Gapeing

[MommaMelly]

My baby has started a strange new habit when he is eating. Once he starts feeding, he opens his mouth real big like a yawn, move his jaws up and down, and his shoulders will move back and forth. My rehabber says its called gapeing, and they go into somewhat of a feeding trance. She said he should come right outof it if I genltly tap him on his nose, but usually I have to sit him down to get him to stop. The first time he did it, I got pretty freaked out. Now he is doing it everytime he eats, which makes our feeding take much longer.
Have any of you every experienced this, and is it a normal thing for him to do?

[island rehabber]

Hi MommaM...yes, it's really normal, so relax. I have five siblings right now, 5 wks old, and one is such a gaper that I've named him Nemo LOL. I find if I push the nipple just sl-i-i-ightly into his mouth a little he will close his mouth and start sucking instead of gaping. See if it works with your little fish :) If not, don't panic because they grow up fine -- it just looks weird to us.

[thundersquirrel]

yeah, when this first happened to me, i was freaking out! :ohthedrama

but don't worry. usually instead of pushing it in, i pull the syringe out, and the baby wants the food so much that it'll come out of the "trance" to grab at the syringe. there are lots of ways to break it though, you just need to find the best way for your baby. :)

[MommaMelly]

Thanks guys. That makes me feel much better! I didn't know what was going on when he first started it!

island rehabber: I love it that you named him Nemo- thats adorable! They do act like little fishies when they do it!

thundersquirrel: Thanks! I'll try both ways and see which one works for my little butter bean!