I have a 10 month old daughter who is now simply refusing to eat. She was born under-weight at 2.67 kgs and was fussy with both formula milk and breast milk at the time she was on milk. I started solid at 6 months and even with that she has been very fussy.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner take about 1 hour each and that too she does not finish the whole bowl. Some of the things she does to avoid feed either by hand or spoon
- she either turns her face away
- push the spoon out with her hand
- if we restrained her she would either turn her face away
- keep her lips tightly shut in case we tried to force food in
- she behaves as if she is being tortured.
- keeps the food in her mouth and then moves from one side to another, often when swallows will cough or gag.
- also being such a happy and playful baby, there is a sudden change in personality during meal times which is unexplainable.
- she usually takes 1-2 spoons of her food and then starts to behave as described above
Gradually this is getting worse in last one month.
The sort of things I have tried to encourage her to eat are
- finger food – after a two bites she loses interest
- playing nursery rhymes during meal times – no joy
- baby Tv at meal times – no joy
- me and my husband eating with her – no joy
- - I make most of her food fresh and is very close to what we eat as part of our family meals, as in its not bland and boring.
She is small and 2-3 kgs behind most other children of her age and is gaining weight at a tiny rate but is doing decently on the height front.
She takes about 500ml of milk over 4 feeds during the day, Health visitor thinks that’s fine.
Health visitor and GP don’t seem concerned but then that’s the NHS.
After speaking to other mums they explain that their babies behave similar on few days though our girl is an extreme case and consistent.
On the upside she is very active and loud than most children of her age does not sit still even for 1 minute. She is teething and can stand up herself with support and walk with support.
We are planning to start nursery for her since I want to go back to work hence a consistent feeding needs to be established, we are not sure if someone else will cope with her attitude.
If you have gone through this, please do share how you have overcome and fought this issue or Is there any specialist/ professional dealing with such issues with babies/toddlers that can help understand what is going on for my girl?
It is not possible for us to find out why is she behaving like this hence someone who is an expert in this area can help us.
This has been very stressful for us, any help, advise and suggestion is most welcome.