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Preemies
olliehoops
member
"Preemie Thing" re: eating issues...still =(
olliehoops
member
in Preemies
DD has had eating issues from day one it seems, she just hates eating from her bottle. We have tried different formulas, every bottle made and she is on acid reflux med. She should be eating at least 24 oz per day according to pedi and she eats MAYBE 11 or 12 oz a day at the most.
If we don't make her eat every 3 hours, she will eat only 2 times a day, it's crazy, it's like she wants to do everything but eat. She goes to bed at 8:30 and will wake up at 6:15 or 7, I'll make her a 6 oz bottle, and she will eat 1/2 an ounce and button her little mouth shut and refuse and scream if you put the bottle up to her mouth. When we offer her solids, she inhales every last bit of them.
Solids = very happy DD. formula or BM = not happening. diluted apple juice (for constipation) = very happy DD.
HELP! I'll try anything. I just want little DD to eat. She is happy during the day, never cries (unless food related). Any tips, ideas, suggestions?!?
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Re: "Preemie Thing" re: eating issues...still =(
BFP #3 via cancelled IUI ~ C (2lb 3oz; HELLP) 5/16/11
BFP #4 via the natural (free!) way ~ E (8lb 11oz) 9/13/12
My DD does this at almost 10 months actual age (8 months adjusted)
It is a daily struggle and stresses me to the max. Luckily I have a calm DH who helps keep me sain. We just have realized some days are better than others with DD. Her twin sister eats great and doesn't ever refuse a bottle or solids. We are doing solids twice a day but still offer her 5 bottles a day. Sometimes she eats all the bottle, sometimes, 2 ounes and sometimes more. I have just learned I can't ever force her and that she will eat when she's hungry. She is still gaining just very slowly. I am learning to just go with it.
PM if you would like to talk more about it. Nice to know we aren't the only parents with kids who just won't eat well. Hard to see babies that are huge chunks and never refuse a bottle. Makes me sad sometimes.
I have 2 girls in the same boat. We offer 7 bottles a day still to try and pack in the calories. Solids are hit or miss. We have worked with Speech and Language/Swallowing, but they haven't given us a ton of helpful advice. My girls gain, just slowly... annoys the heck out of me when someone tells me my girls look "miniature", or when people think they are 3 months old... Yeah, I have 3 month olds that sit independently, can nearly crawl, eat mum mums and use sippy cups... really.
I guess I can't get mad at people for their comments, it is just frustrating when you work so hard to feed them, and they are still tiny!
OH I completely understand. Every person that sees our girls lately or hasn't seen them in a while says, oh they are so little. Yes, maybe to the average 9 1/2 month almost 10 month old they are but to us they aren't. I just wish someone other than my grandfather could make a comment like wow, look how far they have come.
We were 2 and 3 lbs at birth and are 14 and 15 lbs now. We are proud of them every single day! People can be frustrating.. Just learning to roll with it. We think our girls are just about darn near perfect! hehe!
We struggle with getting ds to happily eat from the bottle. He's gotten a lot better over time, but he'll never be a great bottle eater. He ounces his way through the day often. I just always keep a bottle of BM on hand in case he gets hungry. He typically takes between 22-24oz per day, though since starting solids we've had an 18 oz and 20oz day in there, which always makes us nervous. Ds used to scream on the bottle nonstop until we saw a ped GI who had us leave the schedule behind and go to on-demand feeding, only feeding ds what he wanted and when he wanted it. Since then, he's been much happier.
If your LO is only taking 12oz per day, I would definitely schedule an appt with a ped GI to make sure everything is ok since that's a lot less than they typically want. How many oz of solids are you feeding each day?
It sounds to me like it's what's in the bottles, not the bottles themselves, if she's taking applejuice from a bottle fine. I'm not sure where I want to start with this honestly, most people think feeding is such a simple thing when unfortunately it's incredibly complex when it doesn't just happen like it does for a lot of kiddo's. Evan did what you're describing. He had reflux, and a lot of vomiting. He started fighting feeds, and eventually refused them all together, ended up with a g-tube for 18months, and now eats by mouth again. For him, we had to figure out that he can not have corn syrup, or high fat dairy products. Once we eliminated those things, starting with putting him on pregestimil, his vomiting went down, and he became more receptive to eating by mouth. I'm not saying that's the solution for your kid, all kiddo's are so unique, I'd be surprised if it was the answer, and more surprised if she'd drink it, Evan wouldn't drink it....only down his g-tube it tastes nasty.
One really important thing I learned through all of that is NO kid will eat well when they don't feel well. It's not anyones fault, let me repeat that, it's NOT ANYONE's fault, it's just a fact. Unfortunately helping them feel better is a lot of times easier said than done.
I just recently found a website that has some good info.....some, not so much, but I'd look at the oral therapy section especially when it talks about the 10 myths of meal time, and the feeding therapy....www.refluxrebels.com
Hang in there, there is hope, things can and do get better, don't give up, and do seek help and resources. I think seeing a pediatric GI is a fantastic spot to start.
Just a couple things off the top of my head:
- My girls are 5 months old and only drink 19-20oz a day and no solids. My pedi is fine with this since they still gain very well.
- Have you thought about switching the reflux meds? Maybe there is some silent reflux going on causing formula to trigger something?
- Have you tried a bottle at all temps? cold, lukewarm, warm, very warm?
- Can you mix apple juice into the formula? Maybe start at 1:1 and see if she'll take it? Then slowly up the amount of formula?
- It would be a lot of work, but if she'll eat solids non-stop, make a soupy cereal or oatmeal with just a couple tablespoons cereal and lots of forumla and spoon feed it to her
- Is she interested in a sippy? Maybe she'd like that better than a bottle? I have a friend whose son at 5 months old refused to let anyone else hold his bottle and as a result stopped taking a bottle. He couldn't hold it himself yet but they added sippy handles to it and after a few frustrating days, he finally got it and now eats on his own like a champ.
Sounds like my son. What made things "bearable" were higher dosage of prevacid, adding rice cereal to thicken his milk a little and adding polycose for extra calories. He always hated the bottle..then around 12 months old we transitioned to real milk in a straw sippy cup and our lives changed dramatically. What it the crappy hypoallergenic formula we were forcing on him? Did his reflux finally get better? Does he just like cups better than nipples? Combination of all three? Who knows..