Bottle feeding advice needed - constipation and gas issues

tiffanyp · February 2013

We're having some feeding issues over here, and I'm hoping some of you experts have some advice. Every feeding has turned into an ordeal. She will drink furiously for 10 seconds and then arch her back and cry. She seems like she's really uncomfortable and in pain. She will usually grunt and strain like she's trying to poop, but she's never successful. It takes me about an hour to give her a bottle lately because I have to spend so much time burping her and helping her poop (and calming her down). Has anyone had any success with one of those bottles made to reduce gas, or is it just marketing? What about gas drops? Is there anything I can give her for constipation at this age? I am hoping she'll grow out of it as her colon matures, but I'm worried she's going to give herself a hemorrhoid with all her straining.

mommyfied · February 2013

Divide the meal up in two..

First 5 min, and then 5 min (or whatever time it takes)

Then inbetween burp untill you start again.

finish by burping for exactly 15 mins.

[Sorry had to run, and published before I finished]

Try to hold her more elevated when feeding

Make sure it is a temreatur that she likes (maybe she dont like the warm/cold feeling)

We used Avent's bottle that had a blue ring on the inside. Worked well, and with the 15 min burping we did not have any pain issues (I think)..

EMOmamma · February 2013

Her poor belly

Are you using soy formula or hypoallergenic? If it's soy maybe she is having a problem with it.

I would totally try a different bottle for now.

missmuffin87 · February 2013

Definitely try gas drops! They really work. It would also be worth giving different bottles a try, maybe the dr. Browns. What are you using now? I really liked avent and they have a new design out now. GL

keags5496 · February 2013

This is what E used to do. Turned out he had reflux. Maybe that's a possibility?

jillybean800 · February 2013

I honestly tried everything and the only thing that worked was him turning 3 months old. All issues with gas stopped after that...I think his belly just matured. We pretty much didn't sleep for 2 months. Then between 2 and 3 months it was on and off. It was bad, but now that it's over, it doesn't seem like it took all that long for things to work themselves out.

I am hoping that it works out that way for you too...until then, hang in there!

tiffanyp · February 2013

keags5496:
This is what E used to do. Turned out he had reflux. Maybe that's a possibility?

Ugh! I hope not. I thought she might have reflux during her first 3 days since she was really fussy and spitting up a lot, but we assumed that it was the galactosemia causing all her early issues. She was actually doing fine the first week or so on soy. Is reflux something that can develop later? She definitely didn't have any reflux symptoms in the NICU.

enjoylife · February 2013

We used colic calm off and on for the first couple months when ds2 cried and fussed but we couldn't figure out what was going on. He was fed, dry, swaddled, held etc. we were trying to eliminate some dietary things that could be causing the pain but he still had to wait it out and colic calm although expensive was worth its weight in gold for us. I wish I had used it with A 2 years ago lol. We used dr brown bottles in the beginning with J it's supposed to help reduce air intake we use Nuk now just because I didn't want to buy a ton of doctor browns for daycare but we really like those and still use the 2 oz snacker bottles when we are home.

tiffanyp · February 2013

EMO-mamma:
Her poor belly
Are you using soy formula or hypoallergenic? If it's soy maybe she is having a problem with it.
I would totally try a different bottle for now.

She's on a soy isomil formula. She can have the hypoallergenic ones, but I haven't tried yet because they are expensive and unpalatable (from what I've heard). Should I try one? If it'll solve her tummy problems then I'll spend the $$.

tiffanyp · February 2013

missmuffin87:
Definitely try gas drops! They really work. It would also be worth giving different bottles a try, maybe the dr. Browns. What are you using now? I really liked avent and they have a new design out now. GL

I've been using both the medela bottles that came with my pump and Evenflo, so nothing special. I have one Dr. Brown's bottle that I bought for Avery when I was trying to find a bottle she would take. I just tried it on Charlotte, and it did seem to help a little with the air intake, but she's still really fussy now afterwards (my MIL is trying to calm her down). I will definitely pick up some gas drops...

tiffanyp · February 2013

jillybean800:
I honestly tried everything and the only thing that worked was him turning 3 months old. All issues with gas stopped after that...I think his belly just matured. We pretty much didn't sleep for 2 months. Then between 2 and 3 months it was on and off. It was bad, but now that it's over, it doesn't seem like it took all that long for things to work themselves out.
I am hoping that it works out that way for you too...until then, hang in there!

I hope she grows out of it. I'm sad to hear that I have to wait until she's 3 months old though! I'm already a zombie.

tiffanyp · February 2013

enjoylife:
We used colic calm off and on for the first couple months when ds2 cried and fussed but we couldn't figure out what was going on. He was fed, dry, swaddled, held etc. we were trying to eliminate some dietary things that could be causing the pain but he still had to wait it out and colic calm although expensive was worth its weight in gold for us. I wish I had used it with A 2 years ago lol. We used dr brown bottles in the beginning with J it's supposed to help reduce air intake we use Nuk now just because I didn't want to buy a ton of doctor browns for daycare but we really like those and still use the 2 oz snacker bottles when we are home.

I've never heard of colic calm. Thanks - I'll check it out!

keags5496 · February 2013

tiffanyp:
keags5496:
This is what E used to do. Turned out he had reflux. Maybe that's a possibility?
Ugh! I hope not. I thought she might have reflux during her first 3 days since she was really fussy and spitting up a lot, but we assumed that it was the galactosemia causing all her early issues. She was actually doing fine the first week or so on soy. Is reflux something that can develop later? She definitely didn't have any reflux symptoms in the NICU.

Not sure....maybe its a reaction to the soy formula. FWIW, our pedi prescibed medicine and said to try it for 48 hours. If it was reflux, he'd be a different baby by then and if it wasn't then there wasn't anything that would have hurt him from trying.

lrn327 · February 2013

Poor sweetie!! Yes, I BF'd but pumped and bottle-fed during work. C had reflux so we had to use anti-gas bottles. Yes, I think they really do help. We used Born Free. In case you try these and they work, let me know. I have a ton that I'm trying to think of a good purpose for!

jarebearsmom · February 2013

Poor sweet baby! I would suggest reflux as well or formula. Switching bottles may help reduce the gas though. Gas drops are safe for this age and work so well! Gl and LUK what helps

JoJoMama730 · February 2013

We had a similar experience. We used all kinds of OTC remedies and even put her on baby zantac. What I think helped the most was giving a dose of gas drops about 10 to 15 minutes before feeding. It took us awhile to figure that out. We were always giving them right after. But the baby zantac might have been helping too. Good luck mama! I remember how hard it was when LO couldn't tell us what was wrong.

janneann1127 · February 2013

We used the Dr Brown's bottles, and they were the only ones that seemed to help with gas issues. Gas drops definitely helped. Also, along the lines of what mommyfied was saying, our doc told us to stop and burp every 1-2 oz. It's super time-consuming, but it did help..

ETA: In re: to constipation, with Griffin, since we were using formula, we would add just a little bit more water in each bottle than was required for the formula. This way, he'd be getting a little more fluid because he was so constipated. It worked out great! You prob want to ask your doc first, because you certainly don't want to skimp out on getting your baby what she needs, but this def helped us.

missmuffin87 · February 2013

tiffanyp:
missmuffin87:
Definitely try gas drops! They really work. It would also be worth giving different bottles a try, maybe the dr. Browns. What are you using now? I really liked avent and they have a new design out now. GL
I've been using both the medela bottles that came with my pump and Evenflo, so nothing special. I have one Dr. Brown's bottle that I bought for Avery when I was trying to find a bottle she would take. I just tried it on Charlotte, and it did seem to help a little with the air intake, but she's still really fussy now afterwards (my MIL is trying to calm her down). I will definitely pick up some gas drops...

I've tried both those bottles. I felt the medela nipples flowed too fast and the even flows just aren't great quality and the nipples also aren't great for newborns. I would strongly suggest investing in some quality bottles since you will be bottle feeding for the next several months. Ultimately I didn't like the dr browns because of all the parts to wash and i didn't feel like they worked for us any better than avent. make sure when you are feeding her that the nipple is completely full of milk so no air is getting in there. And like PP said, try adding a bit more water to the mixture.

tiffanyp · February 2013

JoJoMama730:
We had a similar experience. We used all kinds of OTC remedies and even put her on baby zantac. What I think helped the most was giving a dose of gas drops about 10 to 15 minutes before feeding. It took us awhile to figure that out. We were always giving them right after. But the baby zantac might have been helping too. Good luck mama! I remember how hard it was when LO couldn't tell us what was wrong.

I like the idea of giving her the drops 10 minutes before her feeding, but I'm not sure that will be possible. When she wakes up, she wants her food NOW! She gets so mad if I don't feed her immediately. I will definitely at least give it to her at the beginning of her feeding though. Also, I didn't realize baby Zantac was OTC. I will definitely try that if the drops don't work.

tiffanyp · February 2013

keags5496:
tiffanyp:
keags5496:
This is what E used to do. Turned out he had reflux. Maybe that's a possibility?
Ugh! I hope not. I thought she might have reflux during her first 3 days since she was really fussy and spitting up a lot, but we assumed that it was the galactosemia causing all her early issues. She was actually doing fine the first week or so on soy. Is reflux something that can develop later? She definitely didn't have any reflux symptoms in the NICU.
Not sure....maybe its a reaction to the soy formula. FWIW, our pedi prescibed medicine and said to try it for 48 hours. If it was reflux, he'd be a different baby by then and if it wasn't then there wasn't anything that would have hurt him from trying.

Good to know! Thanks. It's definitely worth a shot if this continues. Did the pedi prescribe a PPI like Prilosec?

tiffanyp · February 2013

janneann1127:

ETA: In re: to constipation, with Griffin, since we were using formula, we would add just a little bit more water in each bottle than was required for the formula. This way, he'd be getting a little more fluid because he was so constipated. It worked out great! You prob want to ask your doc first, because you certainly don't want to skimp out on getting your baby what she needs, but this def helped us.

Thanks for the advice. I actually started adding a bit more water this morning when I saw how dry her stool was. I figured a little more water couldn't hurt. I also think that maybe I've been overfilling the scoop a little, because she wasn't constipated at the NICU when they were giving her the RTF stuff. I'll let you know how it turns out.

tiffanyp · February 2013

missmuffin87:

I've tried both those bottles. I felt the medela nipples flowed too fast and the even flows just aren't great quality and the nipples also aren't great for newborns. I would strongly suggest investing in some quality bottles since you will be bottle feeding for the next several months. Ultimately I didn't like the dr browns because of all the parts to wash and i didn't feel like they worked for us any better than avent. make sure when you are feeding her that the nipple is completely full of milk so no air is getting in there. And like PP said, try adding a bit more water to the mixture.

Yeah, I just need to buy some different ones and see which one works best for her. It's frustrating because she was doing fine with even the disposable bottles at the NICU and when we first got home. I actually bought the evenflo bottles just because they were glass and fit on my pump. I knew they were cheap but I was planning on using them for breast milk collection and storage.

So, I guess my plan is to try some different bottles, give her gas drops before each feeding, and add a little extra water to each bottle. If things don't improve in the next couple days then I will talk to her pediatrician about reflux medication.

jessrenee11 · February 2013

We were having huge spit up and gas issues with B. I switched to the wide neck Dr. Brown bottles because its easier to scoop formula into the wide neck ones instead of the standard ones. We also just switched to the Target brand with rice startch formula, i dont know if she can have that, and he hasnt spit up been gassy the last few days! I ordered our widenecks off amazon and I love them some much better then the regular ones. And I just throw all rhe parts in a little basket in my dishwasher and have never had a problem.

jessrenee11 · February 2013

Also when B gets constipated I take a wipe wrapped finger and kinda push down on his little bum hole and it helps him relax enough to get the poop out.

Want a personalized experience?

Bottle feeding advice needed - constipation and gas issues

Re: Bottle feeding advice needed - constipation and gas issues

Choose Another Board

Search Boards