5 months old bb refuse to drink milk and keep sucking on thumb

[tzlwin12]

Hi Mummies,

Please advice... my 5 months + old baby boy keep sucking on his thumb even though he feels hungry. When he is very hungry, he just drink about 40/50 ml of milk and after that refuse to take milk and try to suck thumb.

Anyone of you have this experience before or any adivce, thanks.

 

[Mummy to Baby V]

Could baby be teething? Teething discomfort may affect appetite. If baby's truly hungry, he'll drink or eat, it's survival instinct.
Try offering cold teether to soothe his gums before a feed.

 

[hpc]

Maybe can at 1-2milk powder scoop of plain rice cereal into the milk.My gal also got this problem,so add cereal,now can finish whole bottle of milk.

 

[kujiramama]

Is your boy's weight on the 97 percentile side? If he is growing well, sometimes baby will adjust their milk intake to be a little lesser. My dear daughter is also going through this phase. But sometimes it could be due to teething, or maybe wanting to start solids. As long as your boy is growing, shouldn't worry too much.

Or maybe the teat opening is too small and he finds it frustrating to get to the milk? Many possibilities so you have to single it out one by one.

 

[tzlwin12]

Thanks alot to all mummies for your useful info.
Will try it out based on your suggestions and keep you posted.

 

[Pinkliciouz]

Hi Mummies,

Please advice... my 5 months + old baby boy keep sucking on his thumb even though he feels hungry. When he is very hungry, he just drink about 40/50 ml of milk and after that refuse to take milk and try to suck thumb.

Anyone of you have this experience before or any adivce, thanks.

My son also!! He keeps sucking on this fingers and there were once, when he didn't even cry for milk for the whole day. He refuse to suck on breast or bottle. He even cried when I pull out his hands from his mouth. So I tried several things..
1) Change the teat of the bottle (the teat might be too small or too big, you have to see your son's reaction)
2) Introduce him cereal, and he loves his cereal. Think it is because he always sees us eating, so now he wants to eat from the spoon also. On days when he is cranky and refuse bottle, I feed from the milk from spoon also, and he will guai guai drink his milk. If you buy cereal, introduce him organix, cos that is suitable from 4 months onwards. tried cerealac and my son got an allergic reaction.
3) My PD says might be due to his gestational issues, so she gave him some medicine to introduce some good bacteria to his stomach. It works for him and his appetite increase.
4) Introduce a new milk powder. My son very fussy, after half tin of powder, he will be "sian" with the taste, and doesn't want it. So I alternate his milk between 2 brands, and it actually works for him.

My PD says that infants will go through this phase, so nothing to worry about unless they refuse to feed for whole day. They have this growth chart which goes up and down. At the tip of the growth chart, the infant is constantly hungry, when the growth chart is at the lowest, the baby doesn't feel hungry thus he will refuse to drink. Trial and error to see which works for him.

If he still refuse to feed, PM me for my PD number, she is VERY VERY patient and spend 1 hour talking to me about the possibilities of infants refusing to drink and gave me many options. She even call me to follow up on my son's appetite after 1 week.

 

[tzlwin12]

Thanks mummy pink...
Now i started solid food (brown rice w/ sweet potato) and my ds got back his appetite.
Thanks alot for your kind advice.
I am thinking to try Nestle Cerelac....
Pls share w/ me the brand name of organic cereal so that i can buy as well.

Thanks alot.

 

[Pinkliciouz]

Thanks mummy pink...
Now i started solid food (brown rice w/ sweet potato) and my dear son got back his appetite.
Thanks alot for your kind advice.
I am thinking to try Nestle Cerelac....
Pls share w/ me the brand name of organic cereal so that i can buy as well.

Thanks alot.

I bought ORGANIX for him, can get it from Cold Storage, or Vita Kids at United Square. ORGANIX is more simple, as in it contains just the cereal and Vitain B1. I bought another brand call HAPPY BELLIES also. Their cereal contains DHA and probiotics, which is good for him but it smells a little "fishy"to me, but my son likes it, so it is ok. HAPPY BELLIES very difficult to get, a lot of places out of stock. I got mine at Vita Kids...

Below is the list of food to introduce to babies, given from my PD... Should follow the sequence as it introduces food which is less likely to cause allergic from the start. You can use it for reference if you like. Also, every food that I introduce, must introduce for 1 week without adding another food. This is so that if my son have allergy, will know is from which food and we can avoid.

CEREAL
White Rice Cereal
Brown Rice Cereal
Oat Cereal
Wheat Cereal

VEGETABLES
Sweet Potato
Pumpkin
Carrots

FRUITS
Avocado
Apple
Pears
Prunes
Papaya
Banana
Peaches

Allerigc Symtoms

1. Vomiting
2. Diarrohoea
3. Rashes

 

[Marianne]

You could try this Singaporean help group. Bunch of really awesome moms there. They helped me answer some of my q's.

Breastfeeding Mothers

 

[tzlwin12]

Thanks alot to all mummies for very useful advices.
Special thanks to mummy pink for the very specific guidelines and advices.

 

[yumitan]

Just this week, my 10 weeks old DS refuse to drink more milk from the breast. usually he will drink for 10 - 20 mins but these few days he only suckle for a few mins and unlatch and continue sucking his thumb. if i try to offer the breast again, he will cry. now 10 weeks old cant start on cereal etc.. any suggestions? :embarrassed:

 

[Pinkliciouz]

Just this week, my 10 weeks old dear son refuse to drink more milk from the breast. usually he will drink for 10 - 20 mins but these few days he only suckle for a few mins and unlatch and continue sucking his thumb. if i try to offer the breast again, he will cry. now 10 weeks old cant start on cereal etc.. any suggestions? :embarrassed:

How is the flow of your BM, issit good? If the milk ducts is blocked, and baby has to spend a lot of effort in sucking out the milk, sometimes some babies tend to get lazy and refuse to suckle... Maybe you try to get a masseur to massage your breast to make the milk flow better? You can try to feel your breast to see if there is a lot of lumps inside, if have lumps, maybe the flow is not so good.

My son also went through a stage like that, so I got my masseur to come and massage to clear the block ducts, DAMN PAINFUL but when the flow is better, my son continues to suckle again.

 

[yumitan]

milk flow is ok i think coz DS gets choked sometimes.. now i'm trying all sorts of ways to get him be interested in latching and drink..