. But she said the testing would tell us for sure. I know I posted about this issue a few times on the breastfeeding board and people there mentioned it could be reflux. I so appreciate everyone mentioning this to me.

The SLP also said that often Zantac does not work and said more often patients get results with Previcid, as some of you mentioned.

You'll never believe this though: the speech language path who will be doing the testing is also twin mom!!! In fact she has TWO sets of twins. When she called she was very excited to hear the boys were twins, but I just thought she found twins interesting or something. But about midway through our conversation she said something along the lines of "I understand. I have twins myself."

Isn't that great? What a funny coincidence. So I am very excited to work with her.


For those of you who used Prevacid or Prilosec: how long was it before it started to kick in?

 

When we switched from the Zantac to the Prevacid we started to see results in the first 24 hours. Then it just got better each day. And I would say around day 3-5 they were feeling great. Is there anyway you can switch off the Zantac before the SLP (with two sets of twins :banana: ) comes to see if that helps them??

 

I do hope the prevacid works because I won't lie, I'm with ya on the dairy free...love my dairy. And you can find casein in so many things...you wouldn't believe what you can't eat. A pro is I think I lost weight being forced to be dairy free. Anyway, I would try the prevacid first since it works so fast. It takes approx. 14 days for dairy to leave your system so it is a trial and error thing and you won't know if it is working for 3 weeks to a month basically. Keep us updated...sometimes we never get to hear the outcome.