Angry Feeding

My son is 6 weeks old and gets very angry and crys when we feed him. With the bottle in his mouth he shakes his head from side to side, clinches his fists, tries to grab the bottle, face turns red and he gets all worked up. We try to calm him down with a pacifier or rocking motion and although that may take alittle he does eventually calm down. At that point If we try to feed him again it, the "angry baby" comes out again. If we catch him right and he begins to feed again, he is so worked up that he starts to choke. This problem has been going on for a while but I think it has gotten progressivly worse.

We burp him three times throughout a 5oz bottle. We usually get the first third of the bottle in him before he starts this behavior. We originally used a stage 1 Dr. Brown nipple but thought the frustruation might be from not getting enough formula. We moved to a less restrictive one which now spills out his mouth and down his neck. He had gas problems with the original Similac Advanced formula and we are now using the Enfamil Nutramigen which definetly helped his condition.

We have tried to keep him swaddled while feeding, completely unswaddling him, creating a completely calm feeding environment, 2 different nipples, powder, ready made formula, etc.

Any suggestions?

HELP PLEASE!!!!

Re: Angry Feeding

Do you think maybe he has reflux. I could be wrong but they seem like signs. I'm saying this not from experience but from reading post on here.

Re: Angry Feeding

I agree with the pp. It sounds like reflux to me. DS would do some of that sometimes and that is what it turned out to be. I would talk to your ped about this.

Re: Angry Feeding

We had that as a possibility but thought that reflux was always assosiated with the baby throwing up? He does spit up occassionally but I don't think he has ever done it once while in this "angry state". We are going to film the feeding with a camera phone and show the doctor at our next appointment (gotta love technology) to try to get to the bottom of this. I feel bad for the poor guy.....

Re: Angry Feeding

Re: Angry Feeding

UPDATE: With the help from other members, especially Theresa (PETeacher) who shared some of her own feeding\sleeping issues with me, we were able to make some head way. We started to burp him before giving him the bottle and it has helped some. Our thinking was that as he was sleeping he's digesting the food and that is causing the gas. When it was time to eat he would wake up and we would give him the bottle on top of that gas. We now are getting that built up gas out before giving him the bottle. That has helped but we still thought there was an issue.

Fast forward to today: We saw the ped. and he put "DS" (that's for you T) on a different forumla and gave him medication for silent refulx. Hope this works. That would be the best father's day gift I could get...


Thanks again Theresa (PETeacher) for your help!!!

Re: Angry Feeding

Travis, You know I am always here for you!!

Hopefully that new formula will work!! Justin seemed pretty good today!!! Let's cross our fingers!!