Discovery Home & Health

Hi Jules,
Would appreciate some advice if you can, my little boy Tyler is now 9 weeks old, (born 4 weeks prem) only now is he a little settled, we had a very traumatic start to his life, difficult pregnancy and birth, breastfed up until 3 weeks ago, Tyler constantly had sickness and diarreoh since birth, along with bad colic.. in and out of hospital, various tests, all showing nothing other than gastro, doctors were hopeless, all they kept saying was that i was a nervouis first mom and will need to expect sickness and diarreoh for 1st year - not happy with that attitude!! Anyway, after a bit of research on the internet, i suggested to my doctor that he may be lactose intolerant, all the signs were there. Doc suggested i stop b/feeding and try soya, soya was great for first 2 days, then sickness and stomach cramps were even worse! did more research and found that SMA LF is the correct milk for this tolerance not soya as the doc recommended. Spoke to doc again, who basically told me that she thought it had nothing to do with the milk, but if it made me feel better i should try the LF, again not happy with this responce!! Anyway have been on LF now for almost 2 weeks, and Tyler is like a completely different baby. Sickness and diarreoh stopped almost immediately and the so called colic went away also, obviously yler's stomach was so sensitive he couldnt break down the lactose, i'm sure that this is only a temporary condition though. Anyway, my worry is that, when i brestfed, Tyler fed on demand, sometimes every half hour sometimes every hour, now he's bottlefed, he's still doing the same. without fail, he needs a bottle evert hour and half, day and night, sometimes drinking a full 4 oz, but mostly just 2 oz. if i dont give his bottle, he screams his heart out, so he's def hungry. cant ever see a routine coming, any suggestions please ??

Hia,
Well first of all I think its really bad the way you have been treated, how anyone could say that it will be normal for your baby to have diahorrea and sickness for a year is beyond me?
It is terrible that your doctors haven't supported you, I'm really sorry for that. Did your health visitor not give you any advice?
But hey, sounds like with your persevereance and research you have it all sorted, good for you.
Now the problem is that because Tyler is used to feeding little and often, he has carried that on in his bottle feeding. What you need to do now is to break the habit, very gradually so that its not causing you and Tyler too much stress. But don't get me wrong, Tyler will get upset having to wait.
What you need to do is, start with the one hour point, don't feed him any less than this, if hes wanting feeding after half an hour, talk to him, play with him, do anything that will take his mind off it. Once you have done this and he is going every hour, then start to lengthen the time. Don't feed him anything less than 1 hour 15 minutes, again occupy him, until he gets into that routine, and again up it every 15 minutes or so, until he gets a routine going.
What you are aiming to do, is to get him to feed no less than 3 hourly. It will be a bit of hard work, and you will have to find ways to distract him when you are trying to lengthen it. But he needs to have a decent length of time in between so that he will have a decent amount of milk, so he will get full up, and not want anything for another 3 hours.
You could also try this, if hes wanting a feed after half an hour or an hour, try giving him cooled boiled water instead of a feed, he may settle just for that extra half an hour before you need to give him a milk feed.
I went through a stage with my youngest, she was taking one oz every hour, you just need to break the cycle.
It will be well worth the hard work, and he will get upset, but it needs to be done, if uping the time every 15 minutes is too much do it in 5 minute stages, it may take longer, but again he needs to have that time in between for the milk to digest and give his stomach a rest.
This is your only option as you can't carry on with sleepless nights. This will also help later on when it is time for Tyler to sleep through the night without feeds. This will never happen if you don't nip it in the bud now.
Hope I have helped, please keep in touch an let me know how you get on.
Best wishes to you and Tyler
Jules

Hi Tyler

I just wanted to say that I know what you are going through. My last child Connor (now6) had major feeding problems with vomiting and diorea and nobody would listen to me. It took ten months but I finally put it down to a dairy intolerance but my doctor wouldn't listen, I spoke to my health visitor who spoke to my doctor who gave me the milk on prescription. Jules is right keep with your health visitor they are much more informed on things like that. Hope you sort out the timing thing.
Jayjay

Thanks Jules and Jayjay.

Well firstly my HV was practically just as bad, she told me to keep b/f and Tyler would just eventually grow out of his intolerance, when I told her that I had already stopped the B/F she just said, that was the easiest thing to do and so many new mums don't give B/F a chance, I was really hurt by this, coz although the B/F really knackered me out at times, I loved feeding Tyler, we both took to it like pros, it broke my heart when I stopped as Tyler kept going for my breast and it was quite difficult at first to get him used to a bottle, but now he's fine, he still reaches for my breast when he's upset for comfort and I've had to give into giving him a dummy, which now he loves when he's stressed.
Yes, I do give him boiled water, which sometimes he loves and sometimes he hates.
I know I have to be strong with the feeding, but he really does scream, he's even so impatient now as he has to wait a few minutes to have his bottle warmed, he's so used to milk on tap when B/F'ing. I will try today and let you know how I get on. Also, don't know if this is normal, but he strains for sometimes up to 3 hours to try and do his poo, which really upsets him, he's not constipated, but I think it's because he finds it hard to digest his milk, this is when I usually give him water.
Now I hate asking the Doc or HV for advise, they both seem to patronise me being a first time mom, but I'm sure it's only natural to woory so much.
Thanks again
Dee & Tyler

Dee,
The pooing problem dosen't help due to the fact he is constantly having milk, with no break in between, so it may settle down when the feeding is space out. If you use the technique of giving him water in between the feeds, when your trying to space them out, this will also help the digesting and pooing problem.
Best of luck.
Jules

Hi Jules,

Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner, but I thought I'd wait until I'd given your advice a go.

Thankfully the hourly feeds have gone, now it's 2 hourly, better I know, but I'm trying to hold him out to 3 hours, which is proving very difficult, he has water in between, but tends to spit it out now, he loved it before. I do sometimes get 2 1/2 - 3 hrs if he's totally exhausted and doesn't wake. No matter what I seem to do, I can't calm him, he literally holds his breath until his blue, temper tantrums already! screams and screams until he gets his milk. He tends to drink 4 oz's or sometimes 2. I guess he's just a hungry baby. Do you suggest after 4 months I start him on baby rice, to try to fill him up a little more, or do you think that's not wise with the sensitivity of his stomach.
His poo's are better, doesn't struggle so much, but struggles with bottom wind alot, his burping is really good and will sometimes belch without any help from me.
Any further suggestions are appreciated.
Dee.

Hi Dee,
Weel done, you've got him to 2 hourly.
I think you should still carry on what your doing, I know its hard, you need to find some other way to distract him in between, maybe a walk, or drive in the car, or music or tv on, play with him. If you can get to 2 hours you can get to 3 hourly, you are doing really well.
As for baby rice, I would try and put it off for a little longer if you can, because of his sensitive stomach and because it is now recomended that babies start weaning around 6 months, though it can be done ealier, but I really think you can do it. Give it another week or 2, if your still not having any luck then try a little baby rice, but you will then have to leave him the 3 hours at least by then, as you don't want to be giving loads of food 2 hourly as it could start to upset his stomach again.
But very well done, your a star to have got through this far, keep going
Best wishes
Jules