Force Feeding

[akr2k14]

Our baby girl of 8.5 months does not like taking milk or solids. She specially does not want to take milk and she will cry if hungry but will not take milk if offered.

She literally has to be force fed. She does drink after a 5 minute forcing session and then she can go through 200 ml, but she always fights when a bottle is offered to her. In fact she knows that the lying down position is for feeding and will start crying and moving around immediately.

Even for solids, the spoon will be dangling in front of her but she keeps moving her mouth away.

Right now she is hardly taking 500ml of milk in 24 hours with two instances of solids. That is a good day, otherwise she will either skip a bottle or a solid on average.

We have tried different milk brands with same effect and different flavours of solids. Any insight on how to get her to eat?

I would definitely stop force feeding her.

Why does she not like eating? When did it start, do you know the cause?

I would be straight down the drs to rule out a medical reason why she won't eat or drink milk. Is she settled at night or appear to be in pain. Could the milk be upsetting her stomach.

I can't see how force feeding mill o's that answer rather than finding out why.

It's easy to look at the formula tins and see that they should be having 3 x X amount but really some will eat more or less and it's not vital she eats three meals a day either. It's still for fun at this age.

Stop! I know the anxiety of a non-eating baby, but I think it's just time to take a step back.

Do you ever give her finger food? And just leave it in front of her? What happens? Does she need to lie down to have a bottle? Or might she consider a soft spout cup she can learn to use herself?

You might have tried lots of these things, so I'm sorry if these ideas seem annoying. What does she eat? Is her weight gain ok?

This needs medical advice, as it sounds very extreme. Please see a GP to discuss this. My initial reaction would be that it could be causing her pain, maybe reflux, or perhaps teething pain.

In the meantime, could you stop trying to feed her solids, and just let her have finger foods? You won't make matters better in the long run with trying to force solids into her, in fact it could set up some really deep grained issues with food.

You need real iLife support with this quickly because you must Stop force feeding her- you can end up with awful long term issues:(

See GP and see if you need a referral, if there are complicating issues concerning reflux etc

Buy my child won't eat by Carlos Gonzalez and read it- really helpful book.

In the short term you need to give your child back control of feeding. The consequence might be less initially but will be more in the long term.

Look up baby led weaning.

Do everything to de - stress feeding, change physical position, stop if any reluctance, keep neutral neither encouraging or angry or worried etc.

It is normal for appetite to ebb and flow, if it is anything more serious then force feeding won't work. If it's just natural variation force feeding won't work. You do sound so worried but get support and it will get better.

Agree this is an issue for real life support and advice. It's quite serious and could have long term consequences, but with the right help, it can be resolved.

Your Hv would be a good first port of call. Explain exactly what you have said here. Don't minimise it.

Hope you get it sorted soon.