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5 Month Old baby refusing the bottle and started weaning on purée’s

Hi All, 

I’m at my wits end and really after some advice, experiences support etc at this difficult time as my baby won’t drink from her bottle during the day/evening anymore she plays with it but gets frustrated at times as she does want it (she is my first). However she will happily drink milk at 11pm and 3/4am without hesitation. 

Bit of background - 

My baby will be 5 months old on 11/04/20 and I started weaning her with some baby porridge when she was about 4.5months old - she never really took to it and only did some days with a break between so she wouldn’t be fed up. On Saturday just been 04/04/20 2 days short of being 21 weeks I started her on Ellas kitchen banana purée (she loved it) for 2 days both morning and evening (she only has about 7 small spoonfuls then would get bored so we’d stop), then moved onto apple for 2 days and have now just finished the pear for 2 days. She likes it and actually prefers them cold from the fridge not warmed up. So that’s all gone well. She hasn’t had a reaction to the foods so far anyway. 
Solids are usually fed between 8-9am and 5-6pm. 
She has always been a fussy drinker, I mean always! We started off BF but unfortunately only lasted 5days which I was gutted about then moved onto bottles (started with tommee tippee but moved to MAM which have always been fab) and she was very content as she’s a big drinker (I couldn’t give her enough to begin with). She always suffered from Colic so has been on Colief drops (MAM bottles helped with this) which help her loads. As we’re now weaning we have started to wean her off the Colief slowly and this started on 03/04 (we’ve done this before at 3.5 months old but was too early as she still suffered so straight back on it). However I’d say for the last week or so she hasn’t been wanting to drink milk but in a way has still wanted it. It’s now got to the point where she just refuses it. I’m unsure if I’ve given her a negative experience because I often persevere to get her to drink it as I know she wants it I just have to have a bit of patience but I feel now this has caused her to not want it recently, maybe I persevered too much by switching positions we’ve always jiggled my legs as always found it helped her drink because of the build of gas from the milk (I know weird - it was do anything to get her to drink). She goes through phases of being fussy but never as bad as this as majority of the time she drinks brilliantly. 

I don’t think she’s teething because her nappies are normal (wet and dirty - they dirty isn’t as lose and regular anymore because we’re cutting down the Colief and I presume the solids change things too), she doesn’t have rosey cheeks, no white tips or hard gums and it’s the usual hand eating like before. - I have given her bonjela and teething granules to help just in case but no difference. 

I’ve also tried the milk as warm temp, room temp and cold temp - makes no difference. 

Also given Calpol before the evening feed (which she won’t take anymore)  before bed for the last 2 nights thinking maybe she has a sore throat and it makes no difference. 

Her temperature is normal always between 36.5 and 37 degrees.  

One catch to all this - she had little spots and red rash on the inside of her hands and a couple of friends said it looks to be hand foot and mouth disease - god knows where’s she’s got it from because we’ve been so clean because of the coronavirus at the moment but I understand it’s a virus. I thought it was just from her clenching her hands tight when frustrated from playing etc so I can’t remember when they first appeared it could of been about a week ago - and a side affect is they don’t want to drink as much. However I can’t see any sores inside her mouth that looks fine. I haven’t spoken to the doctors because of the coronavirus pandemic and was seeing if it will pass first because they don’t want me wasting their time. 

I’ve tried to give her cooled boiled water she takes it now and again but hardly so I’m worried she’s going to get dehydrated. 

We also tried last night for the first time that at the 4am feed give her water as she never drinks loads then anyway and see when she wakes up at 7 she should take a feed better but nope made no difference. The only hope of this is that she does tend to drink 8/9oz at 11pm so I know she’s ok then just doesn’t drink much in the day from waking up at 7 to going to bed at 7 say it’s about 12oz and that’s a struggle to get her to drink that we have to walk around the room or keep trying every 5mins. 

She’s happy in herself thankfully but I’m worried she’s not getting enough. I have also tried feeding her milk before and after the solids/purée but makes no difference she still doesn’t really want it that’s both morning and evening. 

The reason we started weaning before 6months was because she’s a big baby, was drinking loads (still fussy though) before this especially at night so we felt it may help fill her up a little she loves the purées not porridge/risk though. She weighs around 19lbs 5oz so is good on her centile. I don’t want to take her off the solids because we’ve started well and she enjoys it. 

Also it’s the same formula. 

I just don’t know what to do - has anyone else experienced something similar or has advice please? Should I ring 111 or the GP? 

Many thanks for reading this all, from a very worried mother in a very worrying world. 

Replies

  • Hi 

    I’m new here and have a 4 month old baby girl. 

    I haven’t had any trouble feeding and haven’t started weaning so can’t offer any advice but I would suggest you speak to your GP or health visitor about  all your concerns. Whenever i can GP about my baby the first question they ask is always ‘is baby feeding ok?’ and from ur post it seems she’s not feeding as much as before and you seem concerned so I think you should contact them. They may be able to help or at least calm your worries. Health visitor might know a lot more too, worth a try. 

    Hope it helps x
  • VicJ93VicJ93 New
    edited May 25, 2020 10:33PM
    Thank you for your reply and your advice, very nice you took the time to reply.

    We spoke to a doctor and turns out it was hand foot and mouth as thought. Thankfully she was back to her usual fussy but drinking fine self. Luckily she’s a good weight and it didn’t affect her too much. 

    :) X
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