Sorry in advance for a long post…
DD is 8mo. CMPA and reflux. Started weaning early on advice of the paediatrician / GP / HV.
Milk intake was 5/6 x 6-8oz bottles per day. This then dropped to 4 x 7-8oz at 6.5mo. For the last few months milk intake has been dropping, and now she will take 4/5 x 1-4oz. Today has only had 10oz in total in 24hours, 6 bottles offered. She will scream when you try. Or if she starts will drink 4oz (max) and then stop, and refuse anymore.
Weaning. Starting off ok, she was having purée and would open her mouth for a spoon. Again at 6.5months, she started refusing the spoon. Won’t even use a spoon herself, which she use to do. Sometimes she will have a pouch, but only if squeezed from the pouch into her mouth.
I tried finger foods, she will stuff it into her mouth, then gag, and then cry, and then refuse to eat anymore, screaming until she is taken out the highchair. Moved onto small finger nail size chunks, she can get these into her mouth, but again will gag after a few minutes and you get the idea. But this seems to be the most effective method of getting her to eat something.
There have been several episodes of “choking” which have terrified me, and then she has refused to eat again for a few days.
Odd occasions she will have some foods, for instance broccoli, rusk, banana, wafers, seem to be the gateway foods. We have tried egg (which she seem to enjoy at the time), but she is allergic, along with dairy, strawberries, and avoid acidic fruits etc as this makes her reflux worse.
She would also drink water quite happily from her cup independently. Again this has stopped, and she will refuse.
They thought the milk intake had dropped, and compensated with food. But this isn’t the case. HV/PED are also saying she should be on 2/3 meals a day now, when I rarely get one into her, and if I do it’s a challenge. I’m preparing meal after meal, trying 3 per day most days and it’s becoming quite disheartening. I understand some children take longer to get use to food, but this has been 4 months now, and I feel like we aren’t really getting anywhere. She is in childcare two days per week, and it’s the same there, so not just a home thing.
6.5months seems to have been the turning point, and things have gradually just got worse. Which also coincided with teething. But it’s been 2 months, and this “phase” that people keep referring too, seems to be never ending. Recently she was very poorly, to the extent admitted into hospital with several infections, and severe dehydration. So I had expected some regression with weaning etc. This has also affected nighttime sleep, which I assume is hunger (although she won’t drink more than a few oz at night either), but she seems very unsettled.
One thing that has been picked up by several people is the size of her tonsils. Which could be making it hard for her to swallow, and the reflux (which is medicated) not getting easier. They did an ENT refferal, but have been advised there is a long wait. But as she was admitted with severe tonsillitis (being one of the infections), this has helped us move up the list. She has also been referred to speech therapy to check the reflex’s.
DD is currently on the 50th centile, up from the 25th at birth (but dropped to 10th due to milk issues at the start). But she had reached the 75th. So there is no overall concerns about her weight, but minor concerns that she is starting to loose / not gain.
Sorry for the long post, but does anyone have any reassurance or experience with this? It’s the milk dropping that is MY main concern, when she isn’t eating to compensate.