Newborn doesn’t eat..please offer suggestions

[Anonymous]

If the baby isn't crying or uncomfortable after eating, I don't think it's any kind of intolerance or allergy.

I would ask your ped about possibly seeing a GI pediatric specialist. Scans may need to be done.

My nephew had gastric volvulus, but that was discovered on day 2 or 3 of birth. I'm not sure a newborn could make it 9 days with something so serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the baby isn't crying or uncomfortable after eating, I don't think it's any kind of intolerance or allergy.

I would ask your ped about possibly seeing a GI pediatric specialist. Scans may need to be done.

My nephew had gastric volvulus, but that was discovered on day 2 or 3 of birth. I'm not sure a newborn could make it 9 days with something so serious.

He doesn’t spit up, arch his back, or gassy. He doesn’t cry after feedings either. He really only cried when we keep trying to wake him up or we do a diaper change.

[Anonymous]

How is it going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I scheduled a lactation consultant and an ent appointment for him. I wonder if a tongue tie is the reason he didn’t eat well on the breast for 5 days. My nipples are small and we had to use a nipple shield but he still falls asleep a lot.

And the most important, we feel very dumb because the Avent bottles are apparently supposed to line up. My husband looked it up and that’s what he said. I looked at reviews and many said that these bottles are very hard for their baby to eat from.

We did 6 feeds already following the 2.5 hour schedule and he sucked down 2oz. It still took a while but he was done in about 30 minutes. I’m really wondering if the bottle was making him so tired trying to eat from that he became more tired and couldn’t finish it. I personally didn’t like the comotomo bottles ( very hard to unscrew and get cap off) but the Dr.Browns did work. He took 2oz every feed. We did try the Avent bottles with the parts lined up, and he was better but still had a hard time eating. I noticed he had to really use all of his mouth and jaw muscles to eat with the Avent bottle. Now it’s easier and he isn’t trying as hard.

OP, I'm glad that things are starting to improve!

[Anonymous]

Haven’t read the replies but in our case this was food allergies. If formula, change the formula. If breast, start cutting out foods and see what changes. You need to cut for at least a whole week to see effects though.

[Anonymous]

You could ask your ped about adding a little formula to your pumped milk to up the calories he gets at each feed without upping the volume too much. And a faster flow nipple sounds like a good idea too.

I used a cold wet cloth to wake my babies to feed. And I'd always burp and change the diaper between breasts to get them up again for round two. Maybe do that after he finishes half the bottle and before he's totally knocked out. Also I would burp by holding them into a kind of a seated position on my lap and moving them back / forth / around. I did it bc it was more effective for my kids, but also it's less comfortable than a snuggly shoulder. Maybe that could help?

I hope he wakes up for you soon. You're doing a great job mama!

[Anonymous]

This was my second kid. In addition to a lactation consultant, consider an infant feeding therapist. Their advice on positioning and chin/cheek support made the difference for us. Also, Lansinoh and Pigeon are the bottle brands most recommended by lactation consultants if you breastfeed as well. However, we had success with Chicco Duo.

It gets better, I swear. By the time my kid was 4 months old, all the feeding problems disappeared.