we're both crying

[yentil]

DD2 has decided that she will only drink bottles again. weaning got off to a slow start but for the last two months she has been eating well (3 meals and 3 bottles a day and just started to give bits of finger food for snacks.

then just two days ago she stopped wanting her ready brek which she normally eats well. then lunch and dinner became a battle. This morning she wouldn't even try one spoonful (we are not doing BLW).

i found myself in tears after breakfast. The one thing i can;t seem to handle with babies is when they stop eating. She has top teeth coming through which i just noticed a few days ago. could this be why or should i take her to Dr's. No temp and everything else seems ok.

She is 9 mths BTW.

I am at my wits end. just offer milk or keep offering solids and hope things turn around again. Its so disheartening. It took two months to get her eating decent sized meals and now feel like back to square one!

Formula Milk is a quite complete food at this age, she doesn't need solids if she doesn't feel like them.

I know my DD goes off food when teeth are trying to come through. She goes off her bottles too to a lesser extent.
Once they break through she eats heartily again. Do maybe your DD is the same.
I would keep offering her food and bottles as normal and plenty of snacks. I would definitely think once those teeth come through she will be back to normal.

how long do they take to come through. i saw the white gum about a week ago and now feel the edge of the tooth. but only went off food about 2 days ago. is this something that will go on for weeks?

Should i stick with routine or offer bottles instead of food for a while?

she has gone back to downing 7 oz at midnight just i was thinking of scrapping this dream feed (she was barely having 2oz before) so back up to 28oz of milk a day if not more.

Well, they're all different (of course) but once I felt the edge of DD's tooth you could see it about a day later and then she goes back to normal.
I wouldn't change her routine while this is going on. So keep giving the midnight bottle for now anyway.
I would continue to offer her food as well as her usual bottles but not stress if she takes hardly any. As CantSupinate says milk is a complete food for them at this age, and a few days of low solid intake won't do any harm at all, esp if she is on 28 oz a day. It's hard to chew when your mouth is sore.
It seems like these are some of her first teeth? As more come she will suffer less with them, in general.
I don't know how handy your DD is with finger foods, but my DD likes gnawing on bits of cucumber when she's teething, it's cool from the fridge and nice and soothing.

If your mouth was sore wuuld you want to eat?

Offer her the food but if she doesn't want it don't stress. Try to look at what she eats over the week instead of at each meal or day. Keep a food diary if that helps.

Unless she is actually loosing weight there shouldn't be a problem.

I know someone whose son basically lives on milk alone (I think ordinary cow's milk, certainly not breastfed). He will have yogurts and custards and the occasional biscuit, too, but just milk mostly.

He is Almost 2yrs+5 months old.
And fine, very bright, runs around keeping up fine with the other toddlers, talks up a storm, the food thing drives his mum nuts but other than constipation you can't see that his very limited diet is causing him any harm.

Good top to look at weekly intake. I think that would take some of my own pressure off me. I tend to focus on the meal in question even if eaten well before. I think I may have food issues because this is the only aspect of childcare that basically makes me fall apart if not going well?

Very sympathetic, my DD (nearly a year) is pushing through six teeth (2 of them molars) at once and is refusing food. I had to give her bonjela and frozen teething ring during breakfast today just to get something into her (didn't eat anything apart from cucumber and tomato and grapes for dinner). Luckily I still breastfeed so have been up all night as she will not take a bottle, teat hurts her mouth too, DH did get some milk in last night by using a regular glass and her taking sips, can your DD sip from a glass? It is useful if she starts to refuse bottles too. They get most of their nutrients from milk before one so don't worry if she only wants milk it will only last a few days generally once tooth cuts it gets easier. Still offer food, but don't worry if nothing gets eaten, just try again later. Try cold foods, yoghurt, cucumber and other chilled veg/fruit and finger foods as spoon may be hurting her mouth.

Natural way to numb gums that worked for me (but not with molars, they need stronger stuff poor things ) was to cut up strips of muslin, soak in strong chamomile and peppermint tea (2 tea bags of each), wring out and either chill or freeze separately (get frozen together), give to bub to chew and suck.

My baby is exactly the same at the mo - loves his food, but his top teeth are coming through. I think the pressure of the spoon/food when putting something in his mouth is putting him off. He also won't boodfeed off the boob on the side his tooth is coming through. It's a bit better today. I think/hope this will pass quickly for you, as your DD2's teeth appear.

I went through exactly the same thing every time my DD had teeth coming through- she would always be off her food, sometimes for a week-10 days. I know it's hard, but try not to worry- it will not do her any harm at all to go without food, as long as she is drinking something. She will probably just start eating again when she is ready, and if she's anything like my DD she will make up for lost time!

Yentil, I know exactly where you're coming from - sometimes it feels like just when I get a handle on DS' eating he changes. Sometimes because of teething, sometimes because of no reason I can see. But it does always get better, even if it seems to take longer than I'm comfortable with! I had a two week stretch when he seemed to throw all solid food on the floor and demand a sixth bottle most nights - but just when I was starting to panic, he snapped out of it and started eating again.

Keep on with the routine, allow all the bottles she seems to want and try to offer foods that have been favourites previously. Every child is different, but when teething, my little one likes apples and cucumber sticks to bite on. Most importantly, try not to worry (easier said than done, I know!).

Hope that helps.

Yentil, totally know where you're coming from with the food worrying, do you know what triggered it with you? You may need to address your anxiety as your LO will pick up on it.

This is totally pot calling kettle and all that because I am the same. Mine is because my DD had thrush from about 1 week old until 12 weeks (GP thought it was milk residue) so dropped a couple of centiles. Thought it made me a bad Mum so now I'm conscious of everything that DD does or doesn't eat and I panic about every meal. Now we're all eating together (she's just turned one), I don't stress as much, but she still hardly eats anything.

But is developing very well and is healthy. So I'm becoming a bit more relaxed.