not eating

So my 6 month old DD does not want to eat today. I have offered 3 bottles and she has drank a total of 7 ounces all day. She just arches away, bites the nipple, squirms around...does not want to eat. Not sure if she is sick (she's acting normal otherwise) or just having an off day. I'm worried about her getting dehydrated though. What do you do with a baby who refuses to eat?

 

is she teething? i have alot of that same behavior when my DD/DS are in the process of getting new teeth. have you tried motrin or tylenol? have you introduced a sippy cup yet? sometimes when they refuse the bottle they will drink from the sippy. good luck!

 

Nate has been like this for over a month. I think it started with teething, but he's developed a bottle-aversion. When he won't take a bottle, we usually resort to mixing his formula with enough rice cereal to make it cling to the spoon (very runny) and feed him like this. It's a huge pain, and very messy, but at least I can get a few ounces of formula in him every feeding this way.

I hope that your daughter is just teething and she gets over it quickly. You can try to give her some Tylenol about 10 minutes before feeding and see if that helps.

Best of luck!

 

Unfortunately I'm with the pp and my dd has a bottle aversion as well-we have to spoon feed her formula.
It could definately be some teething though, my ds gets like that when he's getting a new tooth. I would try some tylenol and maybe try spoon feeding as well.

Good luck!

 

My DD is doing the same, its the teeth for her. My ds had no problem with eating ( hes getting his too).

GL!!

 

Funny, I am having the same problem with my dd. She won't eat more than 3 oz/feeding, even if I stretch out the time. If I feed her before 4 hours, she will only eat 1-2 oz. I was just talking to my dh about this and because its been going on all week, we decided that we would call the pedi on monday for any suggestions. She is even being difficult eating her cereal. The only thing she seems to be eating without a problem is fruit by itself. I tried to trick her earlier with cereal underneath the fruit, by she is too smart!! I added and extra oz of formula to her milk like someone had suggested in a different post.

The strange thing is that she just started waking up in the middle of the night to eat, she was STTN since she was 3 months. She could probably eat 5 oz then if I let her, but I don't want her to get into that habit either. It's such a game that I always seem to lose!!

 

I don't have much advice, but if it continues on the weekend you can add an extra scoop of powder to every 2oz of water (so you would be giving a scoop for every ounce). It adds more calories in but won't help with the hydration. You may need to see your pedi on Monday if she continues. I would try the Tylenol or Motrin about 30mins to an hour before feeding and see if that helps. Both my boys drink less when they are teething and much less when it was from a bottle. The sucking hurt their gums more.

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ May 29 2009, 05:47 PM) [snapback]1333311[/snapback]
I don't have much advice, but if it continues on the weekend you can add an extra scoop of powder to every 2oz of water (so you would be giving a scoop for every ounce). It adds more calories in but won't help with the hydration. You may need to see your pedi on Monday if she continues. I would try the Tylenol or Motrin about 30mins to an hour before feeding and see if that helps. Both my boys drink less when they are teething and much less when it was from a bottle. The sucking hurt their gums more.


Thanks for the suggestion. I am definately going to call the pedi on monday. I think it's her teething, but she really does need to eat more.

 

Thank you all so much for your suggestions! Fortunately I was able to get a few more ounces in her this afternoon and 5 before bed. Plus a few drinks of water from the sippy. It was still only about 16 total, but she usually takes 4 ounces in the night, so I guess 20 isn't too terrible. Her 6 month appt. is Monday so I'll talk to the doctor if it continues. Sounds like it could definitely be teething, but it's so hard to know!

 

Besides Tylenol, my ds likes the Orajel swabs. If I rub it on his gums, he tends to start eating some (I say some, because he doesn't like to eat in general).

 

How long does teething symptoms last before you realli see the tooth?

 

I was having the same problem with my dd. My DH suggested maybe a bigger nipple. On Sat, we switched to a bigger nipple and she has been doing much better. She is teething and I think because she had to suck so hard, it was hurting a lot. I felt so relieved that it is so far such an easy solution. Unfortunately it took us a week to figure it out!!