Baby is really slow feeder

angelicmary85

Evening all,

My 3 week old wee boy is a really slow feeder. It can take anything between 1 and 2 hours to feed him a 3 or 4 oz bottle (sometimes he'll only take 2oz as he's worn out!!)

We've tried to keep him awake during feeds but nothing seems to work, we've tried everything we can think of from changing his nappy to wiping his face with cold cotton wool balls!

The teats are medium flow but fast flow are too fast. This may sound like a trivial problem but it's resulting in us constantly having to feed him as he never takes enough at any feed and as my OH works early in the morning I've been doing the nigh feeds then getting up with DD (18months) in the morning so I'm beginning to feel really exhusted...What can I do to keep my munchkin awake long enough to feed him??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

clairec79

Have you tried the variflow teats?

angelicmary85

Hi Claire,

Yeah we've tried 2 different kinds of vari-flow teats!!

galvanizersbaby

angelicmary85 wrote: »

Evening all,

My 3 week old wee boy is a really slow feeder. It can take anything between 1 and 2 hours to feed him a 3 or 4 oz bottle (sometimes he'll only take 2oz as he's worn out!!)

We've tried to keep him awake during feeds but nothing seems to work, we've tried everything we can think of from changing his nappy to wiping his face with cold cotton wool balls!

The teats are medium flow but fast flow are too fast. This may sound like a trivial problem but it's resulting in us constantly having to feed him as he never takes enough at any feed and as my OH works early in the morning I've been doing the nigh feeds then getting up with DD (18months) in the morning so I'm beginning to feel really exhusted...What can I do to keep my munchkin awake long enough to feed him??

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Congratulations on your new arrival :j
Not sure I can be much help on the keeping him awake side - I used to keep firmly stoking/pulling my son's cheeks to remind him as he was a sleepy feeder at that age (but having said that he would still take a big feed he would just appear to be asleep throughout :rolleyes:)

Hopefully someone will be along soon with more useful advice for you

angelicmary85

galvanizersbaby wrote: »

Congratulations on your new arrival :j
Not sure I can be much help on the keeping him awake side - I used to keep firmly stoking/pulling my son's cheeks to remind him as he was a sleepy feeder at that age (but having said that he would still take a big feed he would just appear to be asleep throughout :rolleyes:)

Hopefully someone will be along soon with more useful advice for you

DD pulled his hair which woke him up but I wouldn't want to be doing that on a regular basis! I'm at my wits end now though...short of pouring it down his neck I don't know what to do! DD used to drink her milk in a matter of literally 2mins and that would be her for at least 4 hours! I know every baby is different but DD slept through from 2 weeks but my wee lad is killing me, feeding time is never over!!

Dizie

My DD was a sleepy feeder. I used to strip her down to her nappy (she was an april baby so it wasn't too cold!) and would sit her as far away from my body as I could still support her to feed her. As she started to doze off, I would jiggle her feet around. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the only thing that worked for me.

Good luck!

jenhug

I would contact your midwife or health visitor. It could be a sign of a deeper health issue, I really don't want to scare you but please don;t leave it.

angelicmary85

Dizie wrote: »

My DD was a sleepy feeder. I used to strip her down to her nappy (she was an april baby so it wasn't too cold!) and would sit her as far away from my body as I could still support her to feed her. As she started to doze off, I would jiggle her feet around. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the only thing that worked for me.

Good luck!

Thanks for that, will give it a go!

It's just depressing getting up at 3am then getting back to bed at 5 only to get up again at 6.30 because he hasn't had enough to keep him going!

angelicmary85

jenhug wrote: »

I would contact your midwife or health visitor. It could be a sign of a deeper health issue, I really don't want to scare you but please don;t leave it.

Thanks but it's o.k...he's got downs. He's a healthy 'normal' baby though (the downs hasn't affected his health in any way and he's a good size)

Health Visitor used to work with kids with downs and she said that his slow feeding isn't really anything to do with it as he doesn't have any of the symptoms of downs.

jenhug

ok, sorry I didn;t want to scare you but this sounds the same as a ralatives child, and apparently this can be a sign of cardiac problems, they were missed with the normal checks and would only have been diagnosed with the problem if he had ultrasound after he was born. he is 23 months and just had a heart transplant.

I really didn;t want to scare you which is why i was reluctant to post the info.

angelicmary85

jenhug wrote: »

ok, sorry I didn;t want to scare you but this sounds the same as a ralatives child, and apparently this can be a sign of cardiac problems, they were missed with the normal checks and would only have been diagnosed with the problem if he had ultrasound after he was born. he is 23 months and just had a heart transplant.

I really didn;t want to scare you which is why i was reluctant to post the info.

A heart transplant?! :eek: Is the wee lad o.k?

I didn't want to mention the D.S in my OP cause I thought that it would get the blame for him being a slow feeder but it's not.