question about feeding

ok so here's the story, the boys are almost 4months old and have all of the sudden gone all sorts of whacky with their eating habbits. we went through a long stretch on similac advance with them cleaning out 5oz bottles at every feed (like for 3 weeks straight). so at the advice of other TSers i went up to 6oz, it was hit or miss if i got them to complete the entire 6oz or not but we always at least got to 5-5 1/2 at every feed. the boys would be difficult to start sucking but once then latched onto the nipple they would suck it dry in 15 minutes flat a piece so feeds only took 30 minutes.

here's my problem now, we are back on similac advance (after having a horrible time on soy, nutrimagen and allimentum). i'm making 6oz bottles and they've suddenly stopped taking their normal 5-6oz. we are now getting (if we're lucky) 4oz in the am during their first feed which is taking me 45minutes (after 20+minutes a baby i move on and give up unless they continue to eat which they haven't been). at their next feed they will usually take in at least 5oz but again it's still taking 45 minutes. it's hit and miss all day long and will go between 3-6oz per feed.

this is our schedule, 6:30am, 10-10:30am, 2-2:30pm, 6pm, 10pm and then they sleep all through the night until i wake them up at 6am to give them their prevacid and start the day. after they eat i lay them back down and they fall back asleep until around 9:45-10am are up until about noon and fall back asleep until around 1pm and so on throughout the day/night. they refuse to eat every 3 hours so doing smaller portions more frequently is out of the question since they want to go every 4 hours or more. DH suggested giving them more to eat less frequently (like trying 7oz every 5-6 hours) but if they aren't finishing 5oz after sleeping for 7 hours they aren't going to come close to a 7oz bottle. i'm going to drop back down to 5oz every 4 hours since i seem to be wasting so much formula and can't afford to be pouring so much of it down the drain. but these feeds are taking way too long...should i break out the Y cut nipples (we're thickening 1tsp rice per oz and they are at level 4 now)??

i've also noticed that rather then sucking on the bottle they are biting on it A LOT...could this be a sign that perhaps they want to start eating solids and using a spoon rather than a bottle? and if so how do you introduce solids, start with oatmeal? and how much do you supplement bottle vs. solids to make sure they are getting enough to eat?

oh and they also are EXTREMELY active, always have been, even during feeds. forget the reflux this is more than that. they move so much that they will gag themselves and throw up - not due to reflux but do to them hitting their own gag reflex and i don't push the bottle down their throat i hold the tip of the nipple near their mouths and they latch on from there.

this is all just extremely frustrating. we can't afford to be wasting so much formula since it's so overly expensive (i go through those big containers in 2 1/2 days).

thoughts/suggestions? i'm concered about dropping either their morning or evening feed because i don't want them to stop gaining weight or slow way down on growing. i won't get their weights until their 4month check up in a few weeks so i'm not sure where we are.

i should also mention that if they are teething they are NOT fussy/crying or running temps. they do, however, drool a lot but that's it.

 

If they are biting on the nipple it could be teething as well?! Not sure, babies have always kept me guessing in the food department! Good luck! You could try upping the nipple size as well to get feeds done faster.

 

yeah i just asked another question in the forum regarding teething.

i'm going to break out the Y cut nipple for their 2pm feed and see what happens.

 

Teeth=more drool=more heartburn. The longer feeds sound like my two when they have reflux/their tummy hurts. Are you doing zantac with the prevacid still? You might want to try it or mylanta right before feeding to see if it helps calm their tummy.

 

I thought teeth too. You could try giving them some Tylenol and see if it helps.

 

you guys are recommending relief for pain and tummy aches but they don't appear to be in any sort of pain. they aren't constipated, fussy, aren't crying they just aren't eating. they are playing with the bottle.

 

I'm no pro at this obviously (and mine are 8 days younger than yours), but my advice so that you don't waste as much formula would be to maybe try making 4 ounces, if they appear to want more, make another ounce at a time until they are full. I know it's a pain in the butt to have to "make" that many bottles, but it'll save the waste. Heck if you made 5 bottles a day (times two) and threw away only 1 ounce each time that still adds up to 10 ounces! 20 ounces if you throw out 2 ounces each time. I know my hubby like to make bottles in large amounts and it drives me insane to pour it out so I've gotten him to stop doing that. I know this doesn't help with why they suddenly started eating less, but should help w/ waste.

I'm not too sure how formula works, but maybe the soy, nutrimagen and allimentum are less filling than the similac advance (like how breast more digests faster). Therefore, they ate an ounce or two more of those to fill up, but need less of the advance.

As for the schedule, I have no clue. My boys were in the NICU for 8 weeks and got on an every 3 hour schedule and have pretty much stuck to those times unless we happened to do something (like out running around) that interfered with their schedule.

Just thought I'd try to brainstorm some possibilities. HTH. And btw, I'm working on writing you back, I'm just slow lol