8 month old - no solids

[Crosby]

Hi all

Got told off today by my HV so im starting this now to gather some opinions

I started weaning my lo when she was 6 month, the usual stuff, bit of veg, fruit, toast, yoghurt.... 2 weeks later she got a massive diarrhea which lasted 3 weeks and left her lactose intolerant. My first response to her diarrhea was to stop solids which i did. Once we went to soy formula and established a good poo i started her on solids again. Bit of fruit and veg, nothing drastic.

2 weeks later another bout of diarrhea, this time with temp, vomit and rash. Again i stopped solids in order not to overload her tummy. She is now getting better and i was thinking of resuming the weaning again next week (she will be 8 months).

My HV called to ask how things are etc and after sharing the above with her and hoping for some reassurance I got an ear full. That i cant stop solids every time she has an upset tummy, that at 8 months she should be familiar with almost all foods, that milk is not enough, that im making more damage by starting and stopping solids every so often.

I am at a complete loss.. it is hard enough to deal with 2 viruses (assumed by GPs) and diarrheas and losing confidence (diarrhea stroke twice after solids) but also having to worry about a potential wrong decision made?

Really, why would i want to overload her tummy with solids when she is struggling with keeping milk down.

Am i completely wrong?
Does anyone stop solids during diarrhea and how soon do u resume? Or am i on my own here?

 

[Mixem]

Hi, I think you should follow your instincts here. My little one recently had an episode of vomiting with a temperature, I think it was to do with teething although none of her teeth have come through yet! It lasted about a week, I didn't give her any food in that time. She wasn't interested in eating so I didn't force her. She was fine on milk and went back to eating when she felt better, I just followed her demands. If your daughter wants to eat then she will. But she will be fine if she doesn't want to eat for a few days and just have milk. My little one still has random days where she doesn't eat much and just has milk. I would not say she is yet familiar with all food types and she's nearly nine months old.

 

[nessaw]

About 2 mnths ago my lo had gastroenteritis which lasted from mon to mon. She wasn't interested in anything to eat from the Tues to the Saturday. Then I reintroduced single flavours, toast etc. Just go with your gut. I know I don't want to eat when poorly.

 

[RaquelDee]

I would stop solids for vomiting, but for diarrhoea I would keep offering, but just stuff that I know is well-tolerated. The BRAT diet is recommended for older kids after an upset stomach; bananas, rice, apple, toast. You could offer most of these to your LO in some form (e.g.rice cereal rather than rice) which would give her the experience of eating but should be bland enough to tolerate. Obviously, if she doesn't want it, no need to push it.

My understanding is that the recommendation is to have introduced all food groups by around 8 months - that's pretty different from ''almost all foods", and from what you've said the only group that you haven't introduced is meat/protein, which some babies seem to really dislike at first anyway.

If you think that food is causing the diarrhoea, though, I'd be making an appointment with a doctor to check this out.

 

[noon_child]

Wow bit of an over reaction by the HV there! Nothing like helping an anxious new mom by giving her an ear full :thumb:

I agree in principle that there is no reason to stop with solids because of illness, but often it does stop naturally as kids just don't feel like they want it. I had a nurse tell me when I and norovirus that there was no reason to stop eating and that I'd feel better if I had some energy from food, but honestly any food I ate started off hours of retching so I stopped trying to force it. My daughter on the other hand would throw up and ask for something to eat practically in the same breath!!

There's not much can be done about what has already happened. Your daughter isn't going to be permanently harmed by having more milk than food at this stage (you've got another month or two till she's ready to get a bigger proportion of her nutrition from solids). There was some research that suggested there was a "magic" period of time during which if a child wasn't introduced to solids they would forever struggle with food. It has pretty much been debunked as bad science now, but it still lingers on as 'advice' here and there.

Deep breath and back to basics. Give her the opportunities and follow her lead as to whether and how much she wants. Too many fruits and veggies can sometimes cause a bit of runny poop because of the insoluble fibre content of some, but the rash and temp do sound more viral. You could try things with soluble fibre and protein and see if that helps.

 

[Crosby]

Thank you all..

Started today, back to basics.

Noon child, agree that veg an fruit soften the stool but i think meat is a little heavy on her tummy right now and im a little scared to give her toast/pasta as was warned by a ped that lactose and gluten intolerance sometime go hand in hand.

I have no idea what to give her except fruit and veg ((((

 

[noon_child]

Thank you all..

Started today, back to basics.

Noon child, agree that veg an fruit soften the stool but i think meat is a little heavy on her tummy right now and im a little scared to give her toast/pasta as was warned by a ped that lactose and gluten intolerance sometime go hand in hand.

I have no idea what to give her except fruit and veg ((((

Carrots and potatoes are good sources of carbs and soluble fibre, pulses like chickpeas or butter beans are good sources of protein and soluble fibre. Fruits like bananas and apples have soluble fibre too (and if you peel the skin off the apple it removes some insoluble fibre).

Oats are gluten free if prepared in factories that don't do wheat and rye prep, so you may have to look in the "free from" aisle to find this. Porridge is a great food for little ones. Corn and rice are also good for gluten intolerant people BUT I would avoid whole sweetcorn if fibre is irritating her as the skins just go straight through, but things made with corn flour and cereals like cornflakes might be a hit. White rice is soluble fibre and OK for gluten intolerance.

Fish might be a good starter food if you think meat is too heavy.

 

[Spudtastic]

Hi Crosby. Please don't stress. It's hard enough being a new mum without getting an earful from someone in the medical profession. Food before one is just for fun.

I have a slightly different viewpoint on foods and solids so I thought I would offer it. If she's getting the runs after solids she could be intolerant to a food.
I'm doing a few things differently from dd1 with dd2. I'm not giving her any grains or dairy (other then brrastmilk) and I personally would stay away from soy. It's been proven to affect hormones. It's hard for babies and toddlers to digest grains and lactose.

Some people think that if you have had antibiotics during birth, or whilst breastfeeding or directly to baby (we've had three lots) then baby/toddler could benefit from some gut healing foods like bone broth (home made for no added salt). Maybe a baby probiotic may help your baby's tummy.

Check out the Weston Price website and they have a whole lot of information on what to feed babies and when.

Is there a naturopath near you you can visit?

Try things like soft egg yolk, avocado, some green veg (not leaves at 8 months), carrots, banana and alple and for iron you can grate frozen chicken livers (organic is best and make sure it's been frozen for 16 days first) into veggies. You could also try a honey free, additive free coconut yoghurt (if you can find it) or some saurkraut for added probiotic for the tummy.

My 8 month old daughter is only getting interested in food. Up until this week she's closed her mouth to foods so I haven't wanted her to get put off. Instead I've been putting food in front of her and let her help herself. It mostly ends up on the floor though.

And until kids are 1 they say fill up on milk first and then have solids anyway.

 

[MindUtopia]

Personally, I would agree with your HV, but at the same time, I don't think you have to stress about having done her any harm. If you suspect she has an allergy to something which is causing the tummy problems, then that would be a good reason to withhold solid food and figure out what's going on with your GP. But for a tummy bug, no I would carry on offering food as normal and let her decide to eat it or not while making sure to keep her fluids up. If she has no interest and her tummy can't handle it, she likely won't eat. You know if you have a bad GI infection and go off food, you have no interest and no appetite. If she had an appetite, I would let her eat what she wants. My daughter is older, but she had a vomiting bug last winter, literally every single thing she ate came back up within about 20 minutes. But she was genuinely hungry still, so I let her eat what she wanted to (like within reason, the foods I made where bland and easy on the tummy, toast, pasta, soups, porridge, etc. not like a spicy curry) but I didn't withhold food. If they are too sick to eat, they won't. At that age, mine also had a really bad chest infection for about 3 weeks and she barely ate anything, but I still offered it so she could decide.

So no, I wouldn't probably have taken her off solids in that situation, but I would have offered things that were gentle on the stomach that she liked and would easily be able to eat, along with plenty of fluids. But nothing you can do to change that now, I would just move ahead, offer plenty of diverse foods, and let her ease back into it. She is still so little, so there is plenty of time to try foods and get back to eating solids now that she's feeling better. There are loads of fruit and veg you can offer as you said, scrambled eggs, fish is usually pretty easy on the stomach (not quite as heavy as say, a beef stew), rice is good so could do a risotto, if you a really trying to avoid gluten then try gluten free or brown rice pastas, anything with oats. When my daughter was really sick at that age, she pretty much just ate porridge, fruit and yogurt for a month, and then once she felt better was back to eating all sorts of things.

 

[_Meep_]

Your HV is a dick. My kid didn't start eating 'proper' food until she was about 12 -14 months old - before that she just had the odd bit of puree or a tiny bit of finger food about once or twice a day, and lived off breastmilk the rest of the time.

She was a little slow learning to chew, but is now 2 and perfectly normal, was an early and advanced speaker and isn't fussy with food at all really.

 

[Crosby]

Thank you all guys (meep i love you lol)

She is getting better and eating loads but pretty much a limited variety. In the morning i would give her fruit fingers or puree (so far we have tried banana, apple and pear), in the afternoons its veg time (squash, potato, sweet potato, broccoli, carrot and courgette). I have recently given her turkey pureed and mixed with veg, seemed a hit!!

Grains - we have tried buckwheat (love it) and today i have given her lentils (fingers crossed)

Am gonna try and take her to nursery tomorrow for an hour or so and i really hope she doesnt pick up another bug xxx

Update in due course (by the way another phonecall from Hv and apparently "im doing great".. yeahhh whatevs...

Much love to all, thanks for support. Stay tuned for further updates ������

 

[_Meep_]