8 Month Old Baby Refusing Milk and Solids

[johnston2910]

Hi All. Im new to this site and had to post as we have not had the best few weeks. This will take awhile so bear with me....

My dd is formula fed and not been a great feeder since 4 months old. She stopped feeding through the night at 3 months. She was easily distracted at the bottle and I had to walk round with her to feed. This turned into her only feeding for me. She previously drank 30-35oz per day in 5 x 7oz but once we got back on track it went to high 20s which I was happy with. My GP at this point told me to wean fast as she was getting bored with milk and to give her purees (not great advice). I tried doing porridge and purees but she hated feeding from a spoon. She would clamp her mouth shut and turn her head. So we gave up and decided to wait til 6 months. Milk feeding continued to be ok during this time.

At 6 months dd was still not interested in a spoon so we went down the BLW route. In the beginning she would put all foods we gave her in her mouth and was clearly enjoying it but not swallowing anything which I know is completely normal so just carried on with what we were doing.

Since about 6.5months dd has had constant diarrohea - up to 5/6 times a day...sorry to be graphic but its green and just water. She had chicken pox which was awful, then a bacterial infection affecting ears and throat, conjunctivitus, 2 teeth popped through and pretty sure she is teething now. With regards to the diarrohea gp said it could be a milk/lactose intolerance stemming from the infection so currently prescribed Aptamil Pepti. We had to gradually reduce/increase her formula because she flat out refused the new formula at the start and finally now today fully on the new milk. We only had 1 diarrohea nappy today so maybe its helping???

We also have these problems now -

• Milk - she has been awful feeding over the last 6 weeks. She averages about 15-20oz per day and I have to really work for it. She mostly has to be held with me standing to distract her. If i sit she pulls off and refuses. She will 90% of the time refuse a feed by clamping her mouth shut and crying. If she opens her mouth a feed can take over an hour and she still wont finish a bottle. We had to reduce the number of bottles as she was simply no longer hungry enough for 5. At a few intervals I was only able to feed her when asleep but she has caught on to that so wont fall asleep on me. Also tried pulling the dummy out and sticking the bottle in but it feels like im forcing her then. There are a few times though that she will down an 8oz bottle in 1 go and is fine (happy cos she is full!) so dont think its reflux. I can understand that whilst she has been ill that she wont feed but now shes better her appetite has not come back and she is just not interested. Iv also tried diff teets/bottles. We have just put her to bed after another night of refusing her last bottle so she has only had 12oz today. I cant even put milk in food because she wont eat it. This has all taken a toll on what we do in the day so a lot of the time we just stay in as its too hard and embarrassing to go through all this in public.

• Solids - dd stil refuses the spoon which is fine so continued with blw. However, she now (last 6 weeks) gags at most sittings and is sick everywhere....we have had to do a few baths post feeding. She even gags/sicks on food she seemed fine with before e.g. toast, poofs, cucumber, steamed apple. Btw we leave it over 1hr before we try solids after a milk feed. Do I continue to try foods and hope it stops? Do I stop solids so she doesnt sick up any milk I got in her earlier?

I suppose Im just after some advice on any of the above. Tbh i wouldnt be bothered if she hated either milk or solids so long as shes getting something but thats not happening. She has now started to lose weight and dropped from 50th to 9th centile. HVs arent of much use and just say the usual stuff I already know. GP has referred us to Paediatrician but appointment isnt until 9th July so ages away!!!!

My little girl is a very happy smiling thing with an independent mind. She seems to hit all the physical milestones early (less weight to move i reckon!) its just all the feeding issues.

Sorry for the rant...it really helped to get it all out though and hoping for some replies 🤞🤞🤞

It sounds like you really need this referral.
Make sure you go to the appointment with a written food diary, weight record and nappy record. It will save time because they will send you away to do this f you haven't already done it.

I had to see a specialist a while ago for bladder problems and the fact that I turned up with my fluid balance and symptom chart all on a spread sheet meant that I could be treated straight away rather than have another appointment in 2 weeks.

I wish I had better advice to offer, but maybe someone else will be able to help.

My little girl was a bit like this and we strugggled on and off with her milk and food intake up until she was 2. In the beginning it was reflux and cows milk protein intolerance. Then once she started teething she also got lots of ear infections and this then led to milk and food refusal wh never she felt poorly or in pain and it usually took her a couple of weeks to get her appetite back each time. It was hugely stressful at the time and I had a lot of tears over it but eventually once she turned 18 months old the ear infections cleared up and stopped teething things got much better. The diarrhoea does sound like some kind of intolerance though.
P.s teething also used to make her gag a lot on things she wouldn’t normally gag at, sometimes to the point of throwing up so that could be related to teething.

Thank you for replying. I forgot to mention that she has also refused all sippy cups/bottles we give her to so not able to give her mill that way. She also hates syringes of medicine in her mouth so could be an aversion to things in her mouth....I just dont know

We have kept a diary of food intakes and nappies for awhile.

Choccarocker - wow 2 years! That must have been hard for you. What is she like with food now?

It sounds just like my little girl was. She got bad behavioural issues due to reflux, teething and ear pain. She also would never drink milk out of sippy cups and sometimes had to resort to dream feeding her to get any milk into her. During the day we found distraction sometimes helped whilst eating.
She’s 2 and a half now and loves her food now that her ear issues and teething are resolved however if she’s ever under the weather she loses her appetite and eats very little until she’s feeling completely better.

This sounds like my DD she was born on the 50th centile loved her milks (she was breast and formula fed), however due to cow milk protein intolerance she had very bad reflux and dropped to the second centile!! She is also taking Aptamil pepti.
her appetite has gone down hill since she turned 6 months.
she doesn’t get sick, no infections but she won’t just eat.
she’s 8 months now and she is really small.
Everyone talks about how small she is.
she’s very happy, lively and hitting her mile stones but won’t eat.
The new one now is she doesn’t sleep. She wakes up at least every hour at night and screams and cries till I rock her to sleep. She’ll breastfeed for comfort but not for food.
she loved her solids but now won’t really eat much. She’ll just have a little out of curiosity.
her stomach is empty but she just won’t eat.