Eating Habits

[Bella923]

Can anyone enlighten me on your child's eating habits at around 5 1/2 months?
Today Gabi ate about 3 or 4 tablespoons of ceral with breast milk didn't want a bottle afterwards. About 3 hours later she ate about 5 ozs of BM, next meal she ate 3/4 jar of bananas and wanted no milk. Several hours later when my mom tried to give her about 6ozs she didnt want any but did eat about 1/2 jar of carrots!!!
Is this normal? Shouldnt she be getting more breastmilk?!?!?
Lately she doesnt seem to want that much milk!?!?

I also think she might be in the begginning stages f teethign maybe that is why?

This weekend when she was home I noticed a decrease in her appetite as well. But it was an overall decrease... The only meal she ate wel was her mornign ceral.

Any adivce?

[Bella923]

Ok I am home now and tried to nurse her and she was not interested!! I later tried to give her the bottle my mom had started earlieir- nope no interest. I have not been able to get hold of the sitter but she has not had a wet diaper since 1pm and it's 6:30pm now! That seems like a long time to me? Or I am just out of my mind today?

She isn't unhappy or anything...she just has very little interest in eating....

[esarah]

Bella- She should have had a wet diaper by now I would think. I am sorry that she is being picky. Leata went through this a couple of times but fortunatly it did not last long nad she was fine. Just being funny about things. When she seems hungry again offer her breastmilk first. Then offer her food, It sounds like right now it is more important for her to get the milk. Some kids just like solids better then milk so you hae to give them the milk first.

If she keeps doing it and is have very few wet diapers a day call the doctor and see what they say. Better to be safe.

Good luck! I hope she starts eating and drinking better for you soon.

[Leanna]

Bella- I would withdraw the solids from her diet and let her get back to nursing/bottle feeding for a while. She doesn't need anything besides breastmilk or formula until well after 6 months anyway. Be careful or she will wean herself probably earlier than you want and/or is really healthy. I'd try solids again slowly in a month or so. No benefit to starting them early.

[cvalentine]

Emma is only on bm and probably 5 tablespoons of cereal a day. She'll be starting her first veggie this Friday, her six-month birthday! I'd take out the solids too. At least cut back.

[Sherri]

Bella, I'm glad you brought this up because we are going through the same thing with Ava. She seems to prefer solids to nursing when I am home, or expressed bm when C feeds her while I'm at work. I am concerned about her not getting enough milk, too. She nursed really well when I got home from work, before bed, and then before getting up this morning. I'll take some of the advice you got -- if she doesn't drink much bottled milk while I'm at work today, I'll call the ped and ask about it.

We had her on cereal sort of sporadically starting around 5 months, but at her 6 month checkup, her weight had gone from the 90th to the 75th to the 50th percentile in weight so our ped said she should have 3 meals a day (cereal for breakfast, then veggies or fruit for lunch and dinner). So it was a pretty dramatic change. But I think it may be backfiring, reducing her milk (fat/protein) intake. I had to pump twice this weekend because she was refusing to nurse. I'm still pumping 3x daily on workdays and really watching my supply.

[mara232]

Personally I'd back up on the solids. Solids are supposed to be for practice only and not for meals. A didn't go full out on solids until 8 or 9 months old. He had a bit of this and that every day solid wise but formula mostly.

[Sherri]

That's where our ped is giving us conflicting advise. When Ava went down from 95 to 75 to 50th percentile, he said 3 meals a day, "as much as she wants." He's a young guy and has been very supportive of bf-ing. Yesterday she had about 10 oz of breastmilk in 10 hours while I was at work, and then nursed more than she had over the weekend so I think she was probably getting enough, but I'd be more comfortable if she were having at least 12. I'll see how she does today and maybe call the ped. So many of the calories are in milk. If she's replacing too much milk with solids, it's not going to get her weight up as fast....

[Leanna]

You are right Sherri, there's not much fat in veggies and fruits either. Babies really need their milk! And baby cereal is pretty much empty calories. It's overly processed and what good stuff is in it has been added/fortified. Every bite/drink needs to count when they are little bitty. :)

[texasred1]

hmmmm....
Leanna - by chance did you make your own cereals too? Was doing a little research on homemade baby food yesterday and it also gave recipes for creral - just curious.

[Leanna]

Michelle- Yes... now that he is bigger he gets regular oatmeal. When he started cereals I started him on whole grain oat bran. Also used to put whole oats in a food grinder and make into a powder. It's more work because you have to cook it, not just reconstitute it like the gerber stuff. But it actually has things like FIBER in it. I found the gerber instant cereals were constipating.

[mara232]

I didn't make cereal but did not use rice cereal. I used oatmeal first. Barley second - he only got wheat at about 11 months old. I didn't buy gerber but Milupa which has less additives. Not sure if you can get that in the USA.

Sherri - she may be teething or going through something to not want milk. Or maybe even getting sick? A did that(not eating as much milk) a few times for no reason.

[Sherri]

I think she may be teething again. She got her 2 bottom front teeth a few weeks ago and was probably teething a top tooth yesterday morning. We haven't been able to feel anything coming down yet, though. Hope she's not coming down with something. This may also be impacting her sleeping/napping (the other question I just posted).

[mara232]

It usually does. I know when A is teething because his schedule and things he does gets all screwed up and he just isn't himself.

[cvalentine]

Emma still doesn't have any teeth!! No sign of any either...maybe I should be grateful :)