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claireanise
10-19-2009, 10:30 AM
My daughter is 7 months today and she weighs 14 lbs 5 oz (9th percentile, I think), length 27 in. She was born at 6 lbs 11 oz (50th percentile) and went as low as the 3rd percentile by 6 weeks of age. I bottlefed her breastmilk for first 4 months, pumping six to eight times a day (without her stimulating the milk supply, I stopped making milk and I had to switch her to formula by 4 mos).

Her problem as I see it is that she does not like to eat. She did not like to eat at the breast (took her to lactation consultant, to high risk neonatology clinic - although she was not a premie), that is why they advised me to pump and bottle feed her (it worked for a while, she crossed some growth curves and caught up a bit from the 3rd percentile to the 9th nowadays). Lately however she scares me: she was up to 20-24 oz formula a day before she started solids. Nowadays she takes only 2-3 oz formula at a time, average 12-18oz a day, with only two meals of a tablespoon cereal and a babyspoon of baby veggie food each. I did the math and it certainly is not enough for her caloric and fluid requirements. She is otherwise happy and meeting milestones. The ped was not concerned, but my fighting with her for every ounce of formula is wearing both of us down so I took her to the ped GI. So far UGI test and head US are ok, blood work is fine, so no cause for this behavior.

Has anyone seen this: baby that DOES NOT LIKE to eat?

Help!

Concerned mother

big-mouth-burgher
10-19-2009, 02:31 PM
The percentile that your daughter is in has no bearing on whether she is healthy or not. It is a number that is used to determine if she is growing at a steady rate, which she appears to be. If you are a small person, you daughter more than likely will be too.

My son was 15 lbs 9 oz at that age and he is a perfectly healthy 9 year old boy who weighs 54lbs. He has always been around the 10% and that is just fine with me and my ped. His brother has always been around the 50% and he too is perfectly healthy and fine.

Once a baby starts eating solids their formula consumption does decrease. You could try feeding her solids 4 times a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime snack. Ultimately babies eat when they are hungry and refuse when they are full. They just listen to their tummies, they haven't been exposed to the clean you plate theory that most of us struggle with.

Lindsey73
10-20-2009, 09:10 PM
Maybe she doesn't like the formula or it bothers her?