https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 08 May 2026 18:36:15 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1993736 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 19:00:00 +0000 BadgerMom 1993736@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>That is really good to know about the faster flow nipple! I've actually been wondering to myself if that would help. I'll have to order some faster flows and try it out too :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1993525 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:17:41 +0000 Mae 1993525@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Nskillet: I don't think that is it because she doesn't really like solid food yet. She makes a yuck face for pretty much every food we give her, so I don't think she likes the taste of it better than formula. Also she is MSPI so whole milk is not an option! If she doesn't grow out of it by the time she is a year I think we'll have to explore like... hemp milk or something. </p> <p>@BadgerMom: thanks :) </p> <p>Soo little update. I'm not confident we are through this yet, but we've discovered two things that are helping (just for reference for others to try!). First is changing how we hold her. We used to cradle her, but she is so obsessed with trying to roll over allll the time now and she was doing it in our arms. So we started holding her with her back to our stomachs, head in armpit area, which makes it much harder for her to try to roll over. Second we switched to a faster flow nipple. I think since she's been eating more she was getting bored because it would take her almost 10 minutes to eat an 8oz bottle at level 3. We switched to level 4 nipple today and she sucked down her 8oz bottle in like 5 minutes and seemed way more interested in it again. </p> <p>Fingers crossed these help moving forward! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1993434 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 11:02:08 +0000 BadgerMom 1993434@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO will be 7 months next week and has always been a decent eater. But lately he's been completely hit or miss. Sometimes he'll suck down an 8oz bottle like he's never seen food and other times he is so distracted by everything and anything that I can hardly get him to eat more than 2oz. I guess I have no idea if it's normal, but hope it makes you feel better that a baby with little to no feeding issues in the past is acting the exact same way as your LO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1993413 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:44:13 +0000 Nskillet 1993413@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: could this be a formula issue? My 2.5 year old LO began rejecting formula at 8-9 months of age. When working with our ped we were informed some LOs once eating solids are smart enough to know formula isn't tasty. We began whole milk with her and turned a major corner. Is the baby super fussy from hunger when eating this inconsistently? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1992925 Sat, 20 Dec 2014 14:05:41 +0000 Mae 1992925@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littleredhairedgrl: It will be so much better if she consolidates her bottles! When Fia went to 6 then 5 then eventually 4 bottles it was really awesome because every good meal was like.. whew, 1/4 of her food for the day done! The only down side is then when she has a bad time with a bottle its more stressful because we have less chances to feed her. I really shouldn't complain because things are a lot better now than they used to be. But I really think I am scarred for life from the bottle refusal and now that she eats (mostly) willingly as long as we follow her (ever changing) rules I'm so desperate to not get back to that place. Just... ugh. Shouldn't babies just.. eat? If nothing else, they should eat. Sigh. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1992621 Fri, 19 Dec 2014 23:16:53 +0000 littleredhairedgrl 1992621@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: aww look at that face! :bummed: boy is this stuff hard. it definitely takes a toll on your confidence and abilities but I'm really just hoping and praying that once we begin solids things will get a little better. I wonder if when we begin EI the therapist may recommend the same baby led feeding as you are doing considering A's refusals as well.. I'll definitely mention it to them. I just cannot wait for the day when A is taking a few bottles with higher volume rather than all these little feeds. she needs a normal bedtime and so do I!! </p> <p>Wall me anytime you want to vent about feedings. I know it all too well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1992497 Fri, 19 Dec 2014 20:09:35 +0000 Mae 1992497@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@littleredhairedgrl: I'm so sorry, you're more in the thick of it than I am and it sucks so bad. I've never been more stressed in my life than when I'm scared about whether LO will take her next bottle (and the one after that). I keep trying to remind myself that this time is limited. By the time we get to a year or 18 months she should be eating mostly food rather than formula and I swear to god, I will let this child eat whatever she wants as long as she EATS. Not that I won't try to push the vegetables, but if all she'll eat crackers and bananas, so be it. lol And that may be all she eats. To add a bit of levity.. this was her "eating" broccoli today. First try. She was not impressed lol. (and then she only took half of her next bottle. sigh.) </p> [attach=4140/14/nguwlc.450x600.image.jpg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1992485 Fri, 19 Dec 2014 19:54:19 +0000 littleredhairedgrl 1992485@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: I definitely feel you on feeding issues :( I'm ripping my hair out with A every day. seemed better for a bit with Prilosec and feeding her while sleeping but that is getting harder and harder now that she has more alert times. we are now adding Polycal to my milk since we don't know if A has an allergy or not yet and she was averaging around 27ox a day with the extra calories from the Polycal but yesterday and today she's been refusing most of her bottles or taking an ounce and then freaking out.. urgh </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990960 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 22:17:44 +0000 Mae 1990960@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Tanjowen: she's 7 mo old so... sure! lol. But no signs. No nubs, not chewing or drooling extra, no fever or red cheeks. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990957 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 22:16:05 +0000 Tanjowen 1990957@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: Any chance she's teething? When my LO is teething, he will only do about 2 oz here and there during the day. Very frustrating, and I tried to do bottles around nap and bedtime when he was more tired and less likely to fight. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990898 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:40:23 +0000 Mae 1990898@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@spaniellove: i toy with the idea of not tracking because honestly-- i KNOW what she eats and if she has a good or bad day. But I keep thinking I may want to look back and see patterns to her eating. </p> <p>@Jass: We found that too. Her eating got so much better when I went from five 6 oz bottles every 3 hours to four 8 oz bottles every 4 hours. She eats 730/1130/330/730. So today she ate 8oz/6oz/8oz/4oz. I'd have felt better about it if she took 6 at night. Ah well! Trying to not be crazy about it. And yes. I don't think my LO has gained any width in the last 3-4 months. She got into 6 mo clothes pretty early around 3-4 months but she is still in most of them at 7 months! She has gained a lot of length so she is in 9mo sleepers but she's trim in the waist. Never thought a trim waistline would concern me :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990854 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:23:39 +0000 Jass 1990854@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: yeah I know tracking every ounce, mine is a slow gainer, at 7 months she wears some of her 3 months clothes even now I am struggling with feeding thsee days, she is too distracted.<br /> To ensure she takes a good 6 ounce bottle at bedtime there needs to be 4 hour difference between her last feed </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990814 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:11:18 +0000 spaniellove 1990814@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: Tracking every ounce will drive you crazy! The system I came up with was to hold off on washing bottles until the end of the day and eyeball how many bottles were unfinished. If I started to notice a couple bottles with something left or just anything out of the ordinary for a few days in a row, I knew something was up. Eventually we stopped paying attention to that too, because when something was wrong he'd have other things clearly wrong too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990763 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:54:48 +0000 pinkb 1990763@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO use to be very particular, and I would have to remove us from any distraction we might be around. As she got older the only thing I remember making much of a difference was changing the flow of the nipples. It helped us tremendously. I just tried to worry as little as possible, she was gaining weight and doing good. But even at 2, LO still has a lot of days where she doesn't eat much. Its hard not to worry. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990762 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:54:44 +0000 Mae 1990762@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jass: that's what I keep trying to tell myself. I mean for a long time 20oz/day was our goal and if we hit 24 it was a great day. But also her growth slowed way down once her eating issues started and she's been losing % (not enough to be worried, but enough to notice/keep an eye on). When she started gobbling up 32 oz/day it was like omg finaaalllly i don't have to worry about her eating at all. she's eating a lot and happily and it's awesome! And she ate 26 oz today so really not a bad day over all. Just particularly weird that she only ate 4oz at bed time because she really always finishes that (8oz) bottle. I'll be so glad when she is just eating food and we're done with bottles and tracking! I've tracked literally every quarter ounce she's eaten her entire life. It's exhausting. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990750 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:47:06 +0000 Jass 1990750@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: it's pretty normal I think over period of time for babies to eat less, my baby who is a good eater overall is having less formuls, at her 6 month appointment our per told to feed 28 ounce formula maximum and introduce solids, at other mom group discussion some moms were discusing formula consumption and some babies with reflux have lower consumption like 20- 22 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990723 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:37:08 +0000 spaniellove 1990723@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@twodoghouse: It was a weird pattern and only made sense in retrospect. After being told by doctors he didn't have reflux anymore I just waved them off. He got up to 7 oz/bottle and the therapists were concerned that they could still hear him swallowing down acid and see him arching so they brought up silent reflux. Then his feedings went crazy and he projectile vomited daily, and I think he's only gained a few ounces in the past month. So his new ped says definitely reflux. When you know what it is the second time around I think it might be a little less scary because you have a few tricks up your sleeve already! And btw I'm so glad to hear that Blake is gaining well! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990694 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:25:59 +0000 twodoghouse 1990694@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I don't have much advice, but I just wanted to say that you should be so proud of yourself! You have come so far and it's awesome that she's doing so well. I hope you can get over this bump and get back to her improved eating! </p> <p>@spaniellove: Hey, it's so good to see you around here again! Hope you and J are doing well! This is really interesting to me. Alice has been off her reflux meds for about 8 weeks now I think and her bottle intake is really down. She still nurses but my supply is low so it's really not making up for less formula. She has hardly been gaining while Blake is gaining really well. I'm wondering if she's dealing with some reflux again and I didn't realize it. Maybe I'll put her back on the meds (we have half a bottle left from before we quit the meds) and see how she does. Thanks for mentioning this! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990683 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:22:16 +0000 Applesandbananas 1990683@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: that sounds like a very well-thought out strategy! I hope she starts getting more into solids soon :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990677 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:19:39 +0000 Mae 1990677@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@spaniellove: you're back! And yes, it does suck. Just last week I was telling my husband that I was simultaneous SO HAPPY that feeding her had become so wonderfully easy and also had this impending sense of doom because I knew that she (any baby) would have periods of fussier eating and when it happened it would be so much worse after we knew how awesome it could be to have a kid who just... ate. Reliably. With no problems. </p> <p>@Applesandbananas: We are doing baby led weaning (due to her food refusal issues, it has been suggested to us that we should never put food in her mouth, that from the start solids should be completely baby led so that she felt in control and hopefully would never refuse like she did with bottles) and she isn't really into it yet. We're about 1.5 months in and she tastes stuff but doesn't consume much. She isn't excited about eating at all and we don't push it, we just do solids once per day and once she seems bored we stop. I'm so looking forward to when she actually wants to eat solids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990664 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:10:58 +0000 Applesandbananas 1990664@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: my LO took bottles at daycare and went through a fussy/distracted phase. I don't recall when it was, but they had to adhere to a strict one hour window so I started sending 4 bottles of 3oz instead of 3 bottles of 4oz and they would offer a fourth bottle and/or extra solids. </p> <p>How is your LO doing with solids? Can you offer more solids? </p> <p>I want to say around 9/10m, LO drastically dropped his daycare intake from 12oz to 9oz, then 6oz as he ramped up on solids. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990660 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:09:51 +0000 spaniellove 1990660@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>LO is 6 months and the last week or two has suddenly been much fussier than usual...that together with his monthlong bout of vomiting has tipped us off to the fact that his reflux is back. I feel awful that his EI therapists have been trying to tell us when it wasn't as bad and I wanted to believe he was fine. But a month ago, maybe longer? His feeding amounts dropped drastically and I tried to find different excuses and assumed things would go back to normal. The only thing that's helping him go from 3-5 oz back to 5-6 oz a bottle is going back on Prilosec. It sucks that after months of this the two of us are still chatting about this!</p> <p>ETA: Sorry I'm not able to tell you about "normal"! :sad: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/whats-normalhow-to-deal-with-fussy-bottle-fed-baby#post-1990648 Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:04:14 +0000 Mae 1990648@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I need some perspective on what is normal and how others deal with their babies being fussy with bottle feeding. </p> <p>I'm a FTM and we have a long history of troubled eating, literally from day 1 with LO, including breastfeeding issues, EPing, reflux, MSPI, and several weeks of complete bottle refusal (could only feed her when she was asleep). We dug our way out of the worst times very very very slowly and only in the last month has my 7mo been eating in a way that I think approaches normal. For her that means that either I or my husband can feed her, we can feed her whenever she is hungry (used to be only right before a nap when she was tired), and we can feed her in any room of the house (used to be only in our bedroom). We do still need complete still/quiet to feed her and there can't be anyone else in the room when she is eating or she gets too distracted, and her bottle has to be heated to 98-101 degrees (seriously she won't take it at 97 or 102, she's crazy lol). </p> <p>This has been working for us and she's been doing GREAT eating four 8-oz bottles per day (which is so amazing because for the longest time she was only eating 20-24 oz/day and was totally inconsistent about how much she would eat when). The last few days though she has been even more distracted that usual while eating. She has been playing with her feet a ton, trying to grab our faces, trying to look around, etc. I think this is pretty normal for 7 months though? </p> <p>Today was her worst eating day in a while. She was fussy and was starting/stopping eating a lot for all of her bottles, didn't finish her second bottle, and only took half of her last bottle. </p> <p>I'm trying to be chill about it because it seems like I know others say their babies got very distracted and sometimes fussier eating around this age and I know the worst thing we can ever do with her is try to force the issue because that makes her absolutely refuse to eat. But of course this is all triggering my fears of her relapsing into total food refusal again. </p> <p>So tell me. What do you do when your baby is fussy at the bottle? Starting/stopping a lot? Getting distracted by their feet and the walls and god knows what else? Do you stop and offer again later (before their next normal meal time)? Do you just let it go and assume they'll be hungry enough to eat better at the next meal? I need some tips on how people with "normal" eating babies deal with this because I think I am probably blowing it out of proportion due to our history and my fears. </p>