Hi everyone
I am brand new to Musmnet so sorry if I am asking something which has already been asked or if this isn't in the right place.
I have 7 months old (corrected age is 6 months) twin girls. I had a pretty difficult pregnancy and they were born early at 5lb15 and 3lb10- there was unequal placenta sharing hence dd2 was very small. She required major heart surgery at 2 weeks and was tube fed for a total of 5 weeks. Never took to breast (despite my trying for months) and has never had more than 100mls of formula in one go. She is on special high calorie milk with added powder to increase calories. Needless to say, her weight and feeding is a real issue. She now weighs just under 11 lbs. To make things even worse, she was daignosed with reflux at Christmas, but is generally doing better on medication.
We were advised to introduce solids early so at 5 months we gave her tiny bits of banana, baby rice, sweet potato. She wasn't massively interested and had really small amounts. About a month ago, we were advised to give her chicken, which we did (mashed with sweet potato and carrot) and she would have one ice cube a day. She has been having 1-2 ice cubes twice a day plus 'pudding' for the past few weeks. She enjoys cauliflower cheese, parsnip, potato, yogurt, banana, papaya and avocado. She has been noticeably more interested in the food I am eating- and has tried a few times to nibble the cracker or rice cake I am eating. Because of her size and her low volume milk intake (average in 24 hours is 350 to 400mls) we are still offering bottle just as often.
For the last week, she is completely disinterested in solids.She now won't even open her mouth for food and to get her to have 1/2 an ice cube requires a lot of time and distraction, even when I am offering the same things she liked before. I wondered if she might want something new/different texture, so tried her with some porridge, rusk and toast- but has shown very little interest in any of those either.
I am a bit nervous about offering finger foods, worried about her tiny mouth and choking, but realise this may be the way forward?
Her milk intake has also gone down but we think that's because of a new teat so have returned to the old one.
I am at a loss as to what to do, and am really fed up.
I would really appreciate any advice. Sorry for the long post btw.
Thanks