Week Three…
September 30, 2008 at 8:09 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments… of work and daycare.
And Baby O is staging his own mini-rebellion. Of sorts.
He’s stopped taking bottles. By that I mean he refuses a bottle multiple times. He started last week – which was the catalyst for me to take him to the pediatrician. And he did it this weekend, too, when I tried to use the leftover bottle from daycare.
He nursed just fine, of course, so it’s not like I could blame it on the ear pain, either.
Yesterday he took only 4 ounces at daycare. Worse yet, I had plans with girlfriends last night, so he didn’t eat before bed either – J offered him a bottle which he refused.
I nursed him at 3, his normal time, at 6, and then again at 7:30 this morning.
The pediatrician told me I shouldn’t worry about how much or how little he eats at daycare. She said that, as long as he’s making up for it when he’s home, he’ll continue to put on weight and grow just fine. She even told me that her own kids never ate more than 8 oz when they were with their DCP.
So I’m trying not to worry too much. Which is hard. My kid’s only in the 10th percentile for weight. He can’t really afford to lose too much, you know? But he does seem to be making up for it when he’s home. So I think it’s just something we’re going to have to ride out, and hopefully he’ll take a bottle when he’s really hungry.
But just in case, as a sort of test, today I made one of his bottles from the milk I pumped last night. Instead of thawing a bag from my frozen stash.
Wouldn’t it be ironic that my kid doesn’t like frozen milk? Because, you know, I only have about 450 ounces of milk down in the deep freeze in the cellar.
I’m trying not to worry. He’ll eat when he’s hungry.
Right?
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Serenity Now! 
Yes, he’ll certainly eat when he’s hungry, though it’s hard to remember that sometimes when it becomes frustrating. Babies may be stubborn at times, but they won’t starve themselves.
He may just miss the nursing closeness he had with you for a while, so it could just be his way of adjusting to the new situation. (Which he will.) He’ll soon learn that this is how it is. He’s a smartie and may just be trying to manipulate things a bit: “Hrm, if I don’t take the bottle, then I get a boobie. Yes, must refuse the bottle to get the boobie.”
I’ll be curious to hear how the fresh milk goes today. My other two thoughts were that maybe the frozen milk was a little “old” (even if it’s not really by date) or that maybe you’d had something to eat that day that is bothering him now. Not saying that’s it, but I’m just trying to think of different possibilities.
Hope today and tonight go better!!!
D
Comment by andbabybmakesthree— September 30, 2008 #
I had this same issue with Willow when she started daycare. She refused bottles from us, from the daycare provider, etc. If it was breast milk, if it was formula, we changed nipples etc.
She DID finally eat when she was hungry. Especially since O has obviously used bottles before–he knows what its for. He’ll eat.
(Maybe he wants more solids?–I have my daycare provider feed Willow one of her solids during the day–it seems to help her hunger issues at the moment.)
Comment by Delenn— September 30, 2008 #
Totally unrelated, but my son refused the bottle when he was getting his top front teeth. It lasted about a week until the two teeth actually broke through. I think his gums were just too tender for the nipple. The only time I could get him to eat from the bottle was after he was asleep (naps and bedtime).
Comment by Lisa— September 30, 2008 #
If it’s just the frozen milk he seems to have a problem with it could be a lipase issue. I think around 6 months my daughter’s milk consumption went down during the day, she was eating solids and getting busier so she wasn’t as interested.
Comment by Suzanne— September 30, 2008 #
I think it’s pretty common for babies to nurse more at night when mom goes back to work. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, it’s called reverse cycling. There’s information at kellymom.com.
I hope things get easier for all of you!
Comment by ultimatejourney— September 30, 2008 #
My baby is another who refused a bottle at daycare. Even now, she still only takes between 9 – 12 ounces a day. And she makes up for it by nursing more often at night.
Not much you can do about it. You can lead a baby to a bottle but you can’t make him drink 😛
Seriously though, be prepared for him to nurse more at night and eventually he’ll come around.
Comment by Chris— September 30, 2008 #
I was going to say what the others had, please don’t throw tomatoes at me. He may very well stop sleeping through the night to make up the nursing. Since he has been going several hours at night without nursing, he may switch that time to daytime. Good luck. Mine took a bottle all the way until about 9-10 mths and stopped just in time for me to go back to work in November. I’m not really sure what will happen then.
Comment by Leslie— October 1, 2008 #