Orin's feedings are getting worse and worse each day again. This has been going on since he was two months old, so we have been dealing with the feeding battle for almost 7 months. There are good patches, really bad patches, and some in between. The last few weeks would fall in the terrible category!!
At least two feedings a day, he will refuse the bottle from the get go. Like not even let it touch his mouth. And even when we do get him to take it, he will only have about 2-3 ounces and want to be done. He will use his hand to fling the bottle half way across the floor or he will use his tongue to maneuver the nipple anywhere but inside his mouth.
Oh and now he has figured out how to grab the nipple and pull it out of the ring so that milk spills everywhere. There has been a few huge messes!
But all of this to say...he's not eating well.
Feeding times are long, frustrating, and very stressful. Currently, he is offered 28 ounces of formula a day and he usually gets between 22-25. On a good day, he will take all 28. Yesterday, he had 19 ounces. And he had a crying, bawling mama who felt like a failure of a mom, who had no clue what to do with a son who wanted only one ounce at both morning feedings. But I’m over that now. Today is a new day!
If he drinks most or all of his bottle, I give him baby food for the three meal times. The other day, he got no breakfast food because he would only drink 4 ounces. But for lunch, he had a whole jar of carrots and for supper, 4 cubes of avocados. I would think it was the food that was filling him up and causing him not to drink the bottle, but he acts this way regardless of if he has had food during the previous feeding or not. For example, his 11:30 bottle is the worst one to feed him, even on days he doesn’t have any solids before lunch.
He sure does scarf down the solids though...as long as it is jarred food. He will not touch any of the baby food I prepared for him many months ago. In fact, he gags and throws up when I try to get him to eat the cubed food (except avocados). Cubed sweet potatoes- gagged and thrown up every time. Jarred sweet potatoes- loves them and sits there with his mouth open wide waiting for the next bite. I think we have an extreme texture boy on our hands.
AAGH!! I could just pull my hair out. I don’t want to battle this for 3 more months. We go for his 9 month appointment in a few weeks, so we are going to try to get more answers than “just keep doing what you are doing.” So not helpful! We also have an appointment tomorrow with a chiropractor in town. Maybe he needs adjusted?? All I know is that I’m at my wits end and I’m desperate. I’ll try anything to get my child to eat!
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4 comments:
Kate don't worry..if he is hungry, he will eat!
Have you tried giving him formula out of a sippy cup?
Hey, Katie! Neil's pediatrician said 20-25 oz. a day is perfect. In fact, she said babies around this age should not be drinking more than 25 oz. of formula, especially if you are also giving baby food.
Neil drinks about 20 oz. a day and 6-8 oz. are his evening bottle that I add about an ounce of rice to. He eats oatmeal for breakfast, a veggie or fruit for lunch and sometimes another veggie for dinner, but not always.
He does always get his "big bottle" about an hour - thirty minutes before bedtime.
Another weird thing...he used to drink 6-8 ounces at a time regularly, but for the past month I can't get him to take more than about 3-4 ounces at a time.
I think he's too interested in playing. Let me know if you hear any other reasons why!
And hang in there. You are a great momma. He'll eat if he's really hungry.
I was also surprised when you wrote 28oz a day. I'm pretty sure that Micah was only getting about 24oz a day and he's getting less than that (about 16 - 20 oz) since he's switched to milk.
I'd be interested to hear what your pediatrician says about that.
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