weaning hell

[firstimer74]

Hi

New to the site and looking for some much needed advice.

My dd is almost 10 months old and feeding her is a nightmare. I started weaning just off 6 months old and things started ok but now she hardly eats anything and is now reducing her milk intake to. She was diagnosed with cows milk intolerance at 5 weeks old and is on a special formula, so having to use alternatives.

Last week when i got her weighed the hv said i had to try and increase her calorie intake as although she hadn't lost weight, she hadn't gained much and was starting to go down the centiles. Apart from prising her mouth open there is no way she will take anymore than she does.

Anyone else been through this and got any tips?

thanks in anticipation

What does she eat at the moment?

What are you offering her?
Finger food?
Mush on a spoon?
I would offer her little and often and try her on all sorts of things to find out what she will eat.
Houmous is good. Babies are somtimes fine with strong flavours.
I make dairy free, sugar free, apple cakes which are great if she's into finger food

I used to whizz up DS1's normal food and include hard boiled egg yokes for stacks of fats and vits.

It might be nothing to worry about. Nobody actually has that child who follows the 50th centile their whole life. Unless there are signs of illness or your daughter does actually loose weight, I can't see the problem.

firstly i feel for you.

my ds is cows milk intolerant also, weaning was hell he didn't hardly eat a thing. it was really erratic and he was eating practically nothing. infact he didn't start eating proper meals (tiny ) till 14 months.

he is almost two still eats very small amounts and just went through a 8 day phase where he ate a cuople of rasberries and a bottle of oat milk a day.

it sent me round the twist, but he is fine, small and skinny but fine.

babies know what they need, starting to eat at 10 or even 12 months is normal for some. HVs generally know nothing and are harbingers of doom.

the centile chart charts the range of normal weight. you baby is on it , therefore normal. mine is on 2nd centlie, started out on 50th and only started dropping when weaning. i breast fed him for 22 months.

your baby will be getting enough nutrients from the formula. it is difficult to get fats in with a dairy intolerant baby, so i give eskimo fish oil, and a calcium supplement aswell.

i just tried him on a teaspoon of cream in his porridge tonight and so far so good. (cream is mainly fat/whey and therefore doesn't contain the milk proteins.

hipp organic banana rice pudding is dairy free and was a staple for us.

oatmilk with added calcium for cereals. avocado. hth

wolliow - can i have your recipe for the df/sf apple cake ?

Just a thought, do you let her feed herself? My LO hardly ate for the first months of weaning, until I realised he preferred to feed himself. Very messy business, but thats when he started to enjoy food.

What does she like best of what she does eat? I agree with Wolliw that it can help to pack every spoonful with as many calories as possible if they need to gain/maintain weight and don't take very much. So if, for eg she likes fruit puree, add some cereal and full fat goats milk yogurt to it. Put egg yolks and goats/sheeps cheese into savoury stuff. Try and mix more calorific fruit like avocado and banana in with other fruit/veg if she won't take them alone. Would she eat fried finger foods like home made chicken nuggets? Is she interested in feeding herself at all? Think it's important to let her take control of it asap so it doesn't become a fraught battle in the longer term- it's so worrying and emotional when they won't eat, especially if they are underweight. Sympathies.

Thanks guys for all your responses. Yes she does eat finger foods, but sometimes just plays with them instead of eating them. Ive tried all sorts, bread, fruit etc, she doesn't have any teeth yet so think that doesn't help and doesnt like lumpy food.

Ive tried making food with dairy free cheese sauce, potatoe & gravy, potatoe & beans, you name it, ive tried it. She doesn't seem to intrested in playing with the food either, she just likes to chew on things.

I'm sure in a few years I will look back on it all and wonder why I worried.

Thanks again

NB teeth are no barrier to finger food - their gums are actually pretty hard because of the teeth underneath, not like (eg) old people who have lost their teeth and whose gums are soft

play on her love of chewing things - chunky chips (no salt) are a fab finger food...