hardly any foods my 8 month old can eat- please help

[mad4myboys]

has been poorley since birth and been investigating since birth and are going to evalina hosp next month but wondering if anyone had any suggestions i may have missed out? He cant eat ANY protein foods so no meat, fish, beans, lentils etc no dairy, no wheat/gluten. He is surviving on fruit and veg with quinoa. Cant really stomach white potato or apple at all or grape

He also has a bad gag reflex which again being looked into but they think related to floppy larynx issues so alot of textures he cant eat like baby rice.

He prefers to eat with his fingers butbecause of his gagging/choking there isnt a great deal except for free from crackbread stuff as dissolves in his mouth, rice cakes he struggles but manages, and organix do those big fat carrot crisp things that again dissolve in his mouth. He has neocate milk.

Have tried steamed veg for finger food but he cant eat byhimself.

Have seen a dietician who says nothing she can suggest as imdoing everything already but can anyone suggest anything i may have missed????

bump

gluten free pasta, boiled rice or a risotto type thing?

Gluten free bread and pasta?
Rice with veg?

To be honest if he is so poorly and there are so many foods he can't eat, then it might be worth waiting until you have seen the specialists. My DD2 was tube fed until 18 months and had silent aspiration so we went very very slowly with food, and she got all her nutrients from her liquid feed. It's frustrating but took the pressure off when they told me I didn't need to rush with solid food!

tonight for the first time i have given him annable karmel gluten free pasta with a tomatoe sauce which he loved... just have to wait and see how he is tonight with having tomatoe...what other sauces can i make with the pasta? There arent any cheeses he can have, paed think intollerant to soya and goats (was tried on these milks) but until his health problem is discovered i will not be intoducing either of those...

sidge sorry x post, sorry to be nosey but why was she drip fed? Was she toddler when she had her first 'solid' food? You wouldnt think he was ill to look at, very happy baby when not in pain, very advanced, very chubby

but that is why the original paed didnt believe me that i knew something else was wrong with him (he also has bad reflux) hence the referral to specialist as proven to still be having probs at this age

No it's fine, not nosey! She has a genetic disorder and has severe hypotonia (low tone) which meant she was very floppy. All her muscles are weak including those in her throat, tongue, cheeks, internal muscles etc so she couldn't suck, swallow, chew etc. She never breastfed or bottlefed so had a tube, then just as she was scheduled for a gastrostomy (a feeding tube surgically inserted into her stomach) she started improving slightly and managed to start taking feeds orally.

So she didn't have solids until she was about 12-14 months (I can't remember now exactly when ) and then she only had little tastes of limited foods; she can't have high fat high calorie foods so we stuck mostly to fruit, veg, pasta and lean meats.

Hope you get some answers soon

wow i thought i had it hard! so hard for Lo's who suffer.

No one has been able to shed any light on what could be wrong with him.Has been very stressful. The aspiration thing (from googling,mind) sounds very similar to how he is when he is eating, with the choking and coughing.

Pasta sauce thoughts:

• Fry some courgettes with garlic in olive oil (I sometimes puree for a pesto-like sauce, sometimes leave as is)
• same with aubergine and tomato if tomato turns out to be ok
• can you cook with the neocate milk? Could make a white sauce and add mushrooms, parsley, peas, spinach etc
• mashed avocado on cold pasta
• cooked carrot puree

Can he have cornmeal polenta? Makes good finger food and you can mix mushrooms or courgettes in before setting it to make it more nutritious.

Hope things improve for you, it sounds so difficult.

Hello mad4myboys - feeding problems are really stressful. My ds1 had lots of food issues though not for same reasons but i know what it's like.
My dd is 9m and her favourite pasta sauce is sweet potato and spinach which I just cook and puree. Not sure if he can take those?

hope the specilaist gets to teh bottom of it.

thanks guys, tomato seems to cause him problems too which im gutted about as he loved it. Havent tried polenta...