Not eating her bottle!

One of my girls - the one that's almost 18 pounds! - has not been interested in her bottle the last couple of days. She is happy, gurgling, talking, spitting, playing with her feet, etc, etc....doing everything BUT EATING! It's starting to worry me.

She will start to eat, then I think as soon as her hunger is gone, she gets bored and starts playing. It's driving me crazy. I don't know what to do. She was eating 4 8oz bottles a day, but she hasn't finished a bottle in two days. If she does this again in the morning, I'm calling the doctor.

Anyone go through this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hm - could be teething. Mine mostly BF, but when they get bottles, if they're teething big time they just want to gnaw on the nipple. (Luckily they know better than to do that with me! )

Have you just started solids, or just increased their solids a lot? That could be cutting into her appetite too...

Agree that it's worth calling the pedi if this keeps up, though!

 

I really wouldn't worry about it. She's probably just not hungry and interested in other things. It's not abnormal for a six month old to only take 24oz in a day...as long as she's over 21 or 22 oz then it's not a big deal. 32oz a day is at the upper limits of what a baby should be getting at any age. If you've started solids with her that could be another reason.

 

It sounds like she is just not interested right now...She will eat when she is hungry. My DS never has finished a bottle and still hates to eat anything. He is way too interested in everything but food...

One thing you might want to ask your pediatrician about reflux. Does she seems to fight the bottle? Or is she just not finishing it? If she is noticeable fighting the bottle, she may have a little reflux.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it continues. I have similar issues but my DD is consistently not eating enough. I do agree with others that it could be reflux if she seems to be arching her back when she's eating or afterwards. How much is she getting to drink daily?

 

mine have been doing that too lately, if it's any consolation. I've heard it could be related to teething, but i don't know about that. we have been giving them solids 3x a day, so that might be it. We were also going to try switching to faster nipples. But, in any event, rest assured that she will not starve herself! She'll eat when she's hungry.

we have a pedi appt this afternoon (the boys have had colds for too long now) and I will ask about this. If he says anything worthwhile, i'll post again.

 

I switched to fast-flow nipples so I can get some milk into my babies even though they only ever give me 4 or 5 minutes of their time for eating. Have you tried that?

 

My daughter is doing this also-but she is getting her 4 front teeth all at once. So I am attributing it to that. As much as it is driving me crazy, I'm just cutting back on her solids and she seems to be drinking 90% of her bottle. Hope this helps!

 

i agree, i would go down to either 3 8 oz bottles, or 4 6oz bottles and make sure you have adequate spacing b/t solids (if you started those).

If is alert, happy, etc, i personally WOULD not force the issue. Very seldom do we force jake/becca to eat, i've always heard babies are perfect self regulators and I try to respond to their cues. It mostly works.