8 month bf baby fontanelle sunken

[ForeverBusy]

I have noticed for the last few days that dd2 has a permanently sunken fontenelle. She has three bf (breakfast, 3pm and evening) a day, we have not changed the routine for a couple of months and she sleeps through. She is a mix of purée and blw and eats extremely well. I have tried to get her to drink more at lunchtime as worried she is dehydrated but not having much success. She will take the odd mouthful from a sippy cup or a cup but no more, have tried water, formula and watered down juice. Am not keen to reintroduce any bf as she is not asking for any but am still worried. I dont believe my supply is down either. Any suggestions please.

I would think it was dehydration but I'm not expert.. Can you try ways to get more fluid in ie adding some 'extra' water to purée? Homemade soup might be good to as its really just water with some veg. Give some bread to dunk in. If your worried, give HV phone to ask

How is her poo? I ask because if it is softish then she probably isn't dehydrated (obviously v soft is a problem and probably illness and therefore not an indicator of dehyrdration). My DS2 had a little bit sunken fontenelle most of the time - it just seemed to be the way he was. However, I did worry if his poo was a bit hard sometimes and tried to up the fluids with more bf. He wouldn't take any sort of cup either.

She does several poos a day which tend to consist of one bf type poo and a few medium firm ones, not pellets. I managed to get her to drink 40ml from a straw this lunchtime but then this afternoon she has been sticking up a lot due to teething so completely wiping out the effort!

How is she in herself? Is she bright and alert at times? Has she got any other signs of dehydration?

No you'd never know otherwise. Of course tonight she didn't want much veg purée but ate happily the eggy Bread. She eats yogurts and I have been giving her fruit purée so I dont understand how she can be suddenly be dehydrated. She used to take a bottle as I was operated on in nov and couldn't bf for 4 days and she had a bottle a day for a month while I was recovering but she completely refuses now and from mil, dh etc

Sunken fontanelle is not easy to diagnose and my understanding is that a baby who has one of these would show other signs of illness/dehydration if it was serious.

An 8 mth old baby feeding and behaving normally is not likely to be dehydrated....I am not medical and I am just using experience and common sense here!

You could call your HV if worried.

OK this might sound a bit odd but maybe her skull has had a bit of a growth spurt? Presumably the skull has to grow up over the brain at some point before it can completely close up? Maybe her fontenelles haven't sunk, just her bones have grown a bit. I would probably be laughed at by a doctor but it was just a thought to explain what you are seeing.

I am of course not medically trained in any way but if she is otherwise well and happy then I would assume she was OK contrary to more evidence otherwise.

Miraculously it seemed back to normal tonight despite the fact she had a coughing fit mid feed and puked up a good half her feed. Between the teeth and her cold think we are in for a good night! Thanks for all your help.