i'm feeling really crappy today. and worried.

someflower6

i tried writing this post 3 times already but i don't know how to explain myself.

i feel like something's up with lilly's eating of solids. she's been on them since late november and her tongue is always sticking out during the feeding process. it's like she doesn't know what to do with it. it's not exactly tongue-thrust because she's not pushing food out of her mouth, it's just always out. when the spoon comes to her and she opens her moouth, it's sticking out. when the food enters her mouth and she swallows, she sticks it out. i never really thought much of this but lately she's been seeming more and more agitated as she eats solids. like after the first few bites she starts getting agitated, but she keeps giving signs of wanting food-- reaching for the spoon, opening her mouth, etc. and yet, the more she eats, the more agitated she gets. it's upsetting me because i just don't know what she wants... she seems to want more food, but when i give it to her, she cries. if i stop feeding her, she keeps reaching for the food. if i try to let her feed herself, she just winds up making a mess all over the place and has no clue what she's doing.

i was watching youtube videos and haven't seen any babies do this. when they eat, they either accept the food-- open mouth, close mouth around spoon, and swallow-- or they refuse it. or sometimes they'll accept it and then spit it out and refuse any more. but lilly just seems to constantly have her tongue out, and fusses/cries no matter what i do.

is this normal? i have no idea. i'm taking her to the pedi for her 6 mo appt on tuesday, i'm thinking maybe tomorrow night i'll videotape her eating and show it to the pedi and see what she thinks. because it's stressing me out and making me feel very uneasy.

kimmie321

I am not sure about the tongue part. But, DS has always been so independent that meal time has always been difficult. He would get frustrated because he wanted to feed himself but didn't have the coordination to do so.

lraymeremtp

R has her tongue out all the time as well. She does it while eating too. Like you said, it's not neccessarily the tongue-thrust reflex, because she's not pushing her food back out. She does seem to do it more when she's really aggitated. I kind of always attributed it to her being tired when I'm trying to feed her, because after she's had a good nap and she eats, she doesn't stick her tongue out much. But, she loves to have her tongue out, and it's never seemed to interfere with her daily life, so I haven't really thought much about it. I'm interested to see what your pedi will say.

AMG06

Now that I think about it, Andrew has his tongue out a lot. Not all the time, but frequently. I've never worried about it. I'm also interested to see what your pedi says. Hang in there hun!

mamaholic

I have never heard of that. Have you considered trying BLW? FWIW it is the method we have chosen -- but I am not trying to push it on you. However, by the way you describe it, she just seems to be interested in food just not having it fed to her.

Perhaps letting her explore the food on her own terms might help her figure out what the heck that big tongue of hers is supposed to do! 

 

someflower6

thanks ladies. i mean the tongue thing is one thing, and i've never really paid much attention to it because babies are babies and do weird things with their mouths. i get that. but the increasing agitation bothers me. it seems like the more "used" to solids she gets, the more agitated she becomes, because we've been at this for weeks and the agitation has only increased in the past week or two. no new foods either. maybe it's just a matter of figuring solids out-- what she likes, what she doesn't, the textures, tastes, etc-- but i cant help but worry that it's something more. i have a tendency to assume the worst and i hate it.

AMG06

someflower6:

thanks ladies. i mean the tongue thing is one thing, and i've never really paid much attention to it because babies are babies and do weird things with their mouths. i get that. but the increasing agitation bothers me. it seems like the more "used" to solids she gets, the more agitated she becomes, because we've been at this for weeks and the agitation has only increased in the past week or two. no new foods either. maybe it's just a matter of figuring solids out-- what she likes, what she doesn't, the textures, tastes, etc-- but i cant help but worry that it's something more. i have a tendency to assume the worst and i hate it.

Could it be that she isn't hungry or maybe tired? Andrew will start to get fussy/cranky if we try to feed him when he isn't hungry (or sometimes TOO hungry) or overtired.