I really am asking for help. My eighth month old baby, Joshua is not nursing well, and he won't take formula. He is only 14 pounds, so he is not even on the chart for his weight. I have tried to get him to eat solid food (baby cereal, mushed fruit, and vegetables), but the only things he will eat consistently are yogurt and chocolate. I do give him a lot of yogurt, but I doubt he can get everything he needs from yogurt. I've put swiss miss cocoa into his cereal to get him to eat it, but I really don't like giving him chocolate and sugar. I know a lot of people out there in blog world know a lot and do a lot with nutrition, so I am asking WHAT SHOULD I DO? What should I give him to eat so that he can get the nutrients he needs to grow? I've been thinking about trying avocados. I am not sure if he would even be willing to eat it. How do you get such a fussy baby to eat? I have had one other very fussy eater, but he breast fed very well until he was 17months old. So if any of you know about what foods I should give him or have had such an extremely fussy eater, please let me know what you think I should do.
9 comments:
Sammy's allergenist suggested giving him Ovaltine or Carnation Instant Breakfast to help him gain weight... they have more vitamins and less sugar... and a Robertson plus... they're still chocolate.
Oh... and a friend of mine is an advisor for WIC and she said that I should give Sammy 3-4 options of foods at each meal and eventually he'll be eating most of them. I usually don't do all 4 options... I usually give him 3 things on his plate and he ends up eating 2 of them.
I wish I had advice, instead I just have a vote of confidence in your abilities as a mother and a wish of good luck to you!
i don't know if i'm the best person to offer help - i only have 1 child, and she was a preemie, but here goes... izzy has been such a picky eater the past year (and she's not one who has any weight to lose - she's 22 months and 18 pounds) since i started introducing food to her so i had to get really creative in ways to hide the good stuff and ways to distract her so i can sneak food into her mouth on a spoon. once a day at a mealtime she gets 1/2 jar of fruit baby food and i put in it a crushed up multi-vitamin, 1 tsp fish oil, 1 tsp flax oil, 1/2 tsp nutritional yeast (has lots of b-vitamins), sprinkling of kelp powder (the book Super Baby Food recommends this), and about 1/4 tsp each of a green and a red powder that has lots of veggies and fruits in it (my husband sells this in his office - it's called Nano Greens and Nano Reds. All of these things are just insurance toward everything she does or doesn't get during the course of the rest of the day. How do I get her to eat this? Usually I put a food in front of her she loves. In between her eating this, I quickly slide in a spoonful into her mouth just a second before she puts the other food item into her mouth. Another way to distract her is she likes books so I read her favorite book to her and as she is mesmerized over the pages, she doesn't notice she is eating her vitamins :) Other things - I "hide" things in yogurt, I slather almost everything in lots and lots of butter for extra calories. I also make smoothies (she likes drinking with a straw) - where you can also hide the good stuff - avocado, coconut milk, frozen fruits and even frozen spinach (you can't even tell) or even adding some jarred carrot or sweet potato baby food, and I also add protein powder. I've also tried a milkshake for izzy with chocolate ice cream, peanut butter and banana. I also made banana bread, adding almond butter. This topic is very near and dear to my heart b/c it's caused me so much stress, tears and heartache as I've struggled to find things for my baby to eat as I've felt often times she was withering away. She is finally turning around and showing an interest in food but it was a long road so I definitely feel your pain.
As a Mom who can't breastfeed but is also heavily into nutrition, I would say he still needs "milk". Babies do not have the digestive enzymes for food until their molars start to come in (around 18 months). So while foods sounds like a good idea he still needs more because he won't be able to break it down well. Coconut milk is awesome. Have you tried Almond Milk? It's higher in fat and creamy. Formula is drastically different than breastmilk in taste. How about Goat Milk (you find it in a can by the condensed milk).
Other foods: Avocados are great, if there are no nut allergies in your family you can feed him pureed cashews (you soak them for a few hours then blend)
Have you tried increasing your milk supply (the mother milk herbs are good)? How about giving him pumped milk?
Sorry for the long post, just trying to help.
I used to give my babies "breakfast smoothies" in their bottle: pumped milk, some cereal, and a fruit. You can put yogurt in there as well. Cut the hole in the bottle nipple a little bigger so the smoothie can be sucked out.
Goat milk. The fresher the better. I know several babies whose lives it saved. Good luck.
I had one son that the only thing we could get him to eat was hot dogs and cottage cheese. The Dr. told us he would grow of it and he did. Don't worry too much.
Here is a link to a great article on this subject. Blessings to you!
http://www.askdrsears.com/content/how-get-picky-eater-eat-more
I think it's funny that a mom of 8 is asking advice from others who probably have less children. But for what it's worth, here is my comment. My parents 5th child was very small. They took her to specialist after specialist in far away cities to determine what was wrong with her. Finally, at age 2 and 17 lbs they decided she was "just going to be small." My parents are both fairly small people, so that could explain some of it. Are there any small genes in your family? My sister turned out to be about 5'0 and 120 lbs- small, but muscular and got the thunder thighs we all have.
My main question for you is is your baby fussy all day? If he's fussy and acting hungry then maybe something is wrong with his intestines--allergies, lactose intollerant, celiac, etc. He should be checked by a doctor. On the other hand, if he seems to be happy, hitting milestons on time,sleeping well, then he's probably not as hungry as you think. Some babies just aren't that hungry and he'll get a growth spurt later. I agree with other comments on here: try 3-4 different healthy foods at each meal and eventually he'll eat them. I agree that babies mostly need milk until 1 or 18 months, but my babies who ate more food from 6-12 months and nursed less because I was pregnant seem to be better eaters and just as healthy as the ones I nursed almost exclusively until 12 months. Those are the ones I've had a really hard time teaching them to like solids and resorting to foods sweet or salty just to get them to eat. Keep praying and I know you'll get an answer soon. Hopefully nothing is physically wrong, he's just not hungry and will eat better soon.
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