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Hello!
You have come to the right place. There are many parents here who find that their baby needs to be sleepy to eat. Called Sleep Feeding, it is often caused by GERD or a combination of factors such as a swallowing problem called dysphagia, food allergy/intolerance, constipation, sensory problems and illness. It is important to treat any medical problems. To further complicate matters, the symptoms of these conditions may overlap. For example, you can have pain and discomfort from any of these conditions.
Painful GERD and swalllowing problems seem to top the list of reasons for sleep feeding.
Did the speech language pathologist rule out a swallowing problem? Did the doctor rule out milk soy protein intolerance? Was a swallow study or upper GI test done?
What reflux symptoms are you seeing now?
So assuming he is not in pain and his medical conditions are being addressed, he is experiencing some aversion from eating. It might help to work with a feeding therapist to give you strategies to increase his comfort with eating. It will take time and patience too.
Check out the discussions started by AmyD and Sonja about their sleep feeding babies.
It iis important to let him decide how much he can tolerate per meal. Forcing him to eat will make him more resistant to eating. If he is having problems taking in enough to growth, the doctor and the feeding therapist need to develop an alternate treatment plan. For some babies, it may be necessary to use a nasogastric tube to place the food directly in the stomach.
Jan Gambino
The Reflux Mom