Underweight at 8 months and NO interest in food :(db

[Doobydoo]

Hi everyone, I wonder if anyone has any advice for me, I'm at a loss at to what to do!

Firstly my DD is 8 1/2 months old, and is FF, she has about 4/5 bottles a day.

We started Purree feeding at 6 months, but after a few days of her persing her lips shut, and shaking her head, then tears and full on crying we heard about Baby Led Weaning which seemed alot baby friendlier so we decided to give that a go. However, this has been met with problems too, at the beginning she wasn't able to eat well, everything would be chewed and spat out, which I put down to the fact the was learning something new.

But 2 1/2 months on, she STILL isn't eating, she will play, but won't eat. For dinner I will do something like carrot sticks, and cheese sticks. It's a good day if she managed 1/4 of a carrot and 1/2 a stick of cheese. She just simply isn't interested. She just plays with it until she gets board, then wants out.

I am extremely positive at meal times, I don't get stressed, I eat with her, I praise her when she is being really good, and when she is playing with it, I bring her attention back to her dinner, but nothing works. She also isn't at all interested in other people's food. If I am eating she doesn't have any urge to share, there just isn't any interest.

Anyway, so we have recently been trying to feed her with a spoon, but it just ends up with DD is tears, really upset, pulling away from us, turning from the spoon, and just generally really stressed out.

I'm not really sure what to do next, she doesn't feed herself and she doesn't want to be fed

Also, we got her weighed 2 days a go, she is 16lb 13 in the 2 months of weaning she has put on just 11 pounds.

In every other way she is very healthy, she is very sociable, loves other babies, talks, babbles smiles. Physical development us fine, she was sitting up at 4 1/2 months, crawling 6 months 1 week, and has been standing up for about 2 weeks and can walk using a walker.

So about from food she is doing really well, can anyone advise me on how to get her to eat, because I have no idea!

 

[Doobydoo]

I meant to say that my daughter sleeps through the night, and also she is teething but this has been going on for ages

 

[iwanababybump]

Sorry have no advice but didn't want to read and run the only thing I could suggest would be speak to your health visitor

 

[tina3747]

What makes you think she's underweight? Has she dropped centiles on her chart?
It's more the amount of milk she's drinking, milk had more cals than food your offering so if she's having the suggested amount for her age then I wouldn't worry.
Saying that I've been struggling with foods eith my 6 month old, he just hates the taste of everything! I'm panicing that I've got a fussy eater now..,!

 

[summer rain]

DId your baby gain 11lb or 11oz? xx

 

[Mrshoffie]

All I can suggest is to try different foods maybe something sweet to get her interested. Or something more suck able like sliced tomato or courgette
Definately ask hv for advice xx

 

[Doobydoo]

DId your baby gain 11lb or 11oz? xx

Sorry! I meant 11 ounces, 11 pounds would be impressive though!

She's dropped from the 50th- 25th on the chart and also the health visitor said she was underweight because she is quite long.

 

[pa2k84]

Dont worry is all I can say. My lo didnt really start eating properly until close to a year and even now at 18 months will sometimes only actually swallow very little. If your dd is developing well, active etc. Then clearly nothing wrong. Before 1 milk is still main thing anyway

 

[summer rain]

DId your baby gain 11lb or 11oz? xx

Sorry! I meant 11 ounces, 11 pounds would be impressive though!

She's dropped from the 50th- 25th on the chart and also the health visitor said she was underweight because she is quite long.

Babies are only underweight if they go into the 0.4th centile 'territory' or even off the chart, and even then for some babies this will be normal. 25th centile is not underweight, particularly if your baby was only on the 50th before. It is only when they drop 2+ centiles that its a problem. Also some babies grow more in length than in weight, it would be a real worry if their growth faltered overall, weight, length and head circumference. My son didn't gain a single oz in the first couple of months after starting solids and had slowly gone from above the 50th to bang on the 25th, then he started gaining quite rapidly for his age and shot back up to the 50th again but has only gained 4oz in the past 3 weeks and is back towards the 25th again. I am not too worried as none of mine followed the charts well but are average weight and above average height as kids. Also my youngest is extremely active and is walking and even attempting to run so no wonder he is burning it all off; he has maintained his gains in length so I am not too worried xx

 

[Doobydoo]

DId your baby gain 11lb or 11oz? xx

Sorry! I meant 11 ounces, 11 pounds would be impressive though!

She's dropped from the 50th- 25th on the chart and also the health visitor said she was underweight because she is quite long.

Babies are only underweight if they go into the 0.4th centile 'territory' or even off the chart, and even then for some babies this will be normal. 25th centile is not underweight, particularly if your baby was only on the 50th before. It is only when they drop 2+ centiles that its a problem. Also some babies grow more in length than in weight, it would be a real worry if their growth faltered overall, weight, length and head circumference. My son didn't gain a single oz in the first couple of months after starting solids and had slowly gone from above the 50th to bang on the 25th, then he started gaining quite rapidly for his age and shot back up to the 50th again but has only gained 4oz in the past 3 weeks and is back towards the 25th again. I am not too worried as none of mine followed the charts well but are average weight and above average height as kids. Also my youngest is extremely active and is walking and even attempting to run so no wonder he is burning it all off; he has maintained his gains in length so I am not too worried xx

Thank you for your reply, I'm glad you said that, I think the HV might have misadvised up, she has lost weight but is still within a "normal" weight I suppose, she hasn't dropped much.

I think part of it that she is a very busy baby, she never sits still, and is always on the move!

I did actually read the quote "Under 1 is fun" when it comes to eating, and I was happy with taking food bit by bit but the health visitor really scared me with apparently her being underweight, and we were advised to reduve her milk to 1 bottle in the morning, and 1 at night- none in between- anyone have any ideas on this?

Thank you so much ladies, starting to feel more calm now!

 

[Odd Socks]

you could be describing bella at the same age. we did blw from 6 months but she didn't really eat any food until she was about 10 months, when she started decreasing her milk intake inline with eating more. she was on 5 bottles a day until she was 10 months old. her weight went from 15lb 13oz at 6 months to 17lb 3oz at 10 months (so from 50th-25th centile, but she's about 21lb now at 16 months).

blw is a slower process than tw. i didn't have anyone who was doing blw around, so it was impossible to compare bella. it felt like she was "falling behind", taking so much more milk & not eating anywhere near as much food as other babies. however, once she hit 10 months, she suddenly started really getting interested in food & understanding it, & definitely now holds her own against the tw toddlers we know!

xx

 

[Tory]

Have you tried a lot of different foods? We're BLW and LO gets bored and frustrated easily if I give him foods that he finds difficult to eat.
He loves parsnip, sweet potato and carrot if they are roasted until they go really soft. Boiled/steamed carrot can go quite rubbery when cooled down. Also little sandwiches with the crusts cut off go down really well.