8 month old feeding problems

[Kittiewhite89]

Hi
I'm at my wits end and really need some advice. I will be ringing my health visitor next week but wondered if I could get some advice here first.

My daughter is almost 9 months old. She has never been a big eater and I've usually been fine with that until now.

My only problem is that we are getting nowhere with weaning. We started weaning at 6 months on tiny amounts, say 1-2 teaspoons per meal. With this tiny amount, she dropped her milk dramatically. If I had of cut down on the solids then she wouldn't have been having any at all.

We currently stand at the following:
7 am - porridge with 2oz milk
8:30am - 3oz bottle
11:30am - equivalent to 1 small jar full purée and 1 petit filous
1:30pm - 2oz milk
4:30pm - equivalent of half small jar puree and 1 petit filous
6:30pm - 6oz milk
10:30pm - dreamfeed 5/6oz milk

Quantity wise, this isn't a lot at all. She gets full to the point of burping and posseting every few minutes, and is never hungry for snacks. I do offer her finger food but she isn't hungry enough to even entertain it. She is starting to refuse the dreamfeed and I just can't afford for her to drop it calorie wise.

She still hadn't transitioned to thick purées or lumps as she refuses to eat or vomits up, again something we can't afford for her to do :(

It's like she is just never hungry but constantly full, and we've been at this stage for about 2 months now. I've got no scope of increasing the milk as she projectile vomits if overfed (severe reflux doesn't help), but if I drop milk, I can't make up for the nutrition with solids as she won't eat more than she already does.

I'm wondering if this is normal, we're just stuck and it's really getting me down.

She doesn't drink juice and has water available in a straw cup throughout the day which she drinks quite a lot of. I've tried offering milk before solids too and then she just refuses the solids.

Sorry for the long post :(

Right let's try try to take one thing at a time. First, she's taking roughly 20 floz a day and this is fine, its in line with recommendations so don't worry too much. Is it first stage formula she's having? If not, it may be worth swapping her back. Is she following her height and weight centiles too? Weight is a pretty meaningless number in babies, you really need to look at the whole picture.

Try to give her the milk before the solids. I know you are worried about her not taking the solids, but under one its far more important that she takes milk. Try to look on solids as just trying different tastes and textures rather than something to fill her up, the milk is for that

As for lumps, has she ever been checked for tongue tie? My DS would not entertain lumps and he had upper lip tie and tongue tie so it might be worth getting her checked. Tt can also produce reflux like symptoms.

I'd try with finger foods again. If you give her a bottle at 7am then try her with some breakfast at 8-8.30ish and just take the attitude that it doesn't matter if she eats it or not, she may just surprise you. You could try her with some toast and smooth nut butter, eggy bread, blueberry muffins, a bowl of Cheerios without the milk (great finger food) or just a banana split lengthways.

You could try a eating your breakfast while she eats her, reading or even some housework, just offer it and let her decide if she eats it or not. At this age that's all you can do. Its your job to offer a variety of interesting things for her to try and its her job to decide if she will or won't try them...frustrating I know.

Also, do you put her in her highchair for anything other than eating? If you put her in it for some play, it might help to diffuse the stress you are feeling. Try her with things from the kitchen to play with like a spoon, some dried pasta and a bowl, fill a Tupperware tub with water and freeze it, ice is great for them to explore with or even some edible paints and a piece of paper.

Now snacks and juice. At 9 months she should only just be moving onto 3 meals a day according to nhs guidelines so there really is no need to concern yourself with snacks just yet and if she's fine with water and milk, just leave it as it is. She'll thank you when she has amazing teeth! I'd also drop the petite filous, they are crammed with sugar and offer little nutritional value. She will be getting calcium and fat from her milk and vit d from going outside. She could really do without the sugar, it could be interfering with her appetite.

If there's anything I've not answered, just let me know, and good luck.

Just realised that your Lo is 8 months, not 9. How about cutting her down to solids twice a day? That way she'll be on more calories.

Maybe try this.

7am ff
10am ff
11.30 am solids. I'd try finger foods for this meal.
1.30pm ff
4.30 pm solids with a beaker of formula.
6.30pm ff
10.30pm ff.

Maybe try swapping the petit filous for something like apple purée, natural yoghurt (you could always mix it with fruit purée for flavour) or a homemade lolly.

And please don't take this as critism, I've fed my DS plenty of jars, but if you are really worried about her weight and development I'd cut down on the jars and use a blender or a sieve to make your food smooth. There was a study not so long ago that said jars were full of water and of little nutritional value, here. There's some great recipes on MN. The banana-cardi has to be one of the easiest and most nutritious meals around

Thanks for the reply :)

She's. Urgently on second stage formula but it is prescribed by my GP for reflux, they advised that due to her low milk intake from the start she would benefit from the extra vits.

We are already on the 3 meals a day because of issues with her milk feeding from day 1, she's been hospitalised twice due to milk refusal and has been on a feeding tube. She originally developed a bottle aversion so I needed to try and make up calories somewhere else as feeding her so much milk was a battle every day - she's 9 months in a few days :)

I've not had her weighed for about a month because of her naps and our clinic isn't open when she's awake lol, currently looking for another one. She has been between 25th and 50th since birth though so she's been ok up to now.

She did have tongue tie but wouldn't latch even after it was resolved so we could never breastfeed, she's good with baby snacks like wafers and not too bad with mushy fruits like strawberrys so I don't get why she can't manage lumps. She does have a go at toast and crumpets but gags a lot so I worry that with giving her milk first, she will throw it up as she never just gags with no vomit, she's so akward but I guess this is just her reflux.

We don't use jars anymore we used them at the start and I just remake the ones she likes myself (apart from the fruit ones which I add to her porridge) she loves fish pie made with tuna, spag bol, lamb with mash and veg, I just didn't know how to describe the quantity but I use an empty jar for measurement.

I'll give the natural yoghurt a go. I just heard that a petit filous is equivalent to 2oz milk and saw it as a good way to add more milk into her diet haha, I just hope she likes it and hasn't become to accustomed to them.

She usually just has her food in the highchair but when she's finished she gets 10 minutes to let her food go down with some toys on the tray so she's not too bad, but I'll let her play in it a bit more, anything to relax the mood!

Again thank you for all the tips and advice! I'll give them a go and see how we get on. I never expected weaning to be so hard xx

Poor you, sounds like you've both really been through it.

Is she under a paed for reflux? Think the gp should have referred you, if not I'd push for a referral and hopefully one that specialises in reflux & tongue tie. What meds is she on for reflux kittie?

Not sure about the petit filous, I've never heard of that one before

I'd also get her checked again for tongue tie preferably by a Lactation Consultant who specialises in tt. Lots of things that you describe could be tt. It could be a tt that was missed or even the original one that has reattached.

She's not under one no :( we had to take her to a&e both times when she was admitted, our gp said they couldn't fast track the referral

She's on ranitidine and carobel milk thickener. Was on domperidone which she was taken off after she went into hospital. I think that it might have helped her though as it pushes the food through faster but I've recently read about it and it's not meant to be prescribed anymore since April 2014 for reflux as it can cause heart issues eek!

Where or how would I go about getting her seen by a lactation consultant? We were originally referred when she was born but they said she broke the tie herself as there was just a scar! Xx

I'd boom yourself in at the go and insist on a referral, it's a bit odd that you've been left to struggle for so long without one.

The details for the lactation consultants are on the milk matters link or you can find them here