Author Topic: 9 month old hardly eating  (Read 2198 times)

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Offline oofy2016

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9 month old hardly eating
« on: August 27, 2016, 17:52:07 pm »
Hi,

I have posted (a lot) on here about my daughters poor sleep and allergies...but we also now have a bit of an issue starting with solid food. Gah.
She has an immediate allergy to milk and soya and also a very recent diagnosis of silent reflux.

We started weaning at 5.5 months due to poor weight gain associated with allergies and at that stage, my daughter ate literally everything we gave her. It was wonderful. She ended up on beefy purees pretty quickly. we progressed to a more baby led approach at 7 months when she started to refuse the spoon, and initially ate really well - eating heaps of spaghetti bolognese, toast, veggies and pretty much whatever hubby and I were eating. I was over the moon and very happy with her progress.
However, since then she has gradually eaten less and less at each meal and despite my best efforts I feel mealtimes are becoming a real battleground. Sometimes she starts yelling the moment she is in the highchair.
Recently she has only eaten a small mouthful or two at each meal. Occasionally she will suck a pouch, but only the 4+ vegetable/fruit ones. I usually offer her several types of food to see what she fancies - but will this create a fussy eater?
She just bats the spoon/fork/my hand away and clamps her mouth shut and if we put food on her tray she picks it all up and throws it on the floor.
She has had a diagnosis of silent reflux which has only recently been treated - could this be an issue?

Occasionally, for example, if we are at a busy family gathering she is so distracted she will let us pop loads of food in her mouth. A friend recommended putting the TV on to distract her, but shes only 9 months, I dont really want her to discover TV yet and figure that is going to be a difficult habit to break later....

I am desperately trying to be blase about it, but it is really hard when I'm cooking every meal, including breakfast and offering lots of different foods to entice her and she point blank rejects it all.  :(

Does anyone have any advice? Should I just back off completely and let her feed herself? She literally wont eat if I do this, and I'm still uber sensitive about her weight just as she is getting back on track...but I'll do whatever is best to get her eating again.

Thanks for any advice.

x

Offline creations

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Re: 9 month old hardly eating
« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2016, 18:26:13 pm »
I wonder...has she just started crawling recently?

Personally I would not use the TV or any other distraction to get her to eat.
I would serve what you are having as a family, eat with her and show her how much you enjoy the food yourself.  I always made sure there was something I knew my DS liked as part of his meal (in addition to any new foods) but multiple offerings of all sorts of food is not, IMO, the way to go.  If she isn't hungry for one meal she will likely be more hungry at the next meal.

There is a chance that the silent reflux has given her some pain which she may link with meal times, if she's started some medication you might see an improvement soon.  You might tempt her in to her meals by putting a small serving of something you know she can't resist as an appetizer on her tray/plate along with a small portion of the meal.  When my DS had a few phases when he was less interested in eating I found a very small portion of sultanas on his plate got his appetite up and then he tucked in to the rest of the meal.


Offline oofy2016

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Re: 9 month old hardly eating
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2016, 13:10:18 pm »
Thanks Creations.
She is crawling, but has been crawling for a couple of months, but she has recently started climbing on everything and cruising along furniture. could this be a factor?

Thanks for the advice. Ill def do as you say. I have found that sweet potato chips seem to really help start her off. :-)

Fingers crossed as she gets more comfy she starts eating more. I definitely think there as been an element of pain, as you say, that may have put her off eating.

Thanks so much,

x

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Re: 9 month old hardly eating
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2016, 21:08:30 pm »
You're welcome :)

I have found that sweet potato chips seem to really help start her off.
That's great.  if she is like mine she'll start with something like that and then be more interested in having a go with the other foods.

I definitely think there as been an element of pain, as you say, that may have put her off eating.
Yes, teething pain can also be a factor at various times. Sometimes they seem to eat almost nothing when they are teething, sometimes harder foods can provide some pain relief too, I remember mine liked those dry bread sticks, seemed to help his gums.
If you think the reflux might be a factor and her food intake doesn't perk up again after a while you might check it out with her paediatrician.  I remember my DS's paedi saying she could refer us on to a dietician if needed but we didn't have problems with solids, just those few phases of being less interested than I was used to.

she has recently started climbing on everything and cruising along furniture. could this be a factor?
Maybe. I found with mine when he gained ability to get around more (so crawling, then cruising, then walking) and also during/after some other developmental leaps, there would be greater suspicion of food, even foods he was familiar with and had previously eaten happily.  I read an article (though I don't know how much research went into it) which kind of made sense to me, basically it said that the greater ability to get around meant an increase in ability to get into danger, for instance the ability to reach poisonous berries which a non-mobile or non-cruising LO wouldn't be able to reach, so the idea was that LOs have some built in self preservation to be more cautious of the foods they eat and may need to have their "goodness" re-affirmed by a parent.  As i say I don't know how factual it was but for my LO I saw this new suspicion of food and increased SA when he had these mobility developments.  I used to set his plate out in front of him and ask him if he wanted me to "test" the foods.  He did.  I would take a little of each item and say "I'll check this carrot, ooh yes, that's nice, no poison there!" and eat a tiny bit of each food.  He would tuck right in after that!  I can also remember him being wary of carrots when I cut them up differently and didn't eat them until I had reassured him they were carrots and they were good food.
Could be worth a shot with your LO.


Offline Katet

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Re: 9 month old hardly eating
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2016, 05:58:14 am »
Both of my boys went through stages of living on air & hardly eating & then getting back into eating again. Remember their stomach is only the size of their fist, so it really doesn't take much to fill that & if they are taking BM/Formula then they don't need heaps in the way of solids - it really is only recommended to be a "taste" until 12mo. It is about looking at what they eat/drink across a whole day (or even 2-3 days) rather than an individual meal too.
dc1 July 03, dc2 May 05

Offline oofy2016

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Re: 9 month old hardly eating
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2016, 14:03:57 pm »
Thanks, that's so reassuring.

I will chill out a bit and see how we get on from here.

thanks!

x