Friday, December 16, 2011

Meals for a non-eater - help!

Two blueberries, three Rice Krispies and a half teaspoon of yogourt. 

No, it's not some crazy fad diet - that's what my 10 month old daughter ate for breakfast, refusing all else.

Lunch? I am not sure but I think she may have swallowed a minute amount of egg salad, possibly a teeny bite of bread and definitely the juice from a clementine segment (but not the solid part of the fruit).

And this is why she's still up at least 3 times a night to nurse and nursing so frequently during the day.  It's not that she's a picky eater per se - she loves pizza, pasta, and will try anything we give her - tonight she tried sushi and tempura (vegetarian of course), and she doesn't balk even at spicy food. She just doesn't eat much. And yes, I've tried the blander foods too - rice cereal, applesauce, banana, whatever... She'll eat a little but not much before she starts refusing it.

I know that "food is fun" for the first year, and I'm not concerned about her weight (at all.. she's still in the 90's, percentile-wise and moving on up to 18 month size clothing at just 10 months!), but I would be happy if she would sleep longer at night and stop nursing quite so much at night. Nursing at night means she also needs diaper changes twice during the night. I love our cuddle times at night, but... I'd love some sleep too.

She loves playing with food, tearing it apart, and completely understands how to get it into her mouth and eat it, though sometimes she spits it out and sometimes she just plays or tosses it to the floor and doesn't put more than a bite or two into her mouth. She will sometimes take a spoonful or two of softer stuff (yogourt, applesauce, cereal, soup, etc) but it's rare for her to eat more than, say, a tablespoon of anything. She will happily take small bites of things we hold out to her (banana, sandwiches, pizza, etc).

I don't want to force it on her and usually stop when she starts turning her head and pressing her mouth closed. I will try again a few minutes later, and again, and again - with different foods sometimes - but never make her eat or shove things in her mouth. My husband is more likely to pop things in there when she's not quite expecting it.

She is teething, but I am not convinced it's a teething issue as she's never eaten very much, especially compared to the other babies I know.

So, faithful readers... hit me up with some advice on getting Mia to eat some more.

2 comments:

  1. I wouldn't force it! I totally get wanting more sleep but you want her to hold onto that natural ability to tell when she's had enough. Just keep offering whenever you eat or even throughout the day to see when her peak times are. Sebastian used to sign to ask me for food. Then he stopped for awhile, but would still be hungry... but not tell me. So I had to guess and just keep offering and sometimes he would clear his plate 2 or 3 times over.

    That sucks that you have to deal with diapers overnight! Most of the time we wake up dry here and it's so nice.

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  2. My oldest is like that - we often joke he's anorexic. As a baby he took forever to open up to solid foods and even then he's just never eaten much (not picky, just not a lot of appetite). But now that he's older we are worried with his mouth. We think there may be some issues and are looking into testing and maybe an OT or Physio. Maybe have them check her? The nursing is most likely just habit which is typical of colicky babies. Have you ever done any sleep training with her? I know there are many nasty connotations with that term but there are lots of really nice and respectful ways of sleep training.

    As for the food - sounds like you are doing it all right. Lots of options and trying all the time! Sigh, it's hard at this age because you are really a detective hey!

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