We have the same situation: (A 3.5-month-old child has been refusing food for 2 weeks and can only be fed when he is sleeping. However, he himself does not ask for food (there is a feeling that he has lost his appetite; the child may not eat for up to 12 hours). Until ate this less than normal, but every 3 hours and sometimes demanded food even after a shorter period of time. Recently, strong belching has appeared after eating and I have started hiccupping almost all the time. Urinalysis is good. The blood test shows only hemoglobin 107, other indicators are normal. The coprogram is also normal. Tested for dysbacteriosis, eliminated Staphylococcus aureus 10 to 5 degrees. We did an ultrasound internal organs(except for the esophagus) - everything is normal. I have already visited all the doctors and no one can name the reason: ((Dear Evgeniy Olegovich, have you encountered anything like this in your practice? What could be the reason? Thank you in advance, Alexandra
12/02/2016 15:55
My son refused to eat while awake from 1.5 to 6 months. We fed him as best we could: on the street, while sleeping, in the bath a couple of times. He gained weight for a couple of months and therefore the doctors did not give a damn about my complaints. He became more and more restless. I started drinking a lot. And after I visited all the hospitals in our city and underwent a bunch of paid and free tests that did not give any answers, I finally achieved a full examination. In the end, 5 one month old baby found: dolichosigma, gastritis, reflux esophagitis, bulbitis and papillitis! We are now treating all the “itis”, but the child still refuses to eat! So not everything can be blamed on the temperature and humidity in the house.
08/01/2014 17:32
We have the same thing..... we are 3.5 months old and I have been suffering for about a month now.. the soreness only occurs in my sleep and does not gain weight... I rock it, sleeps, and sucks. maybe not eating for 5 hours. at the same time he behaves calmly. pumping also won’t express much... we need patience, mommies
11/06/2012 21:33
We have the same. Started at 3 months. I visited so many doctors - all to no avail. From 3 to 6 months she ate exclusively in her sleep (rocked and fed). After 6 months, she also began to eat while half asleep - for example, immediately after a walk. Now we are 8 months old and everything continues. He eats complementary foods very poorly; he can hardly squeeze in a couple of spoons. We were advised to try to offer fermented milk mixture, so, surprisingly, the child began to eat it in an alert state, I give it once a day before a walk, so that he can fall asleep.
22/04/2011 13:47
And we have a problem of a slightly different nature - daughter 1.7. During the day she eats 2-3 times little by little, a little meat with porridge, fruit puree. At night, at 21.30 she drinks the mixture, falls asleep. Then at 23.30 she asks for more mixture. And at 6.00 in the morning .Between this, 2-3 times juice with water. I have no idea what to do. I tried not to give the mixture at night - a wild scandal to the point of hysterics! Tell me, maybe we should mobilize our strength and endure it? Or is there no need to torture a child?
13/02/2011 14:08
I have the same trick.
The child is 4.5 months old. It also started at about 2.5 months.
At night, when he sleeps, he eats actively for 5 to 10 minutes, then releases his breasts and sleeps. At the same time, we have a break between feedings from 2 to 4 hours maximum.
In the morning with varying success. After lunch, only when he falls asleep. During the evening I am generally silent. The whole house is buzzing with her screams and kicking (this, however, started quite recently). At the same time, he sucks sluggishly even when he falls asleep.
Specialist in breastfeeding, who helped me return my milk, says that this is a “separation” of the child from the mother (until this moment the child considers himself and his mother to be one whole) and this period must simply be waited out. Although many take it for breastfeeding and stop feeding.
Don't give up and everything will work out for you :)
29/05/2009 14:20
This happened to us too. Only the child had dysbacteriosis. And when he ate, his tummy hurt. We started giving live bacteria. At first he ate only at night, then also in the morning, but also during the day. We are now 6 months old. and we eat well.
The classic baby sleeps well, has chubby cheeks, bandages on his arms and actively agrees to suckle breast milk or formula from a bottle at the time prescribed by the regime and occasionally complains of colic. As a rule, such children are described in books and manuals, but in real life it is rare to meet such ideal children. The development and condition of a child can deviate from the ideal in any direction, and sometimes changes can baffle not only parents, but also specialists. For example, the habit of eating only in a dream, when during the waking period the baby refuses any hint of food. MedAboutMe is looking into what this might be connected with.
Child diseases that affect appetite and mealtimes There are quite a significant number of diseases and pathologies, both in adults and children, that affect both appetite and digestive processes.
Acid Reflux and Cow Protein Allergy Personal Experience
My daughter is my second child and is fully breastfed. In the first month and a half, the weight gain was 2 kg, and then everything stalled. She refused to eat, screamed until she was blue in the face, and as soon as she ate, she could refuse for 8 hours. Then she fell asleep, and in her sleep she ate somehow, although not for long. As soon as I woke up, there was again refusal and screams.
I tried to feed while lying under a blanket, jumping in a sling, rocking, all to no avail. In the third month, the increase was 200 g, and we already ran to all the doctors, since our pediatrician did not see any problems due to the initial weight gain.
The new pediatrician suspected acid reflux and suggested introducing a GM substitute formula with amino acids. And the child began to eat!
Acid reflux, the reflux of acidic stomach contents into the esophagus, spoils the appetite of adults. And in an infant it can cause a pronounced refusal to eat, causing a stable connection “food in the mouth - pain and burning in the esophagus.” In such a situation, the discomfort from milk or a formula that is not adapted to the needs of this particular child prevails over the feeling of hunger, and eating in a sleepy state becomes possible, since the baby “loses vigilance.” Common cause gastroesophageal disease in infants is a congenital hernia of the esophagus, which causes partial reflux of milk or formula in combination with gastric juice.
Expert CommentaryBrian Vartabedian, MD, pediatrician
It is important to understand that the problem is not in eating in a dream, but in what causes such a situation. Therefore, the attention of doctors and parents should be focused on finding the cause. The vast majority of infants who consent to sleep feeding only are found to suffer from acid reflux symptoms. Here's what happens:
Infants who spend a lot of time lying down may suffer from reduced gastric emptying, relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter, which, in combination with liquid foods, leads to reflux; painful inflammation of the esophagus due to acid reflux leads to pain during feeding, which is accompanied by spitting out the nipple, pacifier, and refusal to eat; if left untreated, children continue to struggle with nutrition and develop an aversion to feeding, as it causes pain; parents find that feeding is easier during sleep and switch to this type of nutrition.
It is important to understand that the problem is not in eating in a dream, but in what causes such a situation. Therefore, the attention of doctors and parents should be focused on finding the cause.
Similar problems for formula-fed children can be caused by an allergy to cow's milk protein, which causes pain and cramping in the gastrointestinal tract.
The good news is that in most cases this condition is temporary and goes away. But during periods of increased sensitivity, it is necessary to transfer the child to a type of nutrition that is suitable for him, and sometimes to include drug therapy.
Swallowing disorders, difficulty sucking
Problems with swallowing and sucking, caused by structural features of the maxillofacial apparatus, are usually diagnosed at birth or in the first weeks after the birth of the child. But neurological features, the consequences of hypoxia, trauma during childbirth or developmental pathologies can manifest themselves at the age of 2-3 months with a refusal to suck. At the same time, it is important to remember that other symptoms will most likely be identified earlier, but a new sign may be the child’s eating behavior. This is due to the fact that sucking is an energy-consuming process that requires the involvement and coordination of muscles and can increase the child’s tension. As a result, the baby may begin to have a headache or experience other discomfort while eating while awake. And during sleep, a relaxed state helps reduce discomfort.
Personal experience
This problem with feeding overtook us at three months: if he didn’t sleep, he didn’t eat, when he was rocked to sleep or fell asleep on his own, he sucked and swallowed normally. It turned out to be a consequence of a birth injury to the neck and related problems due to long labor. After birth, the neurologist noted problems with reflexes, the son developed a little differently, but overall he was not very different from his peers, so eating only in a sleepy state became a surprise.
It is worth noting that more often this reason can affect the child’s nutrition during breastfeeding, since the process of sucking milk or formula from a bottle, swallowing when feeding from a spoon or from a syringe causes less stress and discomfort.
Hormonal deficiency
Deficiency of somatotropic hormone, somatotropin, affects appetite in general and can cause sluggish or active, depending on temperament and the situation accompanying feeding, refusal to eat while the baby is awake. During sleep, the sucking reflex may override decreased appetite, forcing the baby to eat if a breast or bottle tip appears in the mouth.
Hormonal disorders of this level are quite rare and affect the child’s appetite even when formula, complementary foods, etc. are introduced.
The most common health conditions that cause such eating disorders in infants are therefore gastroesophageal reflux disease (acid reflux) and cow's milk protein allergy if the baby is formula fed.
In a rather mild form, compared to the manifestations of diseases, such a refusal can be observed in children with painful colic, increased gas formation, disruption of the intestinal flora and high sensitivity to intestinal discomfort. The entry of food into the gastrointestinal tract activates intestinal motility and causes painful sensations. And in a dream, both the child himself and his gastrointestinal tract react less brightly. In the absence of infectious diseases and pathologies of the digestive system, the diet is adjusted at the end of the period of colic and gas, on average by the age of 12-15 weeks.
Psychoneurological characteristics of infants and mothers Both doctors and mothers note that most often, refusal to eat while awake first appears at the age of 2.5-4 months. It is during this period that the baby’s attention “turns on” and extends to surrounding people and objects. The so-called “crisis period”, a jump in growth and development, prevents the child from concentrating on the sucking process, because suddenly there are so many interesting things around, and a significant adult nearby gives a sense of security. So, instead of eating, we need to explore the world! Well, you have to eat in your sleep, when there is nothing to distract you.
Expert commentaryEkaterina Valova, psychologist
This may not seem entirely natural, but there are children who are able to be distracted from the feeling of hunger due to a craving for new experiences. Although curiosity is not the only factor that prevents babies from concentrating on nutrition. The combination of psychological and neurological characteristics of the child plays a role:
temperament. Although it is difficult to talk about determining the type of temperament in an infant, in some cases it is possible to fairly accurately diagnose exactly how the child tends to react, how quickly he responds to a stimulus, etc.; the biological rhythms of the baby’s body determine how quickly he gets excited and tired, when and how he falls asleep, how the feeling of hunger arises - gradually or suddenly, etc.; reaction to innovations, to a new position, sensation, visual object, auditory stimulus. A child may reject something new at the first moment or, conversely, become actively interested in it.
Children with a pronounced craving for new things, with a disturbance in the rhythm of the body, and a pronounced temperament are absolutely normal, although their manner of eating only in the absence of stimuli can bring a lot of inconvenience to nursing parents. These periods pass and the diet returns to normal.
Another case is if, against the backdrop of temperamental characteristics, a child has a negative experience associated with feeding: fright, an excessive flow of milk at some point during the establishment of lactation, the mother’s absence and the transfer of “feeding rights” to another adult. Such possible factors must also be taken into account and their influence on the baby’s eating habits must be reduced, preventing them from becoming established.
An alternative option, which also affects the child’s nutrition during this period, is the beginning of teething. The act of sucking can be painful, and some children are able to refuse food in order not to add discomfort to their gums.
Breastfeeding specialists in the situation of a child refusing to breastfeed offer a method of “nesting”: providing the baby with the mother “for personal use” in large quantities in order to avoid the child’s likely desire for communication and contact, which are offered only during the feeding period. To reduce the likelihood of active exploration of the world coinciding with feeding moments, it is worth setting aside a separate place and creating a very calm environment (dimmed light, white noise, music or singing) in which the baby will not be distracted.
A separate point worth noting is that many young mothers are often overloaded with housework and caring for the baby, as well as concerns about his condition, which leads to stress. There may also be manifestations of increased anxiety, postpartum depression, which also affects the contact between mother and baby and can lead to breast refusal. In this case, first of all, it is necessary to help the mother, relieve her of both physical and psychological stress, help her remember her needs and replenish her strength. You may need the help of a feeding consultant, a psychologist, or, in some cases, a specialized doctor.
Algorithm for solving the problem of “sleepy feedings”
First you need to make sure that the problem really exists. Temporary refusals to breastfeed, growth crises, minor changes in the child’s behavior during feeding are the norm for the development of children. The underweight that accompanies malnutrition must also be assessed objectively. To assess weight gain, you should use tables of the ratio of height, weight and dynamics of gain, and not personal impressions or the words of relatives: as you know, a baby who is liked by grandmothers most often suffers from the second stage of obesity.
If you identify a real problem, you should first contact your pediatrician to rule out possible acid reflux or allergic reactions. Look, observe and look for the reason why the child refuses to eat with his eyes open, pay attention to the presence of concomitant diagnoses that may affect the baby’s behavior: neurological, abnormalities in the anatomical structure, signs of other diseases.
Despite the fact that pediatricians admit that in some cases the reason for a child’s behavior remains a mystery even to specialists, they are also convinced that babies, in the absence of the most common diagnoses, successfully outgrow these periods and return to normal food intake by an average of 9 months. Therefore, the main thing is the mother’s peace of mind, since this is also a therapeutic factor that influences the little “non-eaters”.
Take the testIs your child prone to allergic diseasesIs your child prone to allergic diseases and what is the allergen? Take the test and find out what your child should avoid and what measures to take.
Good afternoon The baby is 3 months old, completely on breastfeeding, and for almost this entire period we have had problems with feeding. At first the baby cried after eating, then periodically began to cry while eating, arching, tucking in his legs and bursting into tears. He spat out the breast and did not take it into this feeding again under any circumstances. At first, the baby could simply eat less than the norm, then he could eat some grams, gradually it got to the point that he began to refuse some feedings altogether, crying as soon as he saw my breasts! Sometimes he took it willingly, but sucked it out a little. All this alternated with days when the baby ate well. For the last three weeks, the child eats only in his sleep, optimally immediately after waking up, but still in a half-asleep state. If nothing bothers the baby, he sucks out 130-160 grams. In reality he doesn’t want to take the breast; he turns away or starts crying. We have to put him to sleep every time before feeding, so we feed by the hour, 6 times a day, more often than not it doesn’t work. At first I blamed it on colic and waited 3 months, but the colic was almost over, but the problem did not go away. The gastroenterologist did not find any problems, the stool for carbohydrates was good (0.1 when the norm was up to 0.5). The boy weighs 5900, is very active, tries to roll over and pick up toys, climbs well on his arms, no specialists have any complaints. Weight gain is not very good: 1900 g in 3 months.
I've been wanting to write a post like this for a long time. Because when I found myself in a food refusal situation with one of my twins, I couldn’t find information. What and why does this happen, what to do. On the Internet I came across only questions from the same mothers, with almost no answers, and it was not completely unknown what would happen next. Those who went through food refusal did not share their experience. And the unknown was very frightening.
My twins were born premature (1740 and 1680), intensive care, a month of nursing. Yes, and they were discharged in small quantities, 2100 kg each. GW failed for a number of reasons. And they ate from bottles slowly and sadly, for an hour at a time, falling asleep along the way. The first month everything was more or less, and then
Somewhere between the second and third months of life, one of the twins began to refuse to eat. She didn’t take the breast at all, and then she stopped drinking the bottle. It looked like this. The child woke up and was yelling (or rather, both were yelling). We give a bottle, one eats it, the other spits it out and screams. Or he eats 20-50 grams, spits it out and screams. He yells and falls asleep. And if you slip a bottle in a dream, it starts to suck and some or all of it gets there. At first these were isolated episodes. Once every few days, then once or twice a day. The second one also had this happen, but rarely, maybe five times in all the time. And in the first month, by just over three months, all feedings began to occur exclusively in her sleep. I'm all nervous after a difficult pregnancy. Children are small and weak. Plus, until almost 4 months, terrible colic. They began to treat. They drank all sorts of Creon-Linex and so on. They tested me for dysbacteriosis and found staphylococcus and other nasty things. They drank expensive bacteriophages. No sense. By 5 months I had come to terms with it. And I tried to catch him at the end of the dream. Because after 4 months the waking time began to form. Until this age, they only ate and slept (and screamed at night). If you couldn’t catch it, you had to feed one, then they hung out, then rocked and fed the second one. I didn’t try not feeding at all until the next feeding, I was afraid that the modes would become out of sync. And 6 hours without water (they didn’t drink at all) and food somehow wasn’t very good for a baby. I tried not to feed her a couple of times if she didn’t eat enough. But she also ate just a drop in the next sitting.
I was very afraid about complementary feeding. After all, you can’t give it in a bottle in a dream.
At five months I tried giving her porridge. They ate without enthusiasm. And our problem girl also ate a few spoons and started spitting and screaming. After scouring the Internet, I realized that I should wait up to six months with porridge. In addition, we again turned to something like to a good doctor and started another course of treatment (enetrofuril and other bacteriophages). And at 6 months I gave porridge again. Heaven and earth. The children ate her food without taking a spoonful. And demanding more. The zucchini from the jars also went down well with both of them. Thus, we had two normal feedings. There was still a bit of a delay with dinner, but they introduced it too. It took a long time for her to give water from a spoon; she didn’t even drink water from a bottle. Then we switched to sippy cups. And the bottles were left for the early morning, evening and night, when they were fed practically in their sleep. When the child began to take the bottle back, I won’t tell you. Somewhere either after 9 months, or after a year.
Whether the treatment helped in the end, I don’t know; it’s quite possible that everything would have been the same without it. What caused this refusal of the bottle is also unknown. But fortunately it didn't last that long. And, alas, it led to motion sickness in my arms for up to a year. And if I had known then when and how it would end, I would have saved myself a lot of nerve cells. I hope my experience will help someone. (Although it doesn’t follow from the post that everything is happening and will happen exactly the same way for me, and it’s enough to sit on your butt straight)
In your case, the influence of a brain injury cannot be completely ruled out. It's great that you spent everything necessary research and received treatment. In the acute period (the first 4 weeks after injury) this is very important. Further, that is, after 4 weeks of active therapy, a dynamic examination by a neurosurgeon (or neurologist, but better than a neurosurgeon) is necessary with all studies carried out. Impact of brain injury in children early age can be traced for a very long time. It is impossible to leave a child without appropriate observation and treatment, even if he is feeling well.
Considering the complete lack of appetite, I can assume that the child is inactive. In this case, immediate examination by a neurosurgeon is required.
Water should not be given to infants under favorable conditions environment or health (no heat or fever or diarrhea) in which there may have been additional fluid loss. Therefore, first of all, avoid supplementing with water, because any amount of water you drink is a loss of calories that could have come from the formula. I conclude that the sucking reflex is preserved, but the baby does not want to eat the formula.
Regarding feeding: for such digestive problems, one lactose-free formula is not enough; if the child is on a lactose-free formula for more than 4 weeks, and the symptoms of bloating and indigestion do not stop, a change in the formula is necessary.
A rational choice in your case would be mixtures for comfortable digestion - they do not contain lactose, the protein is partially hydrolyzed (broken down for better digestion), probiotics are introduced to restore and stabilize the intestinal microflora. The new mixture must be introduced slowly, replacing the entire volume over 5-7 days, but you should start with 30-40 ml. I left a link to the article above, it describes comfort mixtures in great detail. The taste of this mixture is slightly bitter, this is due to the presence of hydrolysis, and in the process of digesting such a mixture, the feces acquire a uniformly green tint - this is the norm.
If you refuse the new mixture, you should change the flow in the bottle and increase the number of holes in the nipple. The comfort mixture is a little thicker than usual due to the presence of an anti-regurgitation component. If an attempt to change the flow of the bottle does not provide sufficient fusion (you can change it now, before introducing a new mixture), then feeding from a special atraumatic silicone spoon is recommended. When spoon feeding, the baby should be positioned semi-vertically, Not head, and everything else, to prevent the mixture from getting into Airways("choking").
I cannot evaluate the validity of prescribing probiotics and bacteriophages; there are no relevant studies (coprogram, feces for flora and sensitivity to antibiotics and bacteriophages). There is no diagnosis of dysbacteriosis. There is a concept of dysbiosis of intestinal microflora, and so, not every dysbiosis needs therapy.
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