Milk refusal at 9 months - common?

[jasperc163]

Just wondering if many on here had this problem? LO has reflux and so has always been difficult with milk but never this bad. She has only just started eating any solids (lunch only atm) but is dropping off milk faster than she is increasing solids.

We are struggling to make the 18-20oz min let alone what she actually needs to put on any weight. I feel that increased mobility is also causing a problem as she doesnt want to stay still to take her bottle, in part of course because it doesnt interest her that much.

She is MPI so i cant top milk levels except by adding formula to stuff.

Is this problem common and do they tend to get over it or not?

thanks alot

Yes this is very common. My DS went off his bottle about the same age. I was lucky if I could get 10ozs down him in a day. He is now 13 months and only has a 9oz bottle first thing in the morning, and maybe, very rarely, he will have a bottle at bedtime if he is feeling under the weather. You should try and get calcium from another source, i.e. fromage frais, and try not to stress about it, as this will stress her out just as much, if not more.

My ds went off milk completely at 9 months. He's just started drinking it again ageed 21 months. You need to make sure that they are getting their dairy intake from another source - yoghurts, cheese, milk in porridge/cereals. And if they are not drinking milk make sure that they are drinking something else to keep their fluid intake up.

Hi again Alice,

We still having a problem with dd so hopefully someone wise will have the answer for us. This started two weeks ago.

As I mentioned before dd is CMPI and has silent reflux. I am finding it very hard to wean her. Everything we tried so far either makes her spit up a lot or gives her tummy ache and gas which makes her more difficult to feed. She is having very very little solids and most days none at all so in our case its not the solids replacing milk scenerio.

What solids are you giving her? Do you think they might be giving her tummy ache?

Spoke to my HV today because I am really concerned about the lack of solids especially since she is on soya formula. We tried nutramigen and neoate but she didn't tolerant those hence the soya formula. She is going to refer dd to a dietican who will hopefully be more clued up on food intolerances than our paed or GP.

Have you thought about seeing a dietican?

Anyway enough of the essay.

Hope your dd starts feeding better soon.

ilovecaboose - thanks - the problem is that she cant have dairy so it makes this much more tricky.

CADS - hi there :-) How much is your LO drinking? how old is she?
dd seems extremely happy in herself so i dont think she is getting problems from the solids (i could be wrong but..). The reflux is always there to an extent but no signs it is any worse either. She just doesnt want to know. It is really stressing me out as she has started losing weight.

We have seen a dietician (useless) and an allergist (all negative but we are keeping off dairy anyway). So none the wiser

She isn't as bad as your dd (8mnths), yet. But in the last week we have dropped from 45oz to 25oz daily average (without solids).

Starting to worry because she is a lot more active, isn't having the solids she should and is starting to look a bit leaner. I know how frustrating it is.

DS had reflux and is CMPI but never ever went off his milk and by 8mnths was eating 3 proper meals per day + 30-35oz of formula. This is a completely new experience for us.

The only thing I can suggest is to increase her calorie intake by adding things like olive oil or flaxseed oil to her solids. Also, Avocado is high in good fats. Avocado and banana was one of ds's favourites. Also, you can add tuna (canned) to the banana and avo to get protein in, sounds horrible but ds loved it.

Let us know how you are doing.

BTW, ds was allergy tested at 16mnths and the results came back negative for cow's milk protein, yet he couldn't tolerant cow's milk formula.

He was constipated, got tummy ache, gas, he didn't sleep properly (would wake up cry during the night and I had to massage his tummy, I could feel the gas bubbling in his tummy) yet when we went onto soya formula he was like I completely different boy in about 3wks.

The allergy tests do not pick up intolerances only true allergies.

45! goodness. 32 was a good day for us!

I am feeding as much calorific food as i can but as you know if they wont take the quantity it is hard (today she had eggy bread). Agree re the more active part - it makes it 10 times worse!

ilovecaboose - as a matter of interst did you have to feed all your milk in solids and if so how much did you manage?

always remember my HV saying that an inch square of cheese like a large proportion of the daily recommended calcium requirement.

I just made sure it was milky cereal (porridge or weetabix with formula); yogurt and a cheesy meal or piece of cheese each day - figured that would be enough calcium!

Yes I had to feed all milk in solids - he wouldn't touch a drop. Just made sure he had some in every meal didn't measure it as such.

Strange dr told me milk was only for tiny babies and at 9 months he shouldn't need any at all?

But then I don't take ds to drs any more and am thinking of swopping cos of things they have done.

If allergy to milk can you use dairy free things like soya yoghurts/vegan cheese and things like chickpeas and things? My sister has been on a dairy free diet since she was young and my mum coped by replacing it with a non-dairy mock product.

Yes, it is a lot. She's a big baby. 91st centile at birth. Some how we've managed to stay along the same curve. Only through very hard work and god only knows what else. And she only started feeding properly after we moved from neocate to soya. We had 7wks of hell on the neocate where it would take me 40mins to get 5oz into her (she definitely wanted it but was in discomfit) and she was only having about 25oz per day. About 3 days after we moved her onto soya she suddenly went to 7oz in 15mins and started sleeping through the night. She was going from 8pm-7am without a feed.

I think her reflux is definitely bothering her because sometimes (mainly afternoon and evenings) she won't settle. Fusses, cries and won't lay down but the minute I give her her zantac she goes off to sleep within 10mins. The zantac is pretty immediate. I've had a swig of it before when I've had bad heartburn and didn't have anything else to take.

Also, I noticed since she started being mobile she has been spitting up a lot more.

Hi Everyone. I can't believe it.. others going through the same as me. I'm getting desperate and reading your messages has given me the first glimmer of hope in days! My DS is 8 months now and has had reflux since birth. I stopped BF at 6 months and he has been on nutramigen since as he has a ? CM allergy / intollerance. Tried gaviscon with no effect and have just persuaded my gp to try zantac. Any tips on getting it into my DS? it's only a 1Ml dose but he spits it back, no matter how little I give at a time. He was taking his nutramigen reasonably well, but never more than 24 oz in a day and often with a stuggle. But this all went pear shaped last week when he decided to just stop his lunch and bed time feeds. Today he took 6 oz, then 4 then I had to force 4 down him tonight. He is not gaining weight but my practice seem quit happy! HELP!!!!

feet,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble. What is your LO like on solids? Mine only started eating any real quantities at about 8.5 months and now we have dropped milk apart from am and pm as she was just getting worse and worse. Cross fingers i think it may be helping. She had got to the point of taking only 2-3 oz per feed but is clearly less unhappy about the 2-3 bottles she does have now and to be honest she is only taking maybe 5oz less than when i was trying to feed her all day.

As far as reflux goes (LO also had it since birth), if you arent already using a thickener i suggest you give it a go. Mine can drink water no problem now but still wont drink much neocate without thickener and it def helps the reflux. Most people use carobel but my LO had bad wind on it and so we found more success with Nestargel (same ingredient, carob bean, but without the maltodextrin).

If i can help in anyway let me know (we've tried everything!)
alice

ps we also tried Zantac (didnt help) and Losec (gave her awful wind so we also had to stop that!). We ended up just 'managing' on Neocate and Nestargel.

seem to be going through the same but my dd is 13mths, she had reflux and her milk intake was so worrying that she wasn't gaining weight and ended up on prescription milk with extra calories in it. She now refuses her evening bottle and only took 4ozs this morning thankfully she does drink a lot of water. We had her weighed on Tues and she had only put on 2ozs in 4wks and I felt so guilty as if it were my fault when the HV told me to keep an eye on it (she sees a dietician too) dh argued that as she is now walking thats probably why she hasn't gained alot. I'm now trawling thro the posts for some more food ideas