My 8 Month Old Is Not Interested in Eating from the Spoon, Among Other Issues

Hello. I am sorry to hear about your baby's problem.
Maybe she doesn't like the Similac. That is what happened to my sister's baby. It turned out Similac is made from milk products and the baby was allergic to milk. She would drink a little and then cry or just close her mouth. When she was switched to barley milk she did fine. Another friend of mine had to switch to non-GMO soy milk as the solution. Hope this helps!

1 mom found this helpful

HI A.B.,

My son never liked baby cereal, and was really slow to take to solids. One day, much to my horror, my husband offered him some really salty broth from some canned chicken soup. The baby lapped it up, and finally figured out that spoons might mean good stuff. I kind of gave up on the cereal, and offered a wide range of other stuff, mostly fruits (applesauce, mashed banana, etc.)

You might check out a copy of "Child of Mine" by Ellyn Satter. It's available through Amazon (and maybe your library). She's a registered dietitian, and I think you'll feel much better after you read it. Some kids are just take longer to explore and feel comfortable with solid foods.

This is, of course, assuming you've checked with your pediatrician, and he/she isn't concerned about your daughter's health and/or eating.

Best of luck!
C.

1 mom found this helpful

First off, I'd consult a pediatric GI doctor. It sounds like she has GERD or reflux. Babies with bad reflux or GERD don't like to eat because it makes their tummy burn.

Second, in addition to finding a doctor to test/treat her for reflux, I'd try switching to a hypoallergenic formula. My now 3 year old is allergic to dairy and soy proteins. In addition to treating him for reflux we had to eliminate all dairy and soy proteins from his diet - including those found hidden in other foods. It took several months of a strict dairy and soy free diet for his GI tract to heal but we were eventually able to take him off the reflux meds. For him, it was all food allergy/intolerance related. Similac Alimentum is the first level of hypoallergenic (nothing is totally hypoallergenic, they are just more or less hypoallergenic). If that doesn't help, try Neosure. You can get Alimentum at many grocery stores (I buy mine on-line at i-medica by the case and save about $10 a can). Neosure you'd have to get on-line or through a pharmacy. If you can get the GI doctor to prescribe it, your insurance may cover the cost.

Good luck!
T.

Try offering her a straw cup with water to help with constipation. Have it available for her to drink whenever she wants.

As far as the food, maybe she doesn't like what you are feeding her. My daughter refused to eat the "mushy" baby food that I made for her. She never liked rice cereal and wouldn't eat oatmeal till she was around 18 months. Try cutting up fruits and veggies into really small bites. Make sure the veggies are well-steamed, and she is eating very soft fruit, only.

My daughter did not start eating until she was over 9 months old. She just wasn't interested. I have known a few babies like this. Most of the nutrients babies are getting for the first year are from breast milk or formula, anyway.

Another thought - I don't know a lot about formula feeding, but is it possible that this formula she is drinking no longer suits her needs at this phase of development? Maybe a different formula would give her what she needs to feel satisfied.

Good luck!

My opinion is that she's constipated so not really hungry. Based on my own YEARS of digestive problems, when you're constipated you're just not as hungry. Or when you get hungry, you eat, but get full before eating an entire meal. I would try the yogurt idea I saw below or I've had a friend give her chronically constipated baby an ounce of prune juice/day in one of her bottles. The prune juice worked! You might also try baby pureed prunes. They are really sweet & on the few occasions I had to feed them to my son, he LOVED them.

Good luck!

my son isn't very hungry when he's constipated...get childrens suppositories and u can use that safely..don't over do it..our pediatrician suggested that for my son..also 8 months is young to eat with a spoon..my son still sometimes uses his fingers and he just turned 4..that's just way too young in my opinion to expect a child to use a spoon.. just put her in her high chair make sure she hasn't filled up on liquids before she eats..and put food in front of her..play with the food..fly it in like a little airplane on a spoon..make eating a fun time..also oatmeal in her bottle is a choking hazard so be careful with that..

good luck

xo

Hi - My name is A. and I'm a mom and grandma and I have a state licensed in-home Christian child care center. My first daughter nursed the way your daughter drinks from the bottle. It would take forever to get her satisfied. She would wake up in the middle of the night the same way and take up to 45 minutes to nurse and go back to sleep. I developed buckets of patience with her. My advise about the baby food is to completely forget about store bought baby food including the cereal ( cereal can constipate some babies). Let her watch you steam and puree fresh fruits and veggies. Ok, this may sound gross and dirty, but it may work. If you can't get her to eat from a spoon, see if she'll take it from your fingers or from her own. That's been known to work. What does her pediatrician say? Try to get her on liquid vitamins and maybe liquid iron if she needs it. Let me know if any of that works.

Since your child is at a healthy weight, she is most likely getting enough. My 18 month old son always had weight issues, and still does. He eats so much now, I can't believe that he hasn't gained a lot more weight (he is 15%, and eats more than any other kid I know, even within a year or two of him). Maybe she just doesn't need as much. You might want to try to stop feeding her every 30 minutes, give her the bottle, she drinks what she wants, and then give it to her again when she asks for it again, or she starts to get fussy. If you feed her that way, she will think that she can eat that way. I wouldn't be worried about solids, some babies do take longer. You should try some different foods when you do want to try to feed her, veggies, different fruits, etc. The most recommended first foods are avocado, banana, sweet potato, and cereal (although that obviously isn't working for you). Just mash up a little of either of the first three (you don't have to cook the avocado or banana), and let her play with it with her hands if she doesn't want it off the spoon.

For the sleep, all babies are different, and she really could be hungry sometimes when she wakes up, even though sometimes she sleeps through. Maybe give her an extra feeding an hour before the last one of the night, make it only an ounce or two, and see if she drinks that, and all of the last bottle, it might help.

My daughter did the same thing and I was so frustrated with people telling me that it's normal get over it. When she wouldn't take the oatmeal off the spoon i would put it on my finger and feed her that way for a little while. If I did that before bed she wouldn't wake up so quickly at night.

Additonally I found that feeding her when other kids or adults were eating made he want to eat more. I hope this helps

My 3rd child never ate baby food AT ALL. He liked solid food. Try teeny crumbs of things like muffins and pieces of Cherios

Could she be tongue tied? My daughter is, and acted exactly like you are describing. It was difficult for her to get a good suction on a bottle for long periods of time, and she could absolutely not drink from fast flow nipples. Additionally, she could not really eat more than one spoonful of purees or cereals. We ended up getting a referral from our Ped for occupational therapy for eating, which we attended with Marita at Torrance Memorial. She was great, and taught us excercises to stretch our daughter's frenulum (the tissue keeping her tongue down). Soon, she was able to eat fine, and now, at 21 month is a perfect eater. I'd have that checked if I were you, as your situation sounds suspiciously familiar.
Good Luck!

I think you may be on to something regarding the blockage. I know it sounds odd, but perhaps her rectum is tight. My oldest sister had similar difficulties (when she was a bit younger than your daughter) and my dad says that the pediatrician simply slipped on a glove and used some lubricant and carefully inserted his pinkie into the rectum and made a few slow circles of the rectum, and ta da! She started having regular bms and eating better. You can try this yourself, or if you're nervous about it, try using a lubricated q-tip. This is one of those very typical things in babies that younger pediatrician miss because we have lost sight of some of the most simple remedies that our grandparents used. Yes, I am a "mature" mommy, being 44 and my only child is merely 3, so some of the old fashioned, simple things in life have been handed down to me from my old parents, LOL. And if she is constipated, try some straight apple juice, not watered down, and give her about two ounces, maximum. Our pediatrician recommended this for our son and he explained that the full strength apple juice works because the natural sugars pull water into the bowel, thus resulting in a softened stool, and easier passage.

That said, if she won't eat from a spoon, which I'm sure you know is not unusual for so young a baby, try dipping your pinkie into the pureed food and feeding it to her from your finger. My son was unwilling to take a spoon for the first month or so when he went on solids. Perhaps she has a minor deformity in her mouth structure. My boy has a slightly shortened frenulum and a bubble palate, which made it difficult to nurse, and then a bit difficult for him to eat solids. Using the finger method, with the puree on the pad side of my pinkie seemed to help him with the solids.

I also suggest trying a variety of things until you find something she'll like. I made my son's first foods, and he ate purees for a long time. Our pediatrician told us to start with the yellow/orange foods first, like winter squashes and sweet potatoes. I would roast these things until they were VERY soft, then puree them. When you roast these veggies for a long time, they become quite caramelized, sweet, and tasty! You might try avocados and bananas as well. There is no set order of what solids to start with, only suggestions.

Good luck, and I'll be interested to know how things go for your daughter.

Hi. My daughter was the same way with the bottle. We found out that she had acid reflux and she would drink 1-2 ounces quickly, then take a break, then slowly drink 1-2 ounces with frequent breaks. The acid reflux made her stomach hurt and if she tried to rush the feeding she would spit up and have terrible pain. You may want to talk to your doctor about the possibility.
The acceptance of the spoon is a bit tougher. Try giving her a spoon to play with so that she can see if can be fun to use, while she's distracted try putting a bit of fruit baby food into her mouth.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

I could have written almost the exact same entry for my daughter. She had eating issues from day one which were complicated by my not producing enough milk and her not "fighting". She would not get any food and would just go off to sleep. By 8 months she was drinking better but then food became a major challenge. It was not fun to feed her. We did take her regularly to a chiropractor that specialized in children and then we took her to a cranial sacral therapist who worked on her cranial bones and got them "un-stuck" This made a huge difference. Our son who also had digestive issues also benefited from body work. He was not digesting property and once he was worked on and his bowels were fixed he did great. There is someone in AZ who has worked on our kids repeatedly and done great thing for both of them. If you want his number you can send me a message.

There are a few things I can think of that would affect a little one's appetite: intestinal problems like you said, reflux, she doesn't like the food/formula, or she has a small appetite. My 8mo old has a healthy appetite, so I'm thinking it sounds like more than just a picky/finicky eater. What do her doctors say? The best advice I can give you about eating is to play into her 8mo curiosity. If I put something new on my daughter's high chair tray, she wants to check in out and put it in her mouth. She's old enough to try muffins - the bran may help with her constipation.

With the combination of all of her symptoms; the constipation, disinterest in eating, not taking all of her bottle, I would have a doctor check her out for any intestinal or digestive issues. Good luck

I feel that it is time to look into taking your child to a developmental pediatrician. It is important. They would be the only one who could give you the answers you are seeking. I am not saying that there is a problem but a general pediatrician just might understand the entire problem.

P. Amic CEO/Clinical Director
Special Beginnings, Inc.
An Early Intervention Network
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Hi,
I am a mother of 3 children age 6 yrs-11 months. I started giving my kids baby cereal from the age of 4 months mixing it with breast milk. Maybe you can try making it a little more runny than thick to get her used to the spoon and swallowing. It's also safe at 8 months to feed her some baby food with flavor like sweet potatao. Also, try giving baby more water to help with the constapation also, mixing some prune juice in with the milk will help too. Good Luck! Hope you find some of these suggestions useful.

Have you taken your daughter to the doctor? If the doctor says you should not worry, that's probably good advice.

Babies are pretty intuitive little creatures. If you are showing stress and anxiety over the feeding, you're baby will respond by not eating. I don't know if this is the case, but you're expressing anxiety talking about it, so my guess is that this same anxiety I see is going across to your baby.

My son refused to eat from the spoon. He only wanted to breast feed. Finally, I got one of those big plastic baby spoons, set him up with his oatmeal in his high chair, and he fed himself. It was pretty messy, but he ate.

Lastly, I go back to my original advice of checking with your doctor. If the doctor says your baby is healthy, relax. Babies develop on their own schedule and that goes for everything including eating.

Are you feeding her jarred food or homemade? If you haven't tried homemade baby food it is very easy and tastes better. My kids wouldn't touch jarred food at all. Every child develops differently and I'm no expert. If her doctor doesn't seem concerned then I would give it a bit more time. I would mention it to the doctor for sure though if you haven't already. I know my kids started eating finger food by 9 mos (very soft small pieces) and they always enjoyed feeding themselves with their hands more than a spoon. They went in and out of phases where they would refuse a spoon. Of course this means a huge mess but they thoroughly enjoyed it. My kids were more difficult with the nursing than with the eating. As far as the bottles go it is hard to say why she eats that way. I could never figure out why mine nursed how they did and so differently from each other - they just had their reasons I'll never know I guess! :) Hang in there. I hope it improves for you soon.

Hi there! My daughter who is now 9 months old had some digestive issues from birth. I tried breastfeeding and switched to formula when she was 6 weeks old as I thought it was my milk that was the problem. After trying Good Start which is what I fed my other 2.. she was still having problems so I switched to Enfamil and although she tolerated it a little better she was still only taking an average of 2-3 ounces per feeding but wanted to be fed often and was constantly crampy and would go 3-4 days without a BM.
My paediatrician said this was ok but in my gut I knew she was uncomfortable, I tried many OTC gas remedies for infants as well as suppositories when I felt they were needed to provide relief.
Upon asking my pharmasist when she was about 6 months what else I could do to help her.. she seemed confused with feeding and uncomfortable.. he suggested yogurt. I have been feeding her yogurt everyday since and I have a totally different baby!!
She drinks larger amounts of formula, eats all kinds of foods and has a BM everyday, sometimes twice a day!
I think the bacteria in the yogurt helps move things along in her belly and although this is definately a personal choice for you, I do suggest you give it a try, maybe start with just a teaspoon or so and go from there.
I now mix her cereal with yogurt in the mornings and I enjoy her so much more now that she is happy!

hi i think if the problem is still going on i just suggestion that you take your daughter to the doctor because when it happen to me with my son i took him to the doctor and he told me that it was his milk.

I know I am late in responding, but we had terrible constipation with our second child (who also was born with GERD and milk protein intolerance). The foods that really helped: flax seed oil (mixed into food), steamed and pureed asparagus, baked and pureed butternut squash, apricots lightly cooked and pureed, pears, avocados. Prunes seemed too intense for his system- maybe caused him cramps. As our little guy's system has matured, he appears to slowly be outgrowing all the problems. yay! I hope this might help you too.
S.