5 week old baby possetting a lot?

Question

My 5 week old is bring back a lot of milk up, mainly at the night feeds. Last night she drank 4.5oz (the whole bottle), then screamed for more. We gave her another ounce in a bottle then she sat there and brought the entire lot back up, looked sorry for herself for a minute then cried to be re-fed. We gave her 4oz again and she dropped off shortly after. This kind of thing happens quite a bit and dont know what's causing it if anything. She might just be a sicky baby. We use Avent No.2 teats (she was 5 weeks early and SCBU told us to use them straight away and not to bother with No.1 or newborn teats). She is on SMA gold and I am wondering if its the amount of milk she needs to be satisfied that her little tummy can't cope with, she is quite a hungry baby taking about 35oz per day.

Help ..... by the way the HV told us not to use SMA White but we are seriously thinking of trying it

Answer 1

TRY winding her after a few ounces and use 'Cow & Gate'

Answer 2

Possetting

Answer 3

Try winding her every so often during the feeds.

Also, have you tried giving her a little water after her feed, rather than more milk? She may be thirsty rather than hungry.

It does seem like perhaps she is drinking too much milk if she is throwing up after the second bottle. Their tummies are only little. She could be crying because she is griping rather than still hungry.

You can put a teaspoon of gripe water in her bottle too, which would help with the wind.

Also, reading what Fawne said, I started my son on solid food at about 10 or 11 weeks, even though now they recommend about 18 weeks here (I believe). He seemed to need it.

I have not tried the bottle method, I just mixed it up with breast milk (or you can use formula) and made it extra runny and gave it to him on a spoon. He went from just milk to having a full meal of solids a day, instead of building him up a spoon at a time. It made a world of difference!

CG.

Answer 4

I have two daughters and the first had to be on soy formula because of that and my second is on a Hypo-Allergenic formula. It helped a great deal. One thing that happened and I don't know the relation, but when my youngest was 3 weeks, she was spitting up almost everything she ate. So I took her to the Dr. & it turns out that she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). Like I said, I have no idea how that is a symptom of a UTI but it is worth looking in to. By the way, the urine sample they took in the Dr's office came back with no infection, but the sample they cultured came back positive... if you go this route I'd see if they could culture the urine too!

Answer 5

All the above advice is good and can all be applied to a baby with the symptoms your daughter has. The key is to find out which one is right, since it unlikely to be all of them! It is not in the best interests of your daughter to swap her brand of formula often or to switch her to soy-based formula if she is not in fact, lactose intolerant. It is possible to have lactose sensitivity tested but I'm not sure if they do this on young babies. Reflux is also a very common cause of posseting. The acid from their stomach regurgitates up their oesophagus and stops them being able to hold down their milk. A baby with reflux can quite often scream as soon as this happens, since they are in a lot of pain. Your family doctor or a pediatrician is the best person to diagnose how to help your bubs I'm afraid! Here in New Zealand we have an orginisation called Plunket, of registered nurses with lots of experience with babies, and you can ask for help there, or be referred to parenting centres that focus on solving feeding or sleeping problems. Maybe there is something similar near you?

Answer 6

My little boy was the same but he lost a lot of weight, he was in and out hospital for 12months, we tried all the different milks including soya. The hospital found nothing wrong all they said was it should eventually stop, it did sort of stop at about 13months. Thank god he is healthy now, just persist with the problem as long as they are not losing weight. Hope all goes well i know its hard.

Answer 7

I had that problem with my premature twins and I went and got a very small amount of baby formula (oatmeal not rice) and mixed a very tiny amount in the bottle. Then I cut the hole on the bottle slightly bigger so that she could suck it through the nipple.

Some parents do not agree with this because it is not the age that children are supposed to start eating cereal however it did help with the constant hunger problem. So you can try it at your own risk.

Answer 8

Well first off. Drs are sometimes wrong. A 5 wk old should NOT be using a number two nipple. She is gulping too much. Switch to a new born nipple. Secondly eight ounces is too much for her tummy, hense the throwing up. Thirdly she could be crying because she is lactose intolerant. Try switching to a soy based product and a number one nipple see how that goes.

Answer 9

When my daughter was a few days old she used to bring up her feeds all the time. She was on SMA Gold. We changed her to Farley's formula and she was fine after that.

Answer 10

He could be allergic to cows milk or just lactose intolerant. Could you ask your GP to try him on a milk free prescription formula (not soya, soya allergy often accompanies milk and egg allergy) such as Nutramigen or Pepti-junior, and see if he improves. Good luck.
(Please avoid soya formula, the food standards agency no longer recommend it routinely, it contains lots of sugars (fructose) and mimics oestrogen in the body).

Answer 11

My baby is 9 weeks old and she is sick quite frequently. Try not to worry apparently it always looks like she has sicked up more than she actually has.

P.S SMA has bought out ''SMA STAYDOWN'' designed to help babies who are sick alot. Think it is in a purple tin.