has anyone’s sleep feeder gotten better?

Lori – I am so sorry that you are still going through these, we are going through the same thing here too, I really wanted to go to work with DH today, because I just hate feeding time, but we have no choice but just hang in there.

My Hailey wasn’t a sleep feeder but instead a distraction feeder (needed to be fed while walking and/or in front of Baby Einstein) and she got considerable better at age 12 months when all of a sudden she started “liking” her bottles. It truly happened overnight.

Lori, maybe your day care idea isn’t so crazy. Maybe if she saw other babies eating she’d try to join in. Maybe the change of pace and scenery would have a positive effect.

Could you try part time just to see how it would work?

When I was a nanny parents told me all the time that their babies would do things for me that they wouldn’t do for them. It’s not that I was anything special….I’ve heard this from lots of people (nannies, grandparents, etc.). Did you ever hear of Dr. T. Berry Brazleton? He says that the reason a small child’s behavior is often better with caregivers other than their parents is that the child obviously has a much stronger attachement to their parents, especially to their mommies., and therefore they have more to gain when they misbehave or manipulate. I know this sounds bad, and I shouldn’t make assumptions, but if you think some of her eating aversion is behavioral, then maybe a change of pace and some help from other caregivers might be a positive thing for both of you right now.

Lori – have you thought about trying to stop the sleep feeding for a few days to see what would happen? I know you are worried about weight loss and dehydration, but I think you’ll find that she won’t get into too much trouble in 2 or 3 days…although it doesn’t always seem like it to us moms, no healthy baby is a single feeding away from malnutrition or starvation. Try just offering lots of liquids in cups to keep up fluids, and see what happens…My oldest NEVER took more than 18 oz a day in his life – and usually it was more like 14-16.

Lori

Don´t have much in the way of advice. Just wanted to let you know that it will be OK to try to feed her awake for a few days. Matthew has been off the feeding tube since Saturday night — he took it off in the middle of the night and i just decided to let him be for a week. The ped agreed that we should just do it for some days, so that he does not become lazy either. He has eaten very little and drank very little and we have just come back from the ped who said he looks amazing for his age and no sign whatsoever of dehydration (He has not drank more than 10ounces a day and his eyes are watery, he has `plenty of wet diapers etc. I think they are much stronger than we really think.

You may want to give it a try? It is scary but she may really react!

Lori,

I fully understand your frustration with things being so bad after 10 long months. I have some questions, and you may have already investigated each of these, but these are my thoughts before letting you know about how we have done without surgery…

Is she failure to thrive? How small is she on the growth charts right now?

Regarding meds, can you up her ppi dose?

Have you tried Zegerid, or any other ppi meds to see if one gives you a better reaction than others?

Has she had an endoscopy and ph probe study performed? THe tests would tell you about esophagitis and how badly she has it if she has it, could possibly show a hiatal hernia, could possibly show eos cells–which could mean she is reacting to your bmilk no matter what you eat….etc. etc. The ph probe would show how many times she’s refluxing and the percentage of time she spends actively refluxing. Lucas didn’t have these tests until he was 10 mos old and I was going crazy….sounding much like you.

You might start thinking about hiatal hernias, which would hopefully show up in an endoscopy (but they don’t always show up in the endo). Christine, kevieb on these forums, had a daughter who was FTT, and had a hiatal hernia and had surgery at 10 mos to repair the hernia. Her reflux was completely “cured” from that point on, and I believe she wasn’t FTT for too much longer after the fundo fixed her reflux problems.

Have you had her ears checked by a ped or ENT doc to rule out the ears as being an additional issue pain wise?

I ask this to everyone, and i know I’ve asked you this other times, have you ever removed dairy, soy or other foods to see if she improves? Getting to the end of the rope is what gave me the courage to try the food removals, I never would have tried them if I haden’t become miserable “enough” to finally want to try anything if it would work.

Have you considered a Neocate trial?

We went from being referred out to a pediatric surgeon when he was 10 mos, with 100 plus spit ups a day, night wakings at their peak were every 45 minutes (waking screaming). By 13 mos we were averaging six wakings a night, and by 18 mos with the removal of gluten, we’re more like three or four, but I will cautiously say things are looking better than ever before.

Our ped gi was CERTAIN that Lucas was a good candidate for fundoplication surgery–and told us this at several different visits based on Lucas’ testing results/numbers. I would say that although we are not a success story yet, we are on the way to being a success in the sense that the horrible situation that was happening is beginning to right itself without surgery. It’s been a long road to this point, but looking back I could honestly say that I did not push for testing soon enough and I did not take the food allergy/food intolerances possibility seriously enough. I should have tried food removals sooner, and it would have helped a lot of our problems. I also never did a neocate trial, and that may have helped us, too. HTH.