First time Dad, questions about 2 m/old

Taiwan Parenting
1

Hi all, I have a couple of questions about my little one. She’s just over 2 months now and has started getting really fussy when she feeds. We give her Enfalac HP (recommended by the doc), but no breast milk as my wife couldn’t breastfeed. At first she was completely fine, sucking down upwards of 150cc a day. Now however, she cries like crazy and shakes her head back and forth when it’s feeding time, even when she’s hungry, and calls it quits at 60cc or so. She’s felt cold and clammy since yesterday, as well. Are things we should be really worried about?

The doctor says she just has a gassy stomach and told us to give her a lactic acid bacteria supplement from Japan called Wakomoto. We’re both stressing like crazy about this because she used to feed really happily.

Could it that she needs to switch formulas? I read online that can help at times. We’ve taken her to 3 different doctors, but they all just try to rush her out the door as fast as possible and don’t take time to actually examine her. She’s perfectly happy the rest time, if that makes any difference. Oh, she’s also started to suck on her hands a lot. I understand this is normal, but could also be early teething (I had my first 2 teeth at 2 months). How can I tell if she’s teething?

2

My daughter was bottle-fed, and went through two fussy stages with feeding - one around 10 weeks, and another around nine months. At ten weeks her consumption dropped for a couple of weeks, then picked up again. At nine months we changed formula (she had also started solids at that point) and again her intake recovered.

The cold and clammy thing - have you taken her temperature? Has it dropped? Is she lethargic and unresponsive? If you’re at all concerned, then take her to the doctor.

Excess saliva production is a sign (but drooling doesn’t necessarily mean she is teething). Sucking on her hands could be an indicator. If the teeth are on the way you can often see them just below the surface - front teeth usually come first, so have a look at her gums at the front.

3

It might be colic. If so, you could try using a certain type of anti colic bottle, which makes things a little easier. Our son had colic in the UK and we used these bottle (by Tommy tippy or something). Another option would be to change formulas. Taiwan has a fair selection. Our 4 month old daughter is on SMA Gold - S26… Something like that and she’s fine.

For the teething - it’s possible. Apart from seeing the teeth come through you can check to see if either side of her face his swollen or red. Teething often causes an upset stomach. It’s a difficult phase.

4

Thank you for the speedy replies. I have been taking her temperature twice a day for the last couple of days. It’s staying pretty steady at about 36.6~36.8. She had a couple of shots last week, the 5-in-1 vaccination and the pneumococcus (?) vaccination. Both at the same time. The doctor said it was okay, but she was really cranky and had barely any appetite afterwards. She peaked at 37.4 degrees, but dropped back down to normal.

The main doctor we take her to said he can’t really recommend anything formula-wise as she’s a mixed baby…which makes zero sense to me.

Forgot to mention, we’ve tried several of those anti-colic nipples for her bottles, but they don’t seem to help reduce the gas at all.

5

The only thing I can think that he might be getting at is that rates of lactose intolerance vary between ethnicities. But it doesn’t make much sense to me either.

It’s certainly possible that the discomfort of colic is causing your baby to not drink as much. If that were the case, then her intake should increase as the colic disappears. But like I said, if you’re concerned, take her to a (different) doctor.

6

I thought it was only colic if it followed the Rule of 3; three hours of crying, three days a week, for three weeks. She only cries when she drinks milk.

7

I hate taking my kids for shots. After most shots they seem a bit under the weather for a few days. It’s also getting a bit hotter now, temp change could play some small part.

This may be of no use - but it’s fine to let them have a short rest half way through a feed. They may need a good burping before they can finish the bottle.

I agree with Taffy though. If your not happy - just see a different doctor. Try to find one recommended by Taiwanese friends if you can.

8

Oh, I always make sure to burp her. Usually 3 or 4 times a meal. Sometimes she takes a 5 minute nap halfway through. Is that a bad idea?

Her main doctor is the one from the 月子中心 my wife stayed at. He at least spends a few minutes checking her over, not like the docs at the Linkou hospital where she was born.

9

Wow - then you’re definitely burping her enough. My son would nap while drinking and my daughter still does it, so I guess it’s fairly normal.

10

You could try changing the teat on the bottle. Some are worse that others for allowing the baby to swallow air as well as milk. If she’s burping 3 or 4 times a meal she’s taking in a lot of air.

11

Which bottles do you use? as Petrichor says, maybe changing the teat helps. We used Avent bottles first, but then we changed them to Pigeon bottles and she liked them better. They also are softer and adapt better to her mouth, so she doesn’t swallow so much gas (the other teats made difficult for her to drink milk without swallowing a lot of air)

As for the formula, We began using Nestlé NAN 1 HA because my wife didn’t have enough milk. The Nestlé NAN HA is a Hipoalergenic formula that doesn’t have lactose or cow milk proteins, and works really well with newborns, specially if they’re asian or half-asian (usually asian or half-asian people are more sensitive to lactose, like caucasian people are usually sensitive to gluten… it’s an evolutionary adaptation thing).

Anyways, we kept feeding her the NAN HA formula until she was 9 months old, then we switched to the NAN formula. It’s the same, but it has milk protein and lactose. She accepted the change with no problem at all.

Now, about the gas: my daughter has been eating like a champ all her first year, but recently she got an intestinal thing (most probably gastroenteritis). As a result, she got a lot of gas in her intestines, and that was confirmed when we went to the hospital and they took an x-ray of her torso. You could see huge gas bubbles in her stomach and intestines. That caused her to be cranky, spontaneous crying bursts, she didn’t want to eat (well, she did, but after just a little bit of food, she felt pain and then stopped). She has been like this for two weeks, and she has been improving very slowly. Two days ago, she began eating normally again, no fuss, just asking for food and eating her normal amount.

To relieve her pain, it helps massaging her belly clockwise, to help gas bubbles to go along the intestines. Also, make sure she burps all she can burp after each feeding. It will pass.

If she’s having early teething, then you’re screwed up, basically. The only thing you can do is wait for it to end. There are some liquid-filled teething rings that you can put in the fridge, when they are cold, children can bite down on them and the coldness helps to relieve the pain a little bit. That, apple slices and bread sticks are the only things that help with teething (but if your daughter is only two months old, apple and bread is still a no-no). I feel your pain.

12

They are all good ideas. You can also think of doing some light massage on the baby’s stomach , to help push things along. You can use a type of baby oil to do it that’s safe for kids. It’s just an idea and it worked with our first kid who had a lot of problems with digestion and constipation. Just keep trying different things. The baby system will mature in a few months and things should get easier. It’s also normal for kids to have a a slightly raised temperature after shots.

13

Yep, we do the massage with an anti-gas ointment. She was a bit better tonight. Even got her to drink some water, as per doctor’s orders.

As for bottles, we use Pigeon bottles with a different company’s anti-colic nipples. Don’t know the name, the logo looks like a soybean pod.

14

You can try the playtex drop in bottles with the disposable liners. It’s suppose to be less gassy. We used them a lot. Especially useful when traveling or just being out of the house. Liners are a little pricey here, but hey, what imported item isn’t.
http://www.playtexbaby.com/Bottles/Dropins

15

And also consider if the nipple hole is too small. While large holes can cause gasiness, too small a hole will cause too slow a-feeding and frustration.

And if she’s being burped 3 or 4 times and sleeping during feeding, how about the temperature of the milk? Make sure it’s not getting too cold.

Put the bottle in a bowl of warm water while you are burping or she is taking a nap.

16

What is her current feeding frequency?

You mentioned in your original post she used to drink 150 cc and now is down to 60.

At two months of age, drinking 150 cc f.i. Every three hours would make it 150 cc x 8 = 1200 cc
If she is only drinking 60 cc every 3 hours, then she would only get 60 cc x 8 = 480 cc.
Could it help to give her a bottle every 1,5 hours?

You may consider going to a Chinese doctor and try something with Chinese medicine.