eating refusal from birth to present age of 16 months. need advice please! (breastfeeding, daycare)
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We have a little one that did not want to eat and did not express hunger pains since birth. Literally since the day she was born. She would only take a couple of oz at a time when she was asleep. (The doctor suggested to stop breastfeeding because we couldn't measure amounts.) Sometimes she would refuse in her sleep. It often took hours to get 3 oz in and days passed where she only took in 12 oz total as an infant. ? We continue to have the same situation now at 16 months. She weighed 7lb 14 oz at birth and is now 20 lbs but has not Gained an oz in 6 months. She is otherwise active, energetic and has more than met her milestones. Great vocabulary and is well liked and very social at daycare, But has now fallen off the growth chart. We are desperate for ideas/help. She eats when she is engrossed in play or tv but only because we put food in her mouth. She can't be bothered to sit in her highchair and eat for more than 5 or 10 minutes max. Any suggestions ....please!?
*she has had endoscope, tongue tie cut, allergy testing, and about any test a hospital could do during 4 different hospital stays. TIA
I would seek out an evaluation from a feeding therapist. Some kids with sensory issues don't like to eat because they don't like the textures. Will she eat strained baby food? I had one kid who choked on solids. I just fed them strained food for a couple of years, and they grew out of it.
Does your baby like to mouth things? Babies with oral aversions will avoid putting things in their mouths.
Also babies who have/had reflux learn to associate eating with pain.
My daughter isn't and wasn't a big eater. She is naturally very thin. My husband could feed her a lot better then me because I was stressed about it. So that could be a factor, not being stressed. And I just fed her all the time on the go. She is still like that. Eats a little all the time.
I would seek out an evaluation from a feeding therapist. Some kids with sensory issues don't like to eat because they don't like the textures. Will she eat strained baby food? I had one kid who choked on solids. I just fed them strained food for a couple of years, and they grew out of it.
Does your baby like to mouth things? Babies with oral aversions will avoid putting things in their mouths.
Also babies who have/had reflux learn to associate eating with pain.
We have a little one that did not want to eat and did not express hunger pains since birth. Literally since the day she was born. She would only take a couple of oz at a time when she was asleep. (The doctor suggested to stop breastfeeding because we couldn't measure amounts.) Sometimes she would refuse in her sleep. It often took hours to get 3 oz in and days passed where she only took in 12 oz total as an infant. ? We continue to have the same situation now at 16 months. She weighed 7lb 14 oz at birth and is now 20 lbs but has not Gained an oz in 6 months. She is otherwise active, energetic and has more than met her milestones. Great vocabulary and is well liked and very social at daycare, But has now fallen off the growth chart. We are desperate for ideas/help. She eats when she is engrossed in play or tv but only because we put food in her mouth. She can't be bothered to sit in her highchair and eat for more than 5 or 10 minutes max. Any suggestions ....please!? *she has had endoscope, tongue tie cut, allergy testing, and about any test a hospital could do during 4 different hospital stays. TIA
Was that testing done during hospital stays per the request of the Pediatrician regarding the feeding issues/failure to thrive etc? If so, I presume her doctor has some concerns as well? If that's the case, I'm surprised they haven't referred you to someone to see if there are sensory issues, as someone mentioned above.
Having said that, it's entirely possible there is nothing to be concerned about at all. My 7 year old has never exceeded the 15th percentile for weight in her life. Between the ages of 12-24 months, she was actually below the charts as well. She has never been food focused at all (unless she is going through a growth spurt). Like HighFlyingBird, I used to stress over it, and that was not helpful at all. But her Pediatrician never worried about it and told me she was fine and just took after me (I am small boned and thin). He was right.
Remember that growth slows down significantly after 12 months. It's not unusual to have very little weight gain for several months.
Our kids were like this until suddenly *poof* one day they decided they were starving and ate up everything in sight, then cried for more. Now they seem to eat their own bodyweight in food every day! I feel like we blew up the mfing Death Star.
I don't have any good advice for you as to how to make it happen. I know how frustrating and scary it can be to spend 2-3 hours getting an ounce and a half of formula into a kid, only to have them puke it back up.
Here's what we tried that sorta worked:
+ Add butter/oil to their food/puree for extra calories (this might have netted us a few oz of weight gain over a couple of weeks).
+ Don't stop night/sleep feedings, even though this is exhausting.
+ Take her out of daycare or feed her before/after/during (if your own schedule allows), because despite everyone's assertions that they will get your baby to eat, no other ahole is going to sit there nursing an oz of formula into your kid for 2 hours. They just won't. Nobody has that kind of time or dedication other than the parents of the non-eating child.
+++ Use a weighted bottle straw to allow her to drink formula/milk if she's still using nipples/sippies. This was our miracle cure that sent us from 2-3oz in 2 hours to 8-10oz in 5 minutes. Plus the desire for ounces and ounces of solids/puree afterward, for some reason. We found them in Asia, tried them out, and were astonished by the results. These simple things are not available in the US other than the podee system, so I don't know how you can get them, and I don't know if Podees work.
I honestly don't think you have anything to worry about. Even as a good nurser, my daughter was at the bottom of the charts and even went off for a bit. Your daughter is a good weight for her age. My daughter didn't hit 20 pounds until 18 months (6 pounds 7 ounces at birth) and had very little weight gain from 9 to 12 months. She also refused solid foods until 10 months, our pedi said don't sweat it. She had her thyroid checked at a year and was fine. Still is at 5 .
Try not feeding her. See if she eventually comes to you. She won't starve to death if she misses a meal and with you constantly hovering over her with food, she may have no reason to ask. Sometimes kids don't like to sit for meals and do best just snacking throughout the day. My son was like that for a while.
My son was like this for many years and had health issues to boot. He is 5 now and eating is still one of his least favorite activities. But he is smart and sufficiently active. He is the smallest in his class though but dr said not to worry since he is consistently in the lowest percentile. The key being 'consistent'.
If he had just 1-2 favorite foods then we just went with that. After he started preschool he began to notice what his friends ate and started asking for those. I have scoured so many kid recipe sites and books for ways to sneak in nutrition yet make it tasty. Its frustrating when he wouldn't even try it sometimes! But just keep at it.
Lot of good advice from PP about fortifying foods.
If she eats only when watching tv just do that. Its not ideal but you have to get the calories in while you work on the other advice. Also see how she eats with a group of kids. I can't say don't worry but this is more common than you think.
If she's below the growth charts, her pediatrician might refer you to a GI specialist or "failure to thrive" clinic. We've been through this with our son, who is now 2 and a half. There could be a number of reasons, and even though you've already been through a bunch of tests, I'd encourage you to follow up. My son is on a prescription now to help with his appetite. I don't love that he's on medication, but it is helping. They also provided helpful nutritional counseling. Since he's often uninterested in eating, we really have to get as much nutrition, calories, and healthy fats into each bite he does take.
Getting her under the care of a specialist really can help. It also helped with my own frustration and sense of failure when he just refuses to eat! In his case, he doesn't have anything physically wrong at this point. They think that his severe reflux as a baby and younger toddler left him with an aversion to eating even now that his reflux is gone.
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