refuses to eat

[glos762]

My son is 6 months old, at 1.5 months he got a very resistent thrush infection.  At the same time he became a very fussy eater to the point I had to stop nursing him because he wouldn't even latch on.  His thrush finally cleared up but his feedings only got harder.  No matter how long he goes without eating (12 hours, sometimes more) , as soon as the bottle comes out the screaming starts and the fight is on.  I finally figured out he would eat a little bit if he was asleep, but it is still extremely difficult.  His weight is fine because I do force it down but it is torture for both of us.  I'm trying zantac for reflux and just switched from a lactose free formula to Alimentum but nothing seems to help. My daughter was exactly the same way and finally grew out of it around a year, but I was hoping you might have some suggestions and save us both 6 more months of torture, Thanks.

[JaxonMom]

My son is 4 months old.  My son was diagnosed with acid reflux at 2 weeks old after he aspirated and got pnemonia.  We later learned that he has milk protein allergy and when he drinks it sometimes goes down the wrong tube.  He refuses to eat.  We have tested and treated him for a million things (per Ped. Gastroenterologist) and have found no answere.  However, I believe he has bottle aversion because of all his traumatic experiences with eating.  We have found that feeding through a sippy cup that is heavily thickened with rice cereal to slow it down and eating stage 1 solids is the only way he will eat.  I also feed him by bottle when he is sleeping.  You do what you have to do to get your baby to eat.
Hope this helps.

[glos762]

He does take some solids, I don't give him too much or he's too full to even attempt a bottle.  But I'll try the sippy cup, thanks for the suggestion.

[mrscalalb]

His problem may be related in his mind to the sucking, as he may associate the bottle with pain.  There are some really great new sippy cups out there that you could try, some soft top ones that he may be able to use which may aliviate the mental association of the bottle. Also have you given any strained foods yet??  like applesauce, peas....my daughter was starting to not want to nurse around 7 months and I started giving her little bits of strained baby foods to augment what I could get her to take.  

hope any of this helps Good Luck