1st centile 10mo off solids

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My teeny 10 month old was doing so well with solids (though it wasn't making a difference to her growth curve), eating a wide variety of foods, self feeding etc. Then 2 weeks ago she got some kind of virus (high temp, a couple of vomits) and went off her food. I expected it to go back to normal once she was better but she still is eating basically nothing 2 weeks later! She'll sometimes take a few nibbles of proper meals but more often refuse completely. She will eat snacks (fruit, bread sticks etc) but I'm worried about building bad habits if that's all she wants!
So far I've tried

• solids before milk, as suggested by our consultant
• meals not in high chair, with her on my lap (helped a little bit)

We're seen in hospital every 6 months as that's our hospital's protocol for 1st centile babies but our next appointment isn't for another 6 months as we just had one (just before she got ill). Wondering at what point I go to the GP and ask to be seen earlier? She's still breastfeeding as normal and doesn't seem lethargic or anything, but she really doesn't have room to slow down on growing as she'll fall off the 1st centile curve!

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Thanks

If she’s had a virus i would take her back to the GP and ask them to checker her ears, throat and tummy just to make sure there’s nothing going on there that would curb her appetite.

Has she had a recent blood test done to rule out anaemia? That can suppress appetite.

And is she under a Dietician? I’m just wondering if she has an upcoming appointment for them?

Thanks for the reply! @BunnyRuddington that's a good idea about checking the virus is definitely gone - I'd just assumed that because her symptoms (vomiting and fever) have gone that she's better but potentially not. No, at the moment our 6 month reviews are done by a consultant paediatrician. Not sure if he'll hand over to a dietician at some point. But he did say if we have any concerns in between appointments we can request a quicker follow up which I think would be done by the GP. Re. anaemia that's worth following up too because as she's stopped eating solids I'm sure she won't be getting enough iron.

Thanks for these points, very useful! I'll call the GP now.

I think Anaemia is unlikely but might be worth ruling out. Anaemia is fairly rare in BF infants due to a number of factors.

Definitely see the GP though and ask for those ears to be checked and also her throat and tummy. I was in a similar position once, though not on the bottom centile, and it was lingering inflammation in her ears.

And do ask the GP for a referral to Paediatric Dietician service for help with feeding her.

Let us know how you get on

Update - she's absolutely demolishing the shop bought Yorkshire puddings I just tried offering her in desperation! Not ideal obviously due to salt and UPF considerations but maybe it's a gateway into getting her back onto solids. I'll make some home made ones tomorrow. I feel very relieved seeing her eat something properly. I topped it with homemade beef Bolognese I had in the fridge so there's a bit of goodness there.

I have a poor eater and it's generally another week after illness for appetite to return.
She barely ate until 13 months and it took very little for her to go to eating nothing again. She only gained 200g from 7-12 months! She's didn't start gaining again until she was having milk and 3 meals, she was 20 months before we could reduce milk.
How's your HV? I believe they can do dietician referrals at least my daughters HV (allergies and reflux) said to ask her paediatrician for dietician referral and if he did she could.

You do know after she’s demolished Yorkshire pudding eagerly today and you’ve made those lovely homemade ones tomorrow she will almost certainly not take a bite?

My daughter is now 5 and there is still and inverse relationship between the amount of effort I have put into a meal and her interest in eating it! 😂

@BunnyRuddington I wish there was an 100% reaction to replies on Mumsnet... I agree!!

I think “inverse relationship” is the perfect phrase!

Just want meeting if she likes batter you could try something different like Blueberry Pancakes or Apple Batter Pudding?

That's a great idea @BunnyRuddington I'll have a look at the apple battery pudding. Could add chia seeds or something to add more nutrition. Honestly I'd feed her McDonald's if she'd eat it I think. Well, maybe not, but with such a tiny baby I'm just desperate for calories and all I know about whole foods and nutrition is going out of the window!

Have they suggested adding things like mascarpone or olive oil to her foods for extra calories or maybe a bit of cream in porridge? Are you also avoiding wholewheat foods?

Yes, we've had good advice about oils, nut butters, cream and cream cheese in everything. I've been smearing fruit with olive oil whilst that's the only thing she wants! Frustratingly she doesn't like being spoon fed so porridge and greek yoghurt is a bit tricky and not much ends up going in. But I put it on things for her. And just made some banana oat energy balls.

@Superscientist sorry I somehow missed your reply. That sounds tough! My baby has been an incredibly slow gainer too, she's only just approaching double her birth weight at 10 months. I've been trying not to stress as there's not much I can do, but it's difficult especially when she's not eating well. I will definitely ask for a dietitian referral. Our HV team have been shocking to be honest - absolutely no help with her poor weight gain. Luckily the GP did our referral and the paediatric consultant we saw in hospital has been attentive and helpful. Did you find anything in particular helped with your daughter's eating or did it just slowly improve?

She has a lot of allergies and it was only when we identified all of them that she really started to engage with food. She also has silent reflux and that was contributing too.

We made the switch to formula at 10 months when I had to go into hospital which helped as we only had her diet to contend with. She reacted to foods through my breastmilk and I think that made a difference.

One day when she was 13 months she demolished my dinner whilst sat on my knee and that was the beginning of her starting to eat more. It still took a long time to eat enough to sustain herself without formula. She had formula on prescription until she was 2. She still has times when she goes completely off her food.

We have had generally good advice from the HV except when it came to weight. She was a newborn she was following the 9th percentile and I was just told she was a 9th percentile baby. It's fine she's following a line not dropping percentiles. She moved to the 25-50th after I started removing food from my diet and she started breastfeeding properly having dropped to second length feeds. She then dropped just over a percentile between 7 and 12 months and I was told dropping is fine as long as she isn't actively losing weight.

If it's any comfort my sister was under the 0.4th percentile until 1. At 10 weeks she was less than 1lb over birth weight! She was then on the 0.4th percentile until 2 when she moved up to the 50th. No long term consequences. There's also a little girl in her class that's was below the 0.4th percentile and has settled on the 0.4th and is amazing. My daughter has settled around the 25th percentile for weight but is a little dot and around the 2nd for height and doesn't let it bother her. It's just been a bit tricky for me. We had to delay potty training until I could find knickers that fitted her and we were limited in school uniforms and she was only just in size 2-3 clothes and size 6 shoes. Most school shoes start in a size 7 or 8!

I was struggling with my weight when breastfeeding and the dietician recommended lots of roast veg with plenty of oil in. We would blitz it up into a pasta sauce and used it when I'd usually use a tin of tomatoes.

So bloody difficult isn’t it? My DC2 was a total spoon refuser too. If she won’t have porridge will she have a go at porridge fingers?

@Superscientist thank you very much, it's helpful to hear other's experiences! My mum keeps telling me what a tiny baby I was and that she has the same worries, so I think maybe it's just genetics... I'm not sure I was 1st centile though! I certainly remember always being the smallest in my class, which wasn't much fun. At least I'll be able to empathise with her.

@BunnyRuddington thanks for that, yes I've tried oat bars with not much luck, she just doesn't seem that keen on oats generally. I'll keep trying though. I made some oat and banana energy balls with almond butter which she ate one of yesterday so that's progress. She also continued eating much better, thank goodness. A whole beef mince quesadilla with cheese for dinner and two sweet potato egg muffins for lunch. Hopefully we're over this food refusal episode. It's just horrible when she's got no room for her growth to slow!

Can sympathise with her not being keen on oats. The only way I really enjoy them is mixed with golden sugar and butter and made into flapjacks

She seems to have eaten a decent amount yesterday which is good?

I was 2nd percentile and often not much smaller than my little sister who is nearly 4 years younger than me. She was the only one who was a typical sized child....as adults the three of us are between 5ft2 and 5ft4! So our sizes as children didn't make much difference. I'm 5ft2 and my daughter is predicted to be around 4ft11 - 5ft2 so fairly similar. My dad is only 5ft5 and his sister 4ft11 so we are a small family

My daughter didn't like food being messed with so she would happily eat Weetabix and porridge. Try adding fruit and she would refuse it!

She's 5 now and will have dried fruit in her porridge. She was just having porridge oats but her dietician has recommended doing a mix of porridge oats and ready brek as ready brek is fortified where as oats and she would benefit especially from the added iron. We currently do 20g oats, 10g ready brek. This reflects some of the dilemmas we have around food, we do prefer to do whole foods and avoid processed but some times there's an added benefit to the processing. Similar with oat milk, I would give her organic brands that are just oats and water without being messed with but she needs the extra fat, calories, calcium and iodine that the barista oat milks.

@Superscientist yeah, I had a huge growth spurt age 15 and am 5ft8. All my family are very tall and thin! I'm sure she'll be tall, she's quite long and has massive feet.

Yes, I really think balance is important. I'm obviously keeping as much as possible whole foods for her at the moment whilst she's so small (aside from her Yorkshire pudding...) but I will definitely prioritise calories as she gets older, within reason.

Yes add full fat milk, cream and butter where you can. Also the fact that’s she’s still breastfeeding is excellent, as at this age they are still getting most of their nutrition from milk.

The other thing to remember is they quickly pick up on how you are behaving. Food can very quickly turn into a battle that you will never win.

I’m sure she will soon be back to normal. This is just a blip.

@Rabbitrabbitrun the milk Vs solids thing is something I'm a bit confused about. When we saw the consultant 3 weeks ago he said we should be prioritising food by this age and said a formula fed baby should only be drinking about a pint of milk a day. He advised solids before breastfeeding. This was when she was actually eating really well so I didn't ask many questions about what to do if she's off food. She is SO keen on breastfeeding and uses it for comfort as well as hunger, and I don't know how to taper this off, or if I need to at this stage. I think I'm still making loads of milk because my breasts feel so hard and full if I'm ever away from her for a few hours.

The usual advice is milk is the main source of nutrition until at least 12 months. We are advised to introduce solids at six months, so having a child eating a good range of nutritious solid food by nine months is ambitious. Most are still trying food, playing with it and spitting it out. In another three months, they could well be consuming more solids but even at 12 months they need the equivalent of a pint of milk, although this can be from sources other than milk.

Having said that babies haven’t read the rules. They make their own rules.