Not eating (Sorry- Long Post)

winofairy · May 2013

J is just over 3 months old and has been taking a bottle since he was 4 weeks (EBF). DH would give him an occasional bottle of my pumped milk so that he would be used to one when I returned to work full time. I returned when he was 9 weeks. He is on a every 2.5-3 hour schedule when he is with me during the day and will go 6-8 hours at night.

We started out with 3oz and he would suck the bottle dry so we upped them to 4oz and he would drink all of those too.

My MIL is J's primary care giver while I work. I make him 3-4oz bottles for while I'm gone. Up until this week he was drinking 3-4oz every 3-4 hours (I keep trying to push the 3hr schedule but she doesn't always stick to it) but the last few days he's barely drinking 2.5oz.

On Tuesday and Wednesday she attends a bible study at church and he goes to the infant daycare at the church for 2 hours. On Tuesday he only had 1oz between 6am and 1pm. I nursed him at 6am and he drank 1oz at 9am. And for some reason she thinks this is ok? Then at 1 he only drank 3oz. He didn't eat very much yesterday either and this morning I fed him at 5am and then she offered him a bottle at 8am and he only drank 2.5oz (she will toss his unused BM). This is making me crazy. I'm starting to worry and she tells me he's fine and happy.

I even had my DH take her to J's last ped appt so she would hear for herself from the doctor that an EBF should eat every 2-3 hours taking 3-5oz. She keeps telling me that J just likes me better than the bottle but he only nurses 2x in the evenings before he goes to bed.

He is still wetting/pooing several times a day. Should I really be worried that he's eating much less this week? He's gone from drinking 10.5-12oz down to 7-9oz. His next ped appt. isn't until the 6th of June.

TJ1979 · May 2013

He should be eating 25-30 oz. total per day. If he's taking 12 while you are gone, he needs 13+ while you are home. Any idea how much he gets from you in a feeding? If you feed him twice in the evening plus once in the morning, and he's getting 4 ounces per feed, you would be really close.

If it helps, you can show her on kellymom where it says the amount he needs to eat. Maybe you can talk her into giving an extra bottle. And beg her to stop throwing out that milk! Reuse it for the next feed!

winofairy · May 2013

Thanks TJ!

I honestly don't have any idea how much he eats with me. I haven't had any supply issues and he's always gained weight at each ped appt. so we haven't done any weighed feedings.

Good idea about the KellyMom. I mentioned the site to her once before because it has a lot of great info about reusing BM but she said "no thanks." I will try again. She formula fed so she just doesn't understand that it truly is liquid gold.

TJ1979 · May 2013

Ducky719:
First of all, you do not need to apologize for a long post! I would be worried if my LO had any changes in behavior.

Everything TJ said is exactly what I would have to say. Do you have a little scale you could weigh J on? If so, you can weigh him before you feed him and after to see how much milk he is taking in. Then you can calculate how much you feed him from your boobs and then add together what he is eating from bottles. That may (or may not) put your mind at ease.

Has J's behavior otherwise been different? Is he showing any signs of not feeling well? If he is eating less, I would probably at least call his pedi to see what they think.

That's the other angle you need to look at. Could he be sick, teething, have an ear infection or thrush, something that is making him not want to eat. He could be at that first distractable phase where he's starting to notice everything else going on around him, and getting less interested in sitting still to eat. She may need to try feeding him in a quiet, dimly lit room with nothing to distract him.

winofairy · May 2013

Thanks ladies! He seems to be a bit better today. He took 4oz at 11am and 3oz at 2:50 (I had to tell her to wake him....grrr!).

I will keep an eye on him. I do think he is teething. He's been chewing on his hands and fingers lately and drooling like crazy.

mrskitton · May 2013

Mackenzie is the same way....she only eats 2-3 oz per feeding when she used to eat 4 oz. We talked to our pedi and he doesn't seem too concerned because she still is gaining weight (slowly though.) He told us she is just a content baby who's not a big eater. As long as your LO is gaining weight, I don't think it should be a problem.

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