We've started having some trouble with Elias during his bedtime bottle, and I thought I'd post about it on here and see if anybody had any ideas about what on earth my child is doing and what we should do about it! Here's the deal: For about the past week, Elias has stopped wanting to sit through his bedtime bottle. (He eats 3 meals a day with bottle + solid food, then just an 8 oz. bottle at bedtime, 7:00pm.) He gets REALLY squirmy as if he's trying to roll over, like flailing around and trying to roll out of my lap. This is bizarre behavior for him - he loves to eat and usually sits so nicely to be fed. He still sits nicely for his other bottles, it's just the last one that he's suddenly doing this.
I tried moving up to the fast flow nipples, and that helped some, but certainly didn't stop the writhing. Then we thought maybe he just wasn't hungry enough for the full bottle, but he screams whenever we try to take it away. He has stopped napping in the evenings, so he's usually very tired and ready for bed at this point. But he's also hungry, so I don't understand why it's such a struggle to get him to eat. It's almost like he wants to lay on his belly for the bottle. This very well may be the case, because he spends most of his time on his belly, and he does most of his sleeping on his belly. But I can't let him lay on his belly for his bottle. (Can I?)
Does anybody have any thoughts on why this would suddenly be a problem and what we should do about it? Seriously, it's like a wrestling match trying to get him to drink this bottle, but he screams if we take it away so that makes me think he does actually want to drink it all. What's the deal?! Any thoughts?
6 comments:
Maybe try giving it to him in a different way. We used to feed Price his last bottle in his bouncy seat and he always seemed to really like it. Then we would cuddle and rock afterwards. I thought maybe he just didn't need the bottle anymore but since he screams, i guess that's not the case. Strange! Hope it gets better soon!
Maybe you could try giving it to him a half hour earlier. Maybe he is just too sleepy at that point to enjoy it. We've started giving Elliott a last cup/bottle of the night at about 6:30 and then he goes down to bed at about 7:30/8. We moved back the time on the feeding to help him go down without a feeding (something he has been accustomed to his entire life).
We have the same problem with Eli. It almost seems to me like he just wants to play with the bottle...but he should be hungry too. I usually take it away and let him play for a little bit then offer it again. He generally will finish it when I do that. I don't know if that helps you or not
I would either move the feeding up a little like the other girl suggested or maybe try a cup instead of a bottle. The change to something new may keep him interested enough to drink it and it will come out faster. If it's a no spill cup, take the no-spill valve out. If you leave it in, then it is just like drinking from a bottle. Or you can try a straw cup. I had to comment on this one since I am a speech therapist. I work with kids and I have found that changing the presentation works a lot of times, even with my own child. i hope this helps!
Occasionally we will read a book to Ian while he's taking his nighttime bottle. Since he holds the bottle himself, it frees our hands up to hold the book.
OR
We give Ian's hands something to do, usually stroking a bear that he sleeps with while we hold the bottle.
Elias might be on the verge of some developmental milestone like crawling... babies tend to get a little restless around that time. That's when Ian quit nursing, in fact.
Are you rocking him while giving him the bottle? Sometimes with C, the rocking motion calms her down enough to eat, whether on the breast or otherwise. If I sit still, she can be more fidgety. I was also going to suggest switching him over to a sippy. Maybe he's just trying to tell you that he's bored with the bottle. We don't do bottles anymore and don't do many cups for milk yet, so sorry I don't have any better advice. Hang in there!
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