AIBU to ask for your help with DD and food?

[bananabreadd]

DD is 9 months old now, and is a very happy and healthy little girl. She's always met her milestones and the HV has no worries. HOWEVER. One thing she refuses to do is eat. BLW is impossible as even as a little baby she never put anything in her mouth. Ever. She doesn't learn or explore like that. Never has. Only with her hands.

Trying to feed her normally is hell. You can tell what flavours she likes. If you put something on her lips (likes fruit flavours) she will lick it off and normally gag if she doesn't like it (cheese! Crazy child!). You can't put anything in her mouth though. Even if she likes it. She instantly gags and spits it out and if she swallows it, she's sick. Doctor doesn't believe it's anything physical as she can drink milk.

But now over the past few days she got her first two teeth. Since they came through she's really taken to her dummy but gone off of milk. She has gone from 7-8 9oz bottles a day to maybe 4-5 9oz. Today she has had 4. I tried feeding her more but she just let's the milk gather in her mouth and then spits it all down her face . Im worried as she's still speeding around the room, crawling and cruising but is alot more slender recently.

Any tips/advice would be great right now. I'm really worried that she's not getting enough calories. FTM here so sorry in advance if I'm being a huge idiot.

Eight 9oz bottles a day? That's way too much, surely? Even 5 9oz bottles is way too much. That could be the issue?

To put it in context, once my baby was 9mo he had maybe 22oz of milk a day (one breastfeed and three 5 to 6oz bottles), and that was more than most other babies I knew.

I asked HV if she was feeding too much but she said its normal for a baby her size who is active and wasn't eating. However that could make sense if that's the case.

I found introducing solids really hard too OP and my ds is 12 months and we still haven’t really cracked it. I would keep persevering even though it is soul destroying but eventually I think they get the hang of it and anyhow before 1 thier main source of nutrients is from their milk. I wouldn’t be overly worried about your daughters reduced milk intake as that’s still a good amount.
Teething can cause havoc so you may find she reverts back to the old amount in a few days when her teeth calm down a bit xx

That's quite a lot of milk. If you read the side of the formula tub im sure the recommended is only a 1/3 is that? HCP usually say if baby is drinking something, is themselves and still having wet nappies then take things at their pace and try not to worry (easier said than done I know)

That is soo much milk!! My LO has 4x 7oz bottles plus bits of food. At the max before weaninh she was having 5 x6oz bottles.

How often are you feeding her to give her that many bottles??

That is a huge amount of formula! Mine were maybe on 4 8oz bottles at that stage.

I would give her less milk, maybe reduce each bottle gradually or cut out a bottle at a time. At mealtimes I would put some food on her highchair tray and let her feed herself while you eat your meal, no fussing or cajoling or making it a game. She will soon pick it up.

That is masses of milk and I say that as the parent of two gigantic children.

My son is 6 months, 99th centile and has 5-6 7/8 oz bottles and doesn’t always finish them.

She’s not hungry. Try reducing the milk.

Also, my older son never put stuff in his mouth and gagged a lot and he has food sensory issues. Weaning was hard but he’s 5 now and doesn’t gag anymore.

My daughter isn't on the centile chart for her height, and her weight is in the 97th. She would normally have a feed every 3 hours. Today she had one at 6, 10, 3, and then 6:30 before bed. No solids in-between. Obviously I've been over feeding - I didn't realise.

Weve done the whole sitting in front of her eating and putting her food in front of her but again she doesn't put anything in her mouth. I feel stuck. But I'll try keeping the formula down and see if that changes anything

Honestly, some kids don’t take to BLW - my son hated it and refused finger foods. I had to feed him and do it in the old fashioned way of gradually increasing the textures until he was on ‘proper’ food.

The thing is if she is full of so much milk then she won’t be interested! Every 3 hours is what a newborn feeding schedule would look like so I am not surprised she isn’t hungry for food. It sounds like you have got into a cycle where she is having milk because you are worried she hasn’t eaten any food.

I would give her morning milk and instead of the next feed I would swap for breakfast. Personally I would give her toast/fruit whatever on her tray to explore herself, if you prefer to feed spoon her then maybe porridge or mashed fruit etc.

Neither of mine drank much milk so I can't comment on that. Just keep persevering with the food. Offer food before formula for some of her feeds so she should be hungry. Don't worry too much about BLW. I did a combination of purees and finger foods.

That’s is a huge amount of milk for a weaning child. You can’t get anything in her mouth because she is stuffed full of milk!

I remember overhearing a paediatric saying it can take some babies 10 months to get into eating so I would panic. As others say, reduce the milk and let her develop an appetite. If she's 97th centile she's not going to waste away. Offer lots of different foods including purees- maybe start with fruit purée.

Paediatrician. Wouldn't panic. Sigh.

im laughing my arse off here on the amount of milk you are all saying is to much at that age

from birth to 9 months(as in 1 hour old)my now 8 y old was going through a full 11oz every hour to hour and half of extra hungry milk,never spewed it back up either
h then went on to 4 pints of whole milk a day(still on it),he started on proper food at 8 months

a baby will drink whats needed not what supposed to be for that size

Do you all sit down around a table to eat?

If not, I think I'd try that. Give a bottle first thing so she isn't really hungry then all sit down for breakfast. A bit of gently encouragement but don't make a big fuss.

Might even be worth getting together with a few friends so there are other toddlers eating around her.

My DS is 1 and also at the top of the centiles. He eats like a horse now but at that age went through stages of eating hardly anything. When he cut his first two teeth nothing passed his lips for 13 hours including milk! That was a lovely trip to the doctors. Just keep offering instead of milk so maybe bottle first thing then offer food just before next feed is due so she is not starving. If she gets really upset offer milk, or let her have some milk then see if she wants to try some food.

I wouldn't panic if weight gain is ok and there are plenty of wet and dirty nappies. However I agree with PPs that she's getting an awful lot of formula and I'm not surprised she doesn't want to eat. When we started weaning at 6 months DS quickly dropped from 5 to 4 x7oz bottles even though he was hardly eating much in the way of solids. About a month later he dropped down to 3x 7oz bottles and that's what we're still on at 10 months alongside 3 meals a day.