Weaning and Digestive Issues

[AlohaMoe]

Does anyone have any experience of their little ones really struggling digesting all foods offered when weaning?

For context - My DD is 8mo on the weekend and since we started weaning (a few days before she turned 6mo) she has had horrible pain with gas, if she eats solids she’s sick multiple times no matter what time the food was given and the discomfort is really upsetting her. She’s waking and screaming the house down in discomfort. This can go on for 2-3 hours especially if she’s had actual solids (rather than just purée). She’s so upset she will refuse a feed, cuddle, dummy, winding. We just seem to go round in circles during this time until she gives in has some milk and either falls asleep after feeding or after being in her cot for a short period.
My HV isn’t very helpful (she directs me to contact other HVs one told me to look at the NHS healthy choice weaning info page online 🙃 and the other gave me the outdated “food before one is just for fun”. {I’ve got a three year old, I full understand how to offer, prepare and feed a baby but didn’t have any issues with my son.}
I’ve had multiple trips to the GP now as there’s been no improvement. They’re going to write to a paediatrician now to see if they’d like to see her, but he doesn’t think it’s anything sinister as she’s growing, content and has good nappy output.

Just wondered if anyone had any experience similar to this and could offer their experience or insight?
Thanks

Can you specify what foods you've tried? Presumably she's fine with milk, so how is she with yoghurt or cheese?

Broccoli, peas, butternut squash, sweet potato, peaches, apples, banana, strawberry, raspberry, watermelon, bread, porridge, ready brek, potato, tomato, chicken, tiny pasta shapes, blueberries, spinach, prunes, carrot, parsnip, sweetcorn, baby corn, mango and all the Ella’s kitchen melty stick flavours! She loves Greek yoghurt, she’s loved everything she’s tried but just doesn’t seem to agree with her.

Wow, quite a list. I've narrowed down my 10mo digestive issues to anything sugary (including fruit) or refined oils. Still BF so affects my diet too. But he's only affected at night.

My only suggestion is trying probiotics, we're using optibac and it has improved things slightly.

What about if you go right back to basics and offer baby rice, I know I know but the reason it used to be the go-to when babies were weaned much earlier was because it’s supposed to be the easiest to digest, made with her formula and then add puree of one fruit or veg at a time to it so you can try to pinpoint what the issues are? And keep pushing for the referral to a paediatrician because as you know from your eldest, it’s not normal.

We’re already taking the same! Fingers crossed the paediatric team will want to see/speak to us and will have some insight 😔

After the GP suggested going back to the start over a month ago and taking it slowly. We started again by doing baby rice for breakfast for a few days with no other meals offered and were still finding the same. And single flavour purée then added as a lunch after a few days.
We let her eat as much purée as she wanted for three meals yesterday as a trial and she was awake 30 mins after bedtime screaming but for a much shorter episode. Then only needed another milk feed approx. 1am and settled straight back down 🤷🏼‍♀️ so might try the same again tomorrow and see how she fairs.
The GP telling me they’re happy it’s nothing sinister is a huge comfort but with only having one straightforward previous weaning experience, I’m probably finding it harder than I would otherwise.
I had been keeping a diary to see if there was a certain food or type (before the first GP visit) and it seemed to be everything.
@PotatoCrossroads did your GP/HV advise what to do/what would happen about your little ones issues? I’m just wondering if my DD might be having the same issue as she’s also combi fed 🤔
Thank you @PotatoCrossroads and @FlounderingFruitcake for your suggestions ❤️

I explained the issues at his 10 month health check recently and the advice was just to try and work out what food is causing the excess wind. No help really.

I looked at the low FODMAP diet as a starting point for both of us and then reintroduce foods one at a time. Still early days though, I think he's improving but we're trying a new nap/bedtime routine as he's always been a terrible sleeper, so that's disrupting things too.

@AlohaMoe @PotatoCrossroads did your babies grow out of this? I'm in the same boat although it seems for us it's more tummy cramps/reflux than gas

We had an appointment with a nutritionist a few months after and have been giving her dairy free ever since. Koko super has been our lifesaver! We do attempt the milk ladder but she isn’t keen on pancakes so need to speak to the nutritionist to see whether to skip this step. My daughter is able to tolerate baked items with milk in but I try not to give her too much of them until we’ve worked out if she’s grown out of the intolerance.

Mine still gets reflux occasionally. Really hoped he'd have grown out of it by 2. Citrus, tomato, cocoa, bacon and refined oils. Also has a wheat intolerance.

The reflux is avoidable though, or treatable with gaviscon. The wind however is still our biggest issue but im starting to think he has retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction. Waiting to hear back from the paediatrician who was going to look into this.

Doubt that's much help. From what I've read a lot of most babies outgrow these issues long before we have.

I think we may be in the same boat as solids make her reflux a lot worse. I can't see this magically going away at 1 year (she's 11 months now)

My daughter is similar, she's nearly 4 and still not completed the milk ladder, fwiw it's way easier trying it properly once they have all their teeth as then know the night time screaming won't be a tooth cutting!

She also initially couldn't tolerate eggs or wheat but grew out of this for both by 10/11 months. With the milk it wasn't until we fully cut out soy for 6 months that her belly seemed to settle and were successful with getting past step 1 of the milk ladder at nearly 3 years old.

We actually gave gripewater every night until 15 months when she got a lot more teeth through - she didn't get her first tooth until nearly a year. So think the gripe water aided her digestion until she could chew her food properly. My husband was dubious but when we tried stopping it multiple times then cue 4am screaming wake ups with wind...

Lastly have you looked into tongue ties? My daughter's was cut at 11 days old then revised at 6 months and was all scar tissue apparently. Can cause them to take in lots of air and contribute to reflux.

It's crap having kids with digestives issues, especially if affects their sleep. Deep baths at bedtime help so belly completely submerged and massage belly during bath, then lots of toes to nose at nappy time and be quite forceful to help bring wind out.

She was a late diagnosis of milk allergy at 6 months though so wonder if that contributed to the longer lasting symptoms?

Yes I've checked for tongue ties and she doesn't have any. Because of the reflux she hates nappy changes, tummy massages or bending her legs up to her body. She was also a late diagnosis for milk allergy and I wasn't convinced it was a milk allergy for ages so kept going back to retest as her symptoms were relatively subtle, but it's clear that almost everything in my breast milk bothers her and makes her reflux worse. The digestive issues are so crap. I just want us all to enjoy nice food and not to have to worry about it all the time. All of this has been detrimental to my mental health.

@LSMZ I know what you mean about family meal times and stressing about things.

Does she have wheat/soy/eggs? When I say mine grew out of egg and wheat intolerances she still couldn't have large amounts or if had eggs more than 2-3 days in a row it was like that was her threshold for symptoms to kick in again - that got better around 2 I think so would limit frequency still. Baked stuff seemed mostly okay but omelette three days in a row meant screaming wakes the third night.

We did a lot of stews in slow cooker as easy to be allergen free, braising steak or chicken with potatoes and carrots and a low salt stock cube with a bit of water. Meal planning does get wearying though.

I hope the reflux gets better for you 🤞🏻 I don't think other mums realise how hard it is having an allergic/intolerant baby. The overthinking and stress that goes into navigating weaning and trialling reintroduction is such a minefield of hope and shit nights 😪

@Ihatewinding yes that's the same for us. She can tolerate small amounts of things sometimes. Yes wheat, soy, eggs, dairy but also all other legumes, coconut and almond so far. It's like her digestive system does not work. I just hate seeing her suffer and I also need more things to eat. Did it get any better for you when you stopped breastfeeding?