5mo dd wont eat!!

[janmck1]

My dd has always been a bad eater. Max at any time 5oz, and that's considered a good feed. If there is anything or anyone in the room she will not take it. She also wont just start chugging a lot of the time and i have to fool her into taking the bottle by letting her half fall asleep with the dummy and then doing a sneaky swap for the bottle! The last couple of days this hasn't even worked very well! She is being spoon fed now. a couple in the day but isn't devouring them even like she normally would! She has a very slight touch of a cold and is chewing everything in sight, so i think there must be teeth on the move although there's nothing to see yet. Can this put a baby off eating? Also, in general, does anyone have any miraculous ideas of how to get a bad eater to eat!!

Sounds like she's teething and if her mouth is hurting she's going to be reluctant to put anything else in it that might make it hurt more.
Have you got a teething ring that you can pop in the fridge for her to chomp on?
If she's got a cold and is bunged up then that makes eating/drinking hard, one of my friends recommended the calpol saline nasal thingummy. Said it was a godsend when her 3m old had a cold.

Just keep offering her milk regularly, water as well, and whatever food she's on. I can't remember what age teething powders are recommended from but it might be worth giving her some 3mins or so before a feed/meal to see if that helps?

Yes, teeth and cold always had an effect on my two and there are so many teeth to get it sometimes feels as though there is no "in between"
Is she putting on weight OK and developing well?

Help please! Just managed to sneak 3oz in when she snoozed in bouncer. That's the other thing, she takes notions of not sitting on my knee to feed. Only in bouncer, half asleep!!!

Sorry, I hadn't even noticed I had ahd 2 replies when I posted that last message! Thanks! She has a cold teething ring and also 1 that hangs from her activity bar that came with her high chair. She doesn't care at the minute what's in her mouth as long as she is chomping on something!! It's cracking me up coz ske has always been a bad feeder but this is worse. She is putting on weight etc so I'm probably over analysing it!! Just a pain that I can't happily just feed her if we are out shopping etc. We have to go hide in a baby changing room so there are as few distractions as possible!!!

poor little thing :(
Can yuo see your HV if you are worried?

that is exacly the same as my DS he's been fussy since around 7 weeks old with feeds! he is a nightmare to feed when out and about he starts his bottle with me holding him takes and oz then kicks and fusses till i sit him up! it normally ends with him lying down on a pillow then he sometimes takes a bit more, i find holding a foot or arm when hes flapping makes him calm down a take a few more oz, or like u i wait till hes sleepy and switch dummy to bottle, but now his head starts going and rejects it! i've spent weeks worrying about my ds but other then his fussy feeds he is happy and gaining well, HV had advised me to wean early as he must only take max 25 oz a day and hes nearly 14 pounds! how ofter does dd feed? i'm not much help, but you're not alone!

My dd was a really bad milk drinker and sooooo slow. Breast feeding was horrendous and bottle feeding not much better. She was a real snacker - I worked out once that 1.5 oz every 40 mins was her prefered feeding method. I just constantly had a bottle on the go swapping them every two hours. I also did the dummy thing!
I weaned early and she did well on food for a few months until 9-10 months when everything went totally tits up and she lost weight and was monitored very regularly for a bit.
Things are better now at 12 months and since swapping to cows milk milk feeding has been much better.
So, no advice other than it is so frustrating and upsetting (and under-rated as a problem compared to colic etc) but it does get better and the phase does pass. Concentrate on the good bits as much as you can and try not to worry. They will have what they will have and we cannot change that...
So hard, thinking of you!

Firsttime, what age is your ds now? My dd is just over 5 months and is on solids early because of reflux. She normally takes them fine but not at the mo. Before she started spooning I was lucky to get 25oz into her. But as my mum says, she wouldn't sleep as well as she does at night if she wasn't satisfied!!! She's about the same weight as your dsnow I think though hasn't been weighed since spoon started when she was 4 months. Have only just managed to get her off to sleep there now after working with her for ages. Brought out the calpol coz am convincing myself it's all to do with teeth. Just have her weaned off her zantac for the reflux so really hoping it's not that but seems different (I think!!!)

Stealth, I could give the hv a ring if this doesn't settle but I feel I have badgered the poor woman in the past when dd was poorly with reflux and would feel like a prize plonker phoning her about a teething baby! Wish I could see a wee lump on her gum os something so give me an inkling that I'm on the right track!!

hi there, ds is 15 weeks now and HV told me to up his reflux med as the fussiness is starting again and his weight is more so meds might not be as effective, so maybe have a word with yours and see if shes ready to stop the meds may help? my mum says the same that he wouldn't sleep through the night if he wasn't getting enough, ds is the same 25oz is the max he takes! is so frustrating though esp when your out and about and you see other mums giving their LO a feed and they take it so camly, then I try and it turns into a battle field! and feeds can go on and off for over an hour or untill he settles! my DP is convinced its teething as hes constantly dribbling and everything goes straight in his mouth! i've been trying teething gel but not really made much difference! hopefully our LO will sort themselves out soon! ds is asleep now but i'm sure it wont be long untill he wants feeding and it all starts again!
pommedeterre i agree really should be more support and help like colic

My dd ate a grand total of 15.5oz all day yesterday plus her 2 spoonfeeds which went down so much more easily. She slept fine and is upstairs napping at the min. She got up this morning really filled with a cold. Could barely breathe for the snot and choking and coughing on the snot that had gathered at the back of her throat overnight. Once she cleared that she was fine and has had 2, 4.5oz bottles plus her porridge so far today. A million times better than yesterday already. I doubt this cold was really starting to take hold yesterday making her eat badly!! I don't think it's the reflux again because she never needed her dose upped as she grew and we weaned it from her very slowly and has been grand til now. When we are out, I mostly feed my dd in a baby changing room. Feel like a fraud for taking up one of those rooms to bottle-feed but it's the only way I can get her to concentrate long enough to take ainything!! I hope your ds settles soon again for you firsttime coz the reflux really is sent to try us all!!!!

if your baby is growing well, and satisfied enough to sleep well, then maybe you are, as you suggest, over analysing just a bit? very easy to do! plus all babies go off their food a bit when ill.

my ds1 was great with milk but (in my eyes) a terrible feeder with solids. I used to get so so stressed about it, worry about how I was going to get food into him, it was horrible for all of us. I've learnt to accept that he knows his own hunger, and when I backed off a bit found he ate a bit less for the first couple of days, then went right back to eating about the same as he had before, but without my coercion. it a lot less stressful all round :) can you try letting her set the pace for a few days and see what happens? monitor her weight to reassure yourself if that helps, but I think if we step back as mothers, we can distinguish between a satisfied child (even if they haven't eaten what we expect) and a starving one.

good luck, I know how hard it is when you think your child doesn't eat.

mamachoc, you are absolutely right! She is so much better today with regards to eating even though she seems worse cold wise! Strange. I will not question it though!!! Gave myself a talking to last night and tried to chill out about it all!! Yesterday really was a rubbish eating day, even by her standards and I prepared myself to up during the night but it didn't happen. Bless her, I wonder what myself and my hubbie stressed about before she came along!! Wouldn't change a thing though!!!