Give me hope if you had a difficult feeder

barker2B

DS has been the hard baby from the very beginning--we tried every formula out there finally settling on Nutramigen which has been the best thus far but he's still not the best feeder--only eating 3-4 ounces (an occasional 5 ouncer here and there) every 3 hours or so at 4 months old.  I feel like he's so scrawny for his age--about 12 pounds right now (dd is over a lb bigger).  Every feeding session is just so stressful trying to get him to eat...he's not in pain it's just as if he genuinely has zero interest in eating. 

So, we're a few weeks or so away from potentially starting solids and I can't help but wonder if it will be just as miserable for him with solids.  Is there anyone else out there that had a difficult bottle feeder but things seemed to click better once you started solids?  Or am I just naive to think that there is any light at the end of this tunnel....i'm just sooo frustrated...

jlc071903

I don't have any advice, but I can comiserate..BOTH of my girls are HARD to feed (it typically takes 45-60 minutes to get their bottle in them) and picky eaters...granted they are 30 weekers, but at their age, they only eat 3 1/2 oz every 4 hours for a total of 5 feeds and only weigh 9 pounds (my pedi is very happy with their weight gain, but I'd like to see them gain more and faster). for some reason my kids HATE HATE HATE to eat. It's so frustrating. I so hope that solids (which the pedi said we could start at 6 mo real age, not adjust IF we felt they were ready...which they probably won't be) are easier than bottles. I'm so freaked about them going to our DC provider's in January if they are still so difficult to feed...ugh. All I want for Christmas is for my girls to be better and faster eaters.

Jessarella

My DD is over a pound bigger than DS. He was not so much a picky eater, but he had refulx and colick so bad he would scream for at least an hour after every feeding since his tummy hurt so bad. And he would throw up so much that he had a hard time gaining weight. He is still so scrawny for his age. But, I will tell you there is light at the end of the tunnel. When I started rice cereal they both LOVED it  and ate it right up. It made me wish I would have started it sooner!

doublewhammy

I don't have any advice regarding solids because we aren't there yet, but I wanted you to know you're not alone. ?Carynne is a very difficult eater. ?She falls asleep after 2 ounces at almost every feeding. ?She even sleeps through burpings. ?We'll let her rest for about a half hour and then try to stir her up again. ?When she does eat, she plays with the nipple a lot so I am hoping that she will have more fun with solids once we get to that point

linda98ny

I am here to give you hope. ?My daughter Amelia was a HORRIBLE eater. ?We used to have to strip her down at night to make her uncomfortable so she'd stay awake and eat. ?During the day it was a HUGE struggle just to get her to take three ounces. ?She was barely on the weight chart for months and months. ?After maybe six months or so she started to get the hang of it and eat better. ?Now she's a pro. ?She's a little picky with table food but does well with jars and some of the table food. ?She's gained a lot of weight and is now in teh 50th percentile. ?I was always SO frustrated with her too. ?I would worry she wasn't eating enough, not gaining. ?We tried every bottle on the market, every nipple. ?I think for her it was just time that helped things click for her. ?Good luck!

OctBaltBride

My DD never really drank more than 4 oz at a time not even when she was close to a year!  Here and there she would drink 6 oz at a time but not often.  I use to try and try to get her to drink more but then I finally just said forget it she will drink when she needs to.  To this day she is not big on liquids.  She is in the 10% as far as weight but she is gaining each check up so it is fine.  Now she probably weighs about 20 lbs at 1 1/2 and DS (who could drink all day long) weighs about 25 lbs.  I think he is fine as long as he is gaining.  Ella LOVES solids so maybe he will prefer that!

sweater

My son drinks 3oz 6x/day. Maybe an extra ounce or two as a snack if he's super upset. My doc said to NOT give him more than 3oz at a time because of his reflux, but to just give an extra bottle somewhere in the day if he wants it. He weighs about 10lbs (I think, and is just over 4 months old...born at 3.5). My doc said the same thing yours did...she's very happy with his gain, so I guess that's all that matters.

My other son HATES food...such vomiting/reflux issues...so that's a major struggle. He's on a feeding tube...big struggles. So odd to have one baby suck it down and the other just throw it up.

good luck. I HEAR it gets better...hopefully for a lot of us, it does!