I need parenting advice. Henry has been refusing to eat very much at daycare for the past two months. He almost always drinks a good amount of his bottle (5 or 6 ounces) at home for us, but he will only take 2 or 3 ounces at a time when he is at school. I kept thinking “it’s probably because he is teething” or “he’ll eat when he gets hungry.” But his weight is not looking great. At birth he was in the 40something percentile. At four months he was at 23rd percentile. This week his doctor said it is less than 23rd (!). He is 6 months on Sunday and he weighs 15 pounds 9 ounces. We go back in for his routine check up on Monday.
His doctor recommended switching him to soy based formula, since he was still spitting up a lot with the gentle formula he was on. We have been mixing it half and half for the past two days. Both yesterday and today, Colin and I have gone up to his classroom to feed him because he will not eat for his teachers. I’m not saying he just readily gobbles it down for us, but with rocking, shushing, etc he will eat 5 or 6 ounces.
His doctor’s best theory is that Hank is just too distracted at school. She figures he eats an ounce or two to take the edge off and then wants to pay attention to everything but the bottle.
Since he will eat at home (most of the time), I tend to think that the problem is related to daycare. Factors that I have considered:
-he is mildly tongue tied, but three different docs have said it is not enough to worry about.
-he never would breastfeed and has never been a "good" eater
-I have been able to feel his middle, bottom two teeth right under the gums for two months now. This does correspond with the feeding trouble.
-He does spit up quite a bit (less now with the soy, it seems)
-He does cry sometimes when we feed him, but not very often
-He had colic (which some think is tummy trouble)
-all three of his regular teachers try to feed him, usually with little success. Stepping out of the classroom seems to help when I am there, but that is not really an option for his teachers with the other babies and all
So, any thoughts? Short of staying home with him or going to feed him at school every day, I am out of ideas.
4 comments:
I am sorry you are having such feeding stress. I don't know the answer, but I do know that my Vivian never in her life drank more than 4 ounces at a time...so maybe he is just not as hungry. She has also always been in the 10th percentile for weight, so while maybe that is not your goal, I think she is still pretty healthy.
Overall, I think parenting should be called "guessing", cause it sure feels like that is most of what I do now.
Guess Greg was logged on, but this was really from Jenny :)
has he started/attempted any solids yet? that might help him get more food at school if he is on bottle strike with his teachers!
Have you tried switching to a sippy cup for daycare? Maybe one of those soft-spout nuby ones? That's the only thing Sadie would EVER take, and she would only do about two ounces at a time. I think, aside from us not getting her used to a bottle early enough, it was largely a distraction thing. There is just so much going on at daycare, just like your doc said. We had it easier, for sure, because her weight wasn't ever an issue. The good news, though, is that her lack of bottle-drinking was in no way an indicator of her eating habits to come. One of the new teachers asked if there was anything Sadie won't eat. The answer is yes, of course.
Hopefully this will be short-lived!
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