Hi there for the past week or so Connor has not wanted to eat his am bottle. I chalked it up to him just not being awake enough until the past couple of days. Now he's been crying when I try to get him to eat and I'm barely getting him to take 2oz at a time. Do you think he is developing an aversion to his bottles or could it be that he's teething and his gums are sore? For those of you whose kiddos have a food aversion at what age did it start?

Emma was 5 1/2 months old when the aversion hit rock bottom. After being put on Prevacid, (she was on Axid prior to), at 6 months she started eating better again. That slowly tapered off until the GI added Zantac in November. Now, she's taking her bottles MUCH better, although it's still a distraction game to get her to drink.

Sorry to hear Connor isn't eating as well. :(

Hi there,
I hate to say it, but with my twins that is when it started. Our peds GI told us it was because the reflexive sucking disappears and so they are left to choose to suck or not, and in the case of refluxers the choice is sometimes not! We did a lot of sleep feedings and unfortunately some coerced (rocked, sang, held the bottle up to their lips until they would take some) from 4-6 months. And while I still don't have any good suggestion for what else to do, I really wished we hadn't. My twins will be 9 months old tomorrow and we are still really struggling with food aversion to the point that we have to assess daily whether or not to put an NG in overnight. Looking back, I wish I hadn't of done those things so they didn't develop the negative association with food and if they didn't eat enough I figure they would have had to have a tube, but that is the same boat were in now and maybe we would have already taken care of the issue.
I don't know what to tell you, trust your instincts, make sure you keep in close contact with your doctor regarding hydration and weight gain, and try to stay sane. You might be lucky and maybe it is just teething and in a week or so it won't be a problem.
Good luck and I really hope it is teething!
Kristina

Mag's didn't start until solids were introduced. She never took much from a bottle anyway though... 6 ounces max.

She never took much from a bottle anyway though... 6 ounces max.

A day? :(

Noah's aversion began around 6 weeks-2 months, but I think that is is uncommonly early. At this age, he began to cry when I opened the refrigerator to get a bottle, and as I layed him back. My ped did not believe me until she saw it for herself at an appointment. Noah's aversion has had many colorful, disasterous stages that progress each and every day into something more difficult and tiring. PRAY that Connor has something else going on. I always think, what could I have done to prevent the aversion? I still beat myself up about it, but I really don't know if it could have been stopped. To this day, my only weapon against the aversion is ONLY FEED THE CHILD WHEN I AM 100% SURE THAT HE IS HUNGRY!!!! This all goes out the window when he's so short on cals for the day, but I try to wait bottles out until he really wants it.

Hi again,
I just wanted to second what Noah's mom said. If this is aversion, try to only feed when certain Connor is hungry. I also wonder what I did to make this aversion so bad with my boys and how I could of avoided it. The truth is, for many of us I don't think we could of avoided it. However, I now know that feeding them when they didn't want to eat has only made the aversion much, much worse and I wish I could go back and never have done that. I dream of the day when both boys will drink and eat enough without any struggling or fussing. Unfortunately I think that day is very far off in the future for us, hopefully it won't be for you.
Take care,
Kristina

I also wonder what I did to make this aversion so bad with my boys and how I could of avoided it. The truth is, for many of us I don't think we could of avoided it.
So true!

I dream of the day when both boys will drink and eat enough without any struggling or fussing. Unfortunately I think that day is very far off in the future for us, hopefully it won't be for you.
That day will come, Kristina! It may be a while, but it will come. Hang in there!

A day? :(


NO!! per bottle. About 20 ounces a day max. I would give her 6 ounces in a bottle and she rarely ever finished it.

Sarah's bottle aversion started about 4 months. I agree with Noah's mom- try to feed when hungry. I hope he is going through something else because this bottle aversion is a nightmare. Sarah also has alot of trouble in the morning- sometimes only taking 1 ounce. I'm not sure why the mornings are so difficult. I often think I should have never started the sleep feeds but otherwise she would definitely have a G tube by now. But maybe we will be heading in that direction anyway. I think most of Sarah's pain has improved and now it's alot of behavioral stuff. I don't know what to tell you but if he only takes alittle then just stop. Let us know how he's doing
karie

Hi everyone thanks for your replies! I hope you all had a merry Christmas!!! Connor has gotten worse with his eating. Today he would only take 2oz at each feeding. Even if I waited 4 hours in between he would drink and then cry. He's definately hungry but something is hurting him! The wierd thing is that he will take a full bottle before bed and in the middle of the night with no problem. A couple of weeks ago He wanted to eat constanly and now he won't eat. I just wish I knew if it was reflux related or something else.I can't tell if he has teeth coming in or not . I'm afraid the Zantac just isn't enough for him anymore and don't know what we will do if that is the case because he can't take any of the PPI's.

Walker and Curran never had aversions, thankfully. Iain had some aversion for fluids and it was within the first couple of months, just about the time he became a silent refluxer. It was put down to his multiple illnesses at the time as to why he was not so interested in drinking. We managed well regardless, but he really showed his problem with the intro to solids as he would NOT eat. A tiny jar of baby food would be a months worth of food for him (I am NOT exaggerating). We did not know until he was 14 months old what the problem was and we took the advice to force food onto him and even then we could only get a wee bit into him and I am sure it caused him some of the behavioural issues we are dealing with today in addition to his being so far behind in feeding skills.

PPIs are not for everyone. As I have said before, we had a dismal first run with prevacid and it was horrid. We tried it again on our peds urging and it is our miracle drug. Just because a PPI does not work the first time around does not mean that it can not be tried again despite how awful the prior experience. Our pharmacy was wonderful and only filled 10 days worth for us to try when we did it the second time around as it is really expensive. Once we realized we were able to get some into him to make it worthwhile and we did not have the liquid green poops and shrieking at night we filled the rest of the script. Even with paying a dispensing fee two times it would have saved us loads of money if it did not work the second time around.

Hi Leigh I'm so scared to try the PPI's again because we tried them 2 times and both times he had horrible runny poop screamed non stop and started projectile vomiting. I think I am going to take Connor to his ped tomorrow for a weight check. He hasn't been weighed in about a month maybe he needs his Zantac dose upped. Last weight check he was 14.5 pounds and he is currently taking 1ml of Zantac 4 times per day.

Well, crap. I wish Connor was eating better. I know what you're going through, but, unfortunately, its so hard to pinpoint why he eats when he does, and why he doesn't when he doesn't. One ped that Noah saw has a daughter with the same problem, so I always trusted his explanations since he was so attentive to her reflux. He put it simply. Noah's random gorging (40 ounces per day at one point) was simply due to the fact that he felt well and was into his bottles since it actually didn't hurt. He doesn't even do this anymore, but he used to eat less than 15 ounces all week, and then one day, he'd max out close to 40!!!:???: I hope things perk up for Connor. Let us know what the ped says. That's too bad about the PPI problems...

Hi Leigh I'm so scared to try the PPI's again because we tried them 2 times and both times he had horrible runny poop screamed non stop and started projectile vomiting. I think I am going to take Connor to his ped tomorrow for a weight check. He hasn't been weighed in about a month maybe he needs his Zantac dose upped. Last weight check he was 14.5 pounds and he is currently taking 1ml of Zantac 4 times per day.

I understand. That is quite a bit when he reacted that way 2 times. :shock: Our first trial was so very wretched I am looking back to how much I was leaning towards not doing a second try as I quite simply could not deal with the shrieking and liquid green poops.

I hope that your ped visit went well. Did your ped up the dose? And, have you tried using the zantac fewer times a day, but larger doses? The smaller and more frequent makes sense for a kiddo of Connors age, but I also see others who do it the other way with success.

So, how much did he weigh in at?:-D

Hi Leigh, he weighed in at 15 pounds 8oz so he gained about a pound since his last visit at 4 months old. The ped upped his dose to 1.2ml's then today I called his GI and they upped it to 1.3ml's still 4 times per day. Hopefully this will help and they want to see him in the next 10 days!! I just don't know where we will go from here if the Zantac stops working.

I hope that the Zantac increase will help Connor. Did you try Prilosec and Prevecid? That's awful that he reacted badly to such a valuable reflux medicine. Hmmm... I'm not too educated on other meds, but my GI always says he has a huge list of meds that he could put Noah on, but the PPI's are preferable. So, maybe there is something besides Zantac that is not a PPI. Have you asked?

Hi Leigh, he weighed in at 15 pounds 8oz so he gained about a pound since his last visit at 4 months old. The ped upped his dose to 1.2ml's then today I called his GI and they upped it to 1.3ml's still 4 times per day. Hopefully this will help and they want to see him in the next 10 days!! I just don't know where we will go from here if the Zantac stops working.

I have not checked the dose, but I am sure that he is able to move up still (of course, this is an uneducated guess as I have not checked the dose!) Zantac can "time out" and lose its effectiveness and that is why we are usuing it as needed here along with the prevacid. Having said that, PLENTY of children here on IRD are doing just FINE on it alone. Cross that bridge when you come to it and know that your GI likely has other meds in his arsenal to try out.

Yippeee on the weight gain! A pound is a lovely number, isn't it?! :-D Seeing him again in 10 days is great. I guess they are going to keep a close eye on his weight and response to the dose change. How wonderful that they seem to be in proactive mode. GERDlings need that.